Giulia Ronchi started working on peripheral nerve regeneration in 2006 during her Master degree thesis in Neurobiology, and then during her PhD in Neuroscience (2009-2012). In 2009 she moved to USA for 6 months at the Washington State University (Pullman, WA) under the supervision of Dr. Krzysztof Czaja where she had the opportunity to expand her studies towards the Central Nervous System, working on the neurogenic responses of the brain to the injury of the viscerosensory innervation.
After the completion of the PhD, she was awarded several post-doctoral fellowships (from 2013 to 2017) at the University of Torino working on different aspects of peripheral nerve regeneration. After being Assistant Professor in Human Anatomy (from 2017 to 2021), from 2021 she is Associate Professor in Human Anatomy at the Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences (University of Torino).
Research focus
Giulia Ronchi research activity is strongly interdisciplinary, covering different aspects of regenerative medicine. In particular, her main interests are:
- the study of biological processes regulating nerve regeneration after injury, in order to identify new therapeutic strategies to stimulate nerve fibre regeneration and maturation.
- the study of different biomaterials in terms of biocompatibility and efficiency in promoting regeneration.
- more recently, she started to study the interaction between the gut microbiota and the peripheral nervous system (PNS). In particular, her research is aimed at understanding whether and how the gut microbiota can influence the development of the PNS, as well as the process of regeneration of peripheral nerves after injury. This research field will pave the way for possible future development of innovative microbiota-based therapies to improve the prognosis and progression of a growing list of PNS-related pathological conditions and diseases.
