Luca Bonfanti graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1987 and is currently associated professor of Anatomy at the Veterinary Sciences Department of the University of Turin. He joined the Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO) as a group leader of the Adult Neurogenesis group in 2010. After a PhD in functional neuroanatomy, he spent two years in Bordeaux as a postdoctoral researcher at INSERM, and a period at the Northeastern University in Boston as invited professor. Since 2011 is Specialty Chief Editor in Neurogenesis of Frontiers in Neuroscience. In the first part of his career, he performed studies on neural cell adhesion molecules involved in plasticity as well as on adult neurogenesis, with special reference to a comparative approach in mammals and non-canonical neurogenic processes.
Research focus
The main research interest of Bonfanti’s lab at NICO consists of a comparative approach to neuroplasticity aimed at unravelling significant differences between mouse and humans. After showing a substantial absence of adult neurogenesis in large-brained, highly gyrencephalic mammals (dolphins), the research shifted to populations of “immature” neurons, namely prenatally generated cells in arrested maturation that are expected to awake after long time to integrate into adult neural circuits. Through mapping, systematic quantifications, and phylogenetic analyses spanning several mammalian species and ages, we are intended to show that an evolutionary choice for these cells occurred in gyrencephalic species with respect to rodents, concerning brain regions such as cerebral cortex and amygdala which are relevant for computational and social skills in humans. Beside the importance of such knowledge for correct translation of results obtained from different animal models, the existence of a reserve of young cells in cortex and amygdala may have relevance in pathology.
