Luisa Muratori is a Research Assistant at Department of Clinical and Biological Science and at the Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO); she is a part of the Laboratory of Human Anatomy, made of a team of scientists studying peripheral nerve regeneration.
As a doctoral student she carried out research about the plasticity and regeneration of autonomic and somatic nervous system; her efforts were focused on the study of biomaterial able to promote the regenerative process and on the evaluation of nerve regeneration at long post recovery time; she obtained her PhD in Experimental Medicine and Therapy at the Department of Clinical and Biological Science, University of Turin and the Master Degree in Neurobiology at the University of Turin with a research focused on the study of plasticity phenomena on sensory neurons of dorsal root ganglia after nerve injury.
Research focus
The main research line is the study of autonomic and somatic nerve regeneration with the aim to promote fibers regeneration and functional recovery of target organs. An effort is the investigation of the effectiveness of a membrane made of chitosan to improve the regeneration of autonomic nerves involved in penile erection.
Through a novel surgical procedure applied for the first time on rat, the effectiveness of the membrane to support regeneration of cavernous nerve is investigated with encouraging results, allowing to consider its application on clinical field.
A further research goal is the study of tissue engineering approaches to create biological grafts, in order to evaluate their ability to repair severe nerve lesions with substance loss. Particularly, an acellular porcine nerve and a decellularized hydrogel obtained from human cadaver are under investigation as innovative approaches, assessing their regenerative potential through in vitro and in vivo experimental models
