Roberta Schellino received a master’s degree in Neurobiology (2009) and a PhD in Neuroscience (2014) at the University of Torino, with a study focused on activity-dependent mechanisms able to regulate integration and positive selections of new neurons in the adult brain.
In 2015, as a postdoctoral research assistant, Roberta joined the “Brain development and disease” Research Group, where she started working on neurodegenerative diseases and aging. She was initially granted by “PharmaFox Therapeutics” company to test the functions of new synthetic peptides to hypertrophic muscles, in models of sarcopenia and in aging. This collaboration is still ongoing. From this work, she is the co-inventor of a patent. Today, Roberta’s research is mainly related to the field of neurodegeneration in the motor systems. From 2016 to 2022 she held a position as Adjunct Professor of Neuroanatomy and Neurodevelopment at the University of Insubria, and since November 2022 she is Assistant Professor in Human Anatomy at UniTO.
Research focus
Roberta’s research focuses on the motor system, mainly taking advantage of her experience in histological, morphological, and tracing techniques. One of her main research projects is about the study of cortical and spinal motor neurons in health and pathology, their organization during circuit formation and reorganization after degeneration. The focus is on neuromuscular diseases (particularly Spinal Muscular Atrophy, SMA) with the goal of examining the dynamics of survival and organization of motor neurons over time.
This research helps to understand the mechanisms underlying disease progression and to develop effective therapeutic approaches to improve clinical outcomes. In addition, a second main research focuses on the study of striatal muscle tissue disorders, along with muscle dysfunction caused by altered neuronal input to muscle at the neuromuscular junction. These studies aim to find new strategies to counteract sarcopenia (in the elderly) and other neuromuscular disorders.
