SUMO-PCDH10

Physiological and pathological consequences of sumoylation in neuronal cells

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ABOUT ME

I received my PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Milano (2012). From 2014 to 2019, I worked as postdoc at the Medical University of Graz (Austria) and at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology (France). During this period, I mastered imaging and biochemistry techniques to tackle the surface dynamics of membrane proteins. I also earned a solid expertise to study protein sumoylation. In June 2019, I joined the team of Prof. Matteoli. Here, I focused my research on the involvement of sumoylation in the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorder. This project is funded by European Commission within the call Horizon 2020’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions 2018.

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MY RESEARCH

Physiological consequences of Protocadherin-10 sumoylation on neuronal function

SUMMARY

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a severe and complex neuropsychiatric disorder characterized by impaired social behaviour and Intellectual Disability (ID) in up to 70% of the cases. ASD affects millions of individuals worldwide and represents a major health and economic burden in the modern society. Although there has been much research interest in uncovering the molecular mechanisms that are responsible for ASD, to date there is no effective therapy.

At the molecular level, ASD is characterized by altered neuronal signalling that contributes to synaptic dysfunctions. Here, we identified the ASD-related protein Protocadherin-10 (PCDH10) as a novel target of sumoylation.

The project SUMO_PCDH10 aims at unraveling the role of sumoylation in controlling PCDH10 function in neurons.