Maria Grazia Spillantini

Maria Grazia Spillantini FRS FMedSci, is Professor of Molecular Neurology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge.[1][3] She is most noted for identifying the protein alpha-synuclein as the major component of Lewy bodies, the characteristic protein deposit found in the brain in Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies.[4] She has also identified mutations in the MAPT gene as a heritable cause for frontotemporal dementia.[5][2][6]

Maria Grazia Spillantini

FRS FMedSci
Born(1957-11-10)November 10, 1957[1]
Caprese Michelangelo, Italy
NationalityItalian
Alma materUniversity of Florence
Spouse(s)Michel Goedert[1]
AwardsPotamkin Prize of the American Academy of Neurology (2000)
Scientific career
FieldsNeurodegenerative diseases[2]
Institutions
ThesisMolecular neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease (1993)
Websitewww.neuroscience.cam.ac.uk/directory/profile.php?mgs11 -

Education

Spillantini completed a laurea in biological sciences at the University of Florence, graduating summa cum laude. She remained at the University of Florence, moving to the Department of Clinical Pharmacology to conduct research. After research posts at INSERM Unité de Neurobiologie in Paris, and the Molecular Neurobiology Unit of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge UK, she began her PhD at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Spillantini was affiliated with Peterhouse college during this time. She was awarded a PhD in molecular biology in 1993.[7]

Career and research

Spillantini was interviewed for a young researchers fellowship in 1991 by Nobel prize winner Rita Levi-Montalcini. On Levi-Montalcini's death in 2013, Spillantini told The Scientist magazine, “I was very nervous because she was a very well-known scientist. And it was really for me one of nicest experiences because she was really down to earth.” [8]

As of 2019 Spillantini is based at the University of Cambridge, where she is Professor of Molecular Neurology at the John Van Geest Centre for Brain Repair. Her research examines the mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration in diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and frontotemporal dementia. In particular her work studies the role of microtubule-associated protein tau and alpha-synuclein aggregation in the neurodegenerative process.

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References
  1. Anon (2017). "Spillantini, Prof. Maria Grazia". Who's Who. ukwhoswho.com (online Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U258458. (subscription or UK public library membership required) (subscription required)
  2. Maria Grazia Spillantini publications indexed by Google Scholar
  3. Anon (2013). "Professor Maria Grazia Spillantini FMedSci FRS". London: Royal Society. Archived from the original on 2015-11-19. Retrieved 11 October 2013. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where:
    “All text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.” --Royal Society Terms, conditions and policies at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-11-11)
  4. Spillantini, MG; Schmidt, ML; Lee, VM; Trojanowski, JQ; Jakes, R; Goedert, M (1997). "Alpha-synuclein in Lewy bodies". Nature. 388 (6645): 839–40. Bibcode:1997Natur.388..839G. doi:10.1038/42166. PMID 9278044.
  5. Ghetti, MG; Goedert, M; Crowther, RA; Murrell, JR; Farlow, MR; Ghetti, B (1997). "Familial multiple system tauopathy with presenile dementia: a disease with abundant neuronal and glial tau filaments". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 94 (8): 4113–8. Bibcode:1997PNAS...94.4113S. doi:10.1073/pnas.94.8.4113. PMC 20577. PMID 9108114.
  6. Maria Grazia Spillantini publications from Europe PubMed Central
  7. Spillantini, Maria Grazia (1993). Molecular neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 53661275. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.282037.
  8. Kelly Rae, Chi. "Rita Levi-Montalcini Dies". Retrieved 11 October 2013.
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