ABOUT US

WHO WE ARE

Mariagrazia Grilli is a neuroscientist and neuropharmacologist with a long standing interest in novel cellular and molecular mechanisms in the field of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease to chronic pain and major depression.

WHAT WE HAVE DONE

During her initial research career  Mariagrazia has contributed to a better understanding of the role of the NF-kappaB signaling pathway initially in the immune system, but then mainly in the healthy and diseased brain, and in response to drugs. In the period spent as Section Head at the Schering-Plough Research Institute, she has also acquired specific knowledge and competence in the drug discovery process in neurology and psychiatry therapeutic areas.

WHAT WE ARE DOING

The Laboratory of Neuroplasticity has been established at DSF, University of Piemonte Orientale, Novara, Italy, in 2006. At that time, with some talented PhD and graduate students, our group started working on a brand new, challenging but exciting research topic: adult neurogenesis, the process that allows generation of adult-born neurons from resident neural stem cells (NSC).  Along the years we have focused on the possibility that endogenous NSC may represent an innovative target in neuropsychopharmacology, not only for new chemical entities but also for drugs already in clinical use. During these activities, with the contribution of several young neuroscientists and students attending the lab and several unvaluable collaborators we also discovered novel endogenous ligands that may affect adult neurogenesis and participate in CNS disorders. Recently we have expanded our interest to the entire neurogenic niche and to the role of glia-adult neural stem cell cross-talk in the context of adult neurogenesis and of brain plasticity in health, aging and diseases. Down Syndrome has also become a field of deep interest for us, since it is characterized by abnormalities in NSC properties during brain development.