Research/Areas of Interest:

Sleep is important to overall health and affects all aspects of human behavior, which makes it imperative to understand the homeostatic mechanisms that underlie sleep and wakefulness and identify new regulatory targets. I am testing the hypothesis that astrocytic connexins are essential for the supply of lactate as an energy substrate to orexinergic neurons and, in doing so, modulate orexinergic control of wakefulness and metabolic control.

Education

MS, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
PhD, Neuroscience and Brain Technology, Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy