Sonia Spinelli, Italy

Sonia Spinelli is a health researcher at the IRCCS Giannina Gaslini Institute in Genoa. She has a degree in Molecular and Health Biology and her main areas of study are Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Nephrology. She acquired professional skills on the role of abscisic acid in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and in the physiology of the regulation of glycemic homeostasis. In particular, she studied the structural and functional properties of the human abscisic acid receptors LANCL1 and LANCL2 and the metabolic and biochemical phenotype of a LANCL2 knock-out mouse line. Her research has also focused on the role of the ABA/LANCL system in adipocyte browning and in the cardiomyocyte response to hypoxia. She is currently working on the transplantation use of mesenchymal stem cells in a mouse model of T1D and on the role of the ABA/LANCL system in their therapeutic potential and she is studying the role of sialoproteins in nephrotic syndrome using in vitromodels on podocyte cultures in single and three dimensions.