Building better stem cell science for neurodegenerative diseases

Prof. Elena Cattaneo (Professor and Director of UniStem, University of Milan, Italy) demonstrates that human embryonic stem cells may fight the effects of degeneration in Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.

About speaker:
Prof. Elena Cattaneo is the Director of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Pharmacology of Neurodegenerative Diseases at the Department of Biosciences as well as co-founder and first appointed Director of UniStem, the Centre for Stem Cell Research of the University of Milano. The main research theme of her lab is the molecular pathophysiology of Huntington's disease (HD). In particular, the laboratory aims at exploiting the recent advances in embryonic and induced stem cell biology to obtain the medium-sized spiny striatal neurons that degenerate in HD and would be an important tool for disease modelling and studying early pathogenic aspects. On the other hand, the lab is pursuing a detailed characterization of the function of the HD gene in health and disease and has identified a number of molecular pathways targeted by the gene. The lab's ultimate goal is to identify cells, molecules and pathways that are suitable for therapeutic intervention and new reagents for drug screening in Huntington's disease.

Prof. Cattaneo has received numerous individual and group research grants, including recent grants from the CHDI Foundation in the USA, Telethon in Italy, and the European Union. She is a past coordinator of the EU project Neurostemcell (2008-2013) and the current coordinator of a new EU consortium, Neurostemcellrepair (2013-2017), as well as an Italian network on stem cells for Huntington's disease (2013-2016) funded by the Ministry of Research and University.