Alternative targets for neurodegeneration: beyond aggregation of misfolded proteins

Abstract:

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDs), such as Alzheimer's, Huntington’s and Parkinson's diseases, are an increasingly severe threat for Western Countries. Pharmaceutical intervention, as opposed to surgical operations, is the key strategy for fighting NDs, for which unfortunately no cure is at present available. Aggregation is the main common hallmark of several human NDs. However, recently, in-depth knowledge about structure, mechanism of formation, and physiological effects of aggregates is shading new light on the aggregation- mediated cell toxicity, and helps in deciphering new targets for drug design and development, other than amyloidogenic proteins. Here we will present different computational biomedicine approaches, where we exploit bias and un-bias molecular dynamic simulations, as well as bio- and chemo-informatics, to successful identify neuroactive compounds against novel emerging targets for NDs.

Biography:

Prof. Rossetti took her Master Degree in Chemistry at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” (Italy) in 2005, with a thesis focused on the study of protein complexes by meanings of molecular dynamics (MD) techniques. Soon after that, she won the call for bids for a PhD position in Statistical and Biological Physics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), Trieste, Italy. 
She achieved her PhD degree in 2010, with a research based on simulations of several biosystems of medical interest. Part of her research was carried on abroad, in Barcelona, as a Post-Doc at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (Barcelona, Spain) and at the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (Julich, Germany). Since 2014, she is a Junior professor at the Department of Oncology, Hematology and Stem Cell Transplantation (RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany).