My scientific research is on the molecular and systemic mechanisms that regulate the functioning of the "Tau-protein", a neuronal protein directly involved in many neurodegenerative diseases. Also, my interests involve the neuronal mechanisms that regulate instinctive behaviors, like for instance sleep or hibernation.
My scientific activity is focusing on the functional neuroanatomy of the central nervous system and, partially, also on the peripheral nervous system. In fact, studying how physiological regulations may influence the instinctive behavior is a widely integrated way to investigate the physiology of the nervous system, also at molecular level. In line with this, a key aspect to be studied is the recovery from a physiological perturbation experimentally given: that is, following an experimental stimulation aimed to interfere with some physiological regulation, is important to finely analyze how homeostatic mechanisms of bodily functions act to regain the normal physiological condition. These investigations are always conducted both from the behavioral and the neuroanatomical/cellular and molecular point of views.
This highly integrated way of studying, make possible for the research work to take into consideration many different topics, with always the common point of view of the functional interactions among the different physiological regulations.
At the moment, the research work is focused on a newly described physiological mechanism that makes possible to reverse to normal the bad-functioning of Tau protein, thanks to a condition of deep hypothermia. Understanding this mechanism from both the molecular and the systemic points of view, will make it possible, hopefully, to pharmacologically stimulate it at physiological temperature, with the aim to contrast neurodegenerative diseases from a new and original point of view.
