基本信息
浏览量:58
![](https://originalfileserver.aminer.cn/sys/aminer/icon/show-trajectory.png)
个人简介
Miriam Melis received her degree in Pharmacy (PharmD) at the University of Palermo (Italy) in 1993, and trained in in vivo electrophysiology at the Department of Neuroscience “Bernard B. Brodie” (University of Cagliari, Italy) under the mentorship of GianLuigi Gessa in the lab headed by Marco Diana, whose team focused on the understanding of cellular basis of acute and chronic effects of drugs of abuse on reward dopamine neurons. They discovered that the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana (THC) acts on these neurons similarly to alcohol and morphine. In fact, for the first time electrophysiological evidence for the mechanisms of both THC acute recreational effects, and the state of dysphoria during withdrawal from its chronic use was provided. These studies laid the foundations for the state of hypo-dopaminergia following chronic drug use, which subsequently was discovered also in addicted humans.
In 2000, she moved to San Francisco to the “Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center” (at UCSF) in the laboratory of Antonello Bonci, where she investigated the effects of a single in vivo exposure to alcohol in the modulation of neuronal excitability and plasticity at synapses impinging upon dopamine neurons in vitro. Upon her return to Department of Neuroscience in 2002, she joined the laboratory of Marco Pistis. In 2004, she discovered that dopamine neurons can also synthesize and release endocannabinoids. For this discovery, which showed for the first time that endocannabinoids can fine tune dopamine neuronal activity both in vitro and in vivo, she was recipient of both the “Farmindustria-SIF Award” for Pharmacological Research and the NIDA Travel grant for Society for Neuroscience held in San Diego. She enrolled in the PhD program in Neuroscience in 2008 and graduated in 2011 under the supervision of Marco Pistis. During her PhD studies, she investigated the functional modulation of endocannabinoid-related molecules (i.e., fatty acid ethanolamines) on dopamine neuronal activity via a non-genomic mechanism downstream activation of a nuclear receptor transcription factor that is PPARα, by using a combination of electrophysiological, behavioral and immunohistochemical approaches. This work revealed a specific role of the interaction between the cholinergic system and PPARα on dopamine neurons, which relates to diverse disorders associated with unbalanced dopamine-acetylcholine systems (e.g. depression, nicotine addiction, ADHD, stress). In 2010, she was a recipient of the “Award for Best innovative business idea” at the contest “Talento delle idee” (sponsored by Unicredit Group Bank and Confindustria) for technological transfer of a nutraceutical product to quit tobacco smoking. In 2011, she visited for three months the Department of Neuroscience at the Biomedical Center (University of Lund, Sweden) in the Experimental Epilepsy Group headed by Merab Kokaia, in order to study optogenetics. Upon her return, she remained in the same group at Department of Biomedical Sciences. Over the past years, the findings of her PhD thesis on the interaction between cholinergic system and PPARα were extended to other brain regions and pathological conditions, such as epilepsy. In particular, PPARα activation proves useful in both a pharmacological and a genetic mouse model of nocturnal frontal lobe epilepsy, which subsequently was successfully implemented in a clinical setting. In 2016, she was appointed associate professor of pharmacology at the same Department of Biomedical Sciences in Cagliari.
Her current long-term project is to understand the neurobiological underpinnings of vulnerability and resilience to psychiatric conditions (e.g., substance use disorder, depressive states, antisocial behavior), with a focus on the interplay between dopamine and endocannabinoid system. Her interest is on whether or not vulnerability to psychiatric disorders is innate or induced by early life adverse events, and involves modifiable factors that can ultimately lead to develop new therapeutic strategies for these brain disorders.
研究兴趣
论文共 125 篇作者统计合作学者相似作者
按年份排序按引用量排序主题筛选期刊级别筛选合作者筛选合作机构筛选
时间
引用量
主题
期刊级别
合作者
合作机构
Benjámin Barti,Barna Dudok,Kata Kenesei, Miklós Zöldi,Vivien Miczán, Gyula Y Balla, Diana Zala, Mariana Tasso,Claudia Sagheddu,Máté Kisfali,Blanka Tóth,Marco Ledri,
Science advancesno. 22 (2024): eado0077-eado0077
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology (2024)
Neuroscience Applied (2023): 271-284
Journal of neuroendocrinologyno. 2 (2023)
Springer eBookspp.2827-2844, (2023)
Journal of Neuroendocrinologyno. 2 (2023)
Brain, behavior, and immunity (2023): 271-284
Cannabis and the Developing Brainpp.107-128, (2022)
加载更多
作者统计
合作学者
合作机构
D-Core
- 合作者
- 学生
- 导师
数据免责声明
页面数据均来自互联网公开来源、合作出版商和通过AI技术自动分析结果,我们不对页面数据的有效性、准确性、正确性、可靠性、完整性和及时性做出任何承诺和保证。若有疑问,可以通过电子邮件方式联系我们:report@aminer.cn