Simona Capsoni

Research Interests

My research focus is in (1) exploiting a mutant form of Nerve Growth Factor for the therapy of neurodegenerative diseases (2) understanding the pathogenesis of NGF-linked congenital neuropathies such as HSAN IV and V (3) understanding the involvement of NGF in glia physiology (4) neurogenesis and plasticity in the olfactory bulb

Bio Sketch

1990 Graduation (Laurea) In Veterinary Medicine, university of Milan, Italy

1990-1995 PhD studentship at Department of Pharmacology, University of Milan, Italy

1993 and March-June 1995 Guest Researcher at Section on Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA  

1995 PhD in Chemoterapy, University of Milan, Italy

1996-1997 Italian Government Grant entitled at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA/ISAS) in Trieste (Italy)

1997-1998 Fellowship at Fidia Research Laboratories, Abano Terme, Padova, Italy.

1998-2002 Post-doctoral position at the SISSA/ISAS

2002 -2008 Head of  Alzheimer’s disease research at Lay Line Genomics S.p.A., Rome, Italy.

2008- 2010 Research scientist at European Brain Research Institute-Fondazione Rita Levi-Montalcini, Rome, Italy

2010-2016 Junior Professor in Neurobiology, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy

2006-today Associate Professor in Physiology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Specialty Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy.

2017-today Associate Professor in Physiology, Bio@SNS Laboratory, Pisa, Italy.

Selected Publications

Capsoni S, Ugolini G, Comparini A, Ruberti F, Berardi N, Cattaneo A. Alzheimer-like neurodegeneration in aged antinerve growth factor transgenic mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2000;97(12):6826-31.

Capsoni S, Giannotta S, Cattaneo A. Nerve growth factor and galantamine ameliorate early signs of neurodegeneration in anti-nerve growth factor mice. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002;99(19):12432-7.

Capsoni S, Marinelli S, Ceci M, Vignone D, Amato G, Malerba F, Paoletti F, Meli G, Viegi A, Pavone F, Cattaneo A. Intranasal “painless” human Nerve Growth Factor [corrected] slows amyloid neurodegeneration and prevents memory deficits in App X PS1 mice. PLoS One. 2012;7(5):e37555.

Capsoni S, Malerba F, Carucci NM, Rizzi C, Criscuolo C, Origlia N, Calvello M, Viegi A, Meli G, Cattaneo A. The chemokine CXCL12 mediates the anti-amyloidogenic action of painless human nerve growth factor. Brain. 2017; 140(1):201-217.

Rizzi C, Tiberi A, Giustizieri M, Marrone MC, Gobbo F, Carucci NM, Meli G,
Arisi I, D’Onofrio M, Marinelli S, Capsoni S, Cattaneo A. NGF steers microglia
toward a neuroprotective phenotype. Glia. 2018 Jul;66(7):1395-1416.