Laura Civiero

Laura graduated in Molecular Biology at the University of Padua (2006) and obtained her PhD in Biotechnology at the University of Verona (2010). At the University of Padova, Laura performed her post-doctoral studies in the field of Neuroscience. Laura is currently professor of Physiology at the Department of Biology, University of Padova and the coordinator of the Laboratory of Molecular Physiology at the IRCCS San Camillo hospital in Venice. Her research aims to unravel the molecular mechanisms of astrocyte dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors.

Carmen Falcone

Carmen received her PhD in Functional and Structural Genomics from SISSA in 2017, studying the mechanisms regulating astrocyte development in mice. Then, she moved to the University of California – Davis for her postdoc, where she investigated astrocyte evolution and development across mammals, and started her focus on the primate astrocytes. After 3 years as a Group Leader at SISSA, in 2025 she became an Assistant Professor at Towson University (Maryland, USA). Her lab currently focuses on the study of cortical astrocytes roles in the evolution and development of the mammalian brain.

Gabriele Losi

Gabriele graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1999) and obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (2004). He also worked at Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA) and for many years at Neuroscience Institute-CNR (Padova, IT) in the group of G. Carmignoto on astrocyte modulation of synaptic and network activity. Gabriele is now Senior Researcher at CNR-NANO c/o Dept. Biomedical Science, Metabolic and Neuroscience, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy) where he studies neuron-glia functional interactions in health and disease (Autism, Alzheimer's disease).

Nunzio Iraci

Nunzio graduated with a M.Sc in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (2005) and a Ph.D. in Cellular Biology and Physiology (2009), both from the University of Bologna, Italy. NI moved to the Dept. of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge (UK) in 2011 where he contributed to reveal a mechanism of cell-to-cell communication by which neural stem cells may signal with the microenvironment via extracellular vesicles (EVs). He is currently Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at BIOMETEC, University of Catania. His research interests include in-depth characterization of EV-mediated glia-neuron signalling in the context of neurodegenerative diseases.

Valentina Cerrato

Valentina graduated in Medical Biotechnology (2012) and obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Turin (2018). Valentina is currently senior postDoc at the Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi (NICO, Orbassano, Turin) in the laboratory of Physiopathology of Neural Stem Cells headed by prof Annalisa Buffo. Her research focuses on the study of the mechanisms that govern the generation and functions of astrocytes’ heterogeneity in the human and mouse cerebellum, in physiological and pathological conditions.

Enrica Boda

Enrica graduated in Neurobiology (2005) and obtained her PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Turin (2010). Enrica is now Associate Professor in Human Anatomy at the University of Turin. Her research activity is based at the Neuroscience Institute of the Cavalieri Ottolenghi Foundation (NICO, Orbassano, Turin) and is focused on the mechanisms regulating the biology of oligodendroglia in health and disease, with a special focus on de-/dis-myelinating diseases, such as Multiple Sclerosis and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Francesco Petrelli

Francesco earned his degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (CTF) and a PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Calabria in 2011. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Lausanne (2012–2018) and the University of Geneva (2018-2020), Switzerland, where he studied the role of metabolism in glial cells, focusing on astrocytes and neural stem cells. He is currently a Research Associate in the Laboratory of Stem Cell Metabolism at the University of Lausanne (UNIL, Switzerland) and a Lecturer of Neuropsychopharmacology at the University of Tor Vergata, Rome (Italy). His research investigates how mitochondrial and lipid metabolism influence astrocyte function in both normal and neurodegenerative conditions.