Anna Melati
Academic and Work Experience Prior to Sept 2022 Programme Start
I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences at the university of Pavia, Italy. During my thesis I focused on hydrocarbon degrading fungi with the aim of understanding how to exploit these microorganisms for the purpose of bioremediation of hydrocarbons derivatives from solid materials.
After considering a career in environmental biology, I decided to pursue my interest for human health, and I enrolled in the Molecular Biology and Genetics master’s degree in the same atheneum. In parallel, I also studied at the Biomedical Sciences class at the University School of Advanced Studies of Pavia (IUSS).
Throughout my two-year master’s course, I carried out a two-year research project at the National Research Council of Pavia, studying the RNase H2 enzyme, in the laboratory of Prof. Giovanni Maga (Head of IGM-Cnr) under the supervision of Dr. Emmanuele Crespan.
After my graduation I took the chance to join the Erasmus+ Traineeship program and I worked in Dr. Marcos Malumbres laboratory (Principal investigator at CNIO, Madrid) investigating the role of a particular micro-RNA, expressed in the two-cell stage embryo, in pluripotency and totipotency, focusing also on its role during pre-implantation development.
Thanks to this experience I realized the relevance of pluripotency and stemness for regenerative medicine and the many applications in cell therapy. It is this interest that led me to this PhD programme at the King’s College London.
Before the starting of the PhD I worked for 8 month at the hospital IRCCS San Matteo in Pavia as a research fellow studying the molecular mechanism of immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis.
PhD Programme- Year 1- MRes and Project Rotations
In the first year of this PhD programme I choose three very different labs that gave me the opportunity to explore different techniques and topics, having the possibility to investigate several research areas.
For my first rotation I worked with Dr Mauro Giacca to investigate the delivery of long RNA molecules using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) into mice cardiomyocytes. The aim of this project was to demonstrate that long mRNA molecules can be delivered into cardiomyocytes using LNPs maintaining their functionality after translation.
As second rotation I choose the laboratory of Dr Francesca Spagnoli and I focused my attention on pancreas development. The aim of my project was to study the effect of Tankirase regulators and downstream effectors during pancreatic development in the mouse embryo and in an ex vivo pancreas organ culture.
My last and third rotation was carried out in Robin Ali and Rachael Pearson laboratory. This laboratory focuses on the retina and, in particular, I started to characterize the role of horizontal cells during synaptogenesis.
PhD Programme- Years 2 to 4 - Doctoral Studies
For my PhD project, I choose to work in the laboratory of Rachael Pearson to continue my rotation project work on the retina. The Pearson/Ali lab main goal is to develop cell and gene therapies for the treatment of retinal degeneration. During retinal degeneration, defects in photoreceptor processes, or in their support cells, lead to photoreceptor death. Remarkably, the inner retinal neurons remain intact, although undergo a degree of remodelling. This presents an opportunity to restore visual function by replacing the dying photoreceptors with healthy ones via transplantation.
To date, attention has been focused on re-establishing the vertical pathway of visual information flow (photoreceptors-BCs-RGCs); however, a significant part of retinal processing of visual signals involves the horizontal pathways. Horizontal cells are lateral neurons that modulate the output of photoreceptors and play many roles in early visual processing. The aim of my PhD project will be to establish the role of HCs in transplantation, to see if they contribute to restoring functional connectivity between transplanted PRs and the host retina. In parallel, we will take advantage of human retinal organoids to start exploring the development of the first vision synapse in humans, with a focus on HC synaptic proteins and morphology.”
