Objective of this research is the study of signaling pathways and mitochondrial metabolism in different models of neuro¬degenerative/neurodevelopmental diseases and in cancer. The delicate balance between cell death and proliferation is essential to the genesis of various pathologies and the mi¬tochondria are proving to be the key factors in regulating: cell growth and death, intracellular signaling and integration of stress signals. The targets of this research concern: mi¬tochondria-nucleus retrograde communication, modulation of the mitochondrial metabolism in pathophysiological con¬ditions and network of intra and inter-cellular signals in the regulation of proliferation, invasion and cell death. The main scientific objectives are: i) understand how the cell signaling networks regulate decisions of life and death; ii) discover new natural and/or synthetic compounds capable of inter¬fering with the disease for future applications in the phar-macological field.
Focus