BIOGRAPHY
Dr Paola Pierobon was born in Naples in June 1942. She was awarded her Degree in Biological Sciences cum laude at the Department of Physiology of the University of Naples in July 1965 for a thesis on neuroendocrine correlates of aterogenesis, under the supervision of Prof A. Orrù. She was awarded her PhD in Nutrition in January 1971.

In 1968 she was appointed to a permanent research position at the Institute of Cybernetics of the National Council of Research at Arco Felice Naples. She carried out her training in cell biology with Prof. A. Monroy at the Institute of Molecular Embryology, CNR, and with Prof. R. Levi Montalcini at the Institute of Cell Biology, CNR. At the Institute of Cybernetics she developed an original method for culturing hydra cells and tissues in vitro, for developmental studies. From 1982 to1990 she also worked as home research guest at the Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’ of Naples on a project on neurosecretion, morphogenesis and differentiation.

She is presently senior research scientist at the Institute of Cybernetics where she leads a research project on the biochemical, functional and molecular aspects of receptors to amino acid neurotransmitters in elementary nervous systems.

She is member of the European Neuroscience Association, International Brain Research Organization, Società Italiana di Neuroscienze, Società Italiana di Biofisica. From 1993 to 1998 she was member of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Cybernetics.

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Dr. Pierobon’s research concerns comparative and evolutionary aspects of ligand-gated ion channels, which make the primary tools of cellular signalling.

She has contributed to the identification of receptors to GABA and glycine in the nerve net of the invertebrate Hydra vulgaris, one of the first metazoans to evolve a nervous system. The biochemical and behavioural results so far obtained have demonstrated the occurrence of high affinity receptors to GABA and glycine in hydra tissues, whose pharmacological properties compare with those of mammalian GABA-A anda1glycine receptors. Future research developments will be aimed at the identification of genes coding for hydra GABA and glycine receptors. The project is carried out in collaboration with several research groups.

She has recently started a multidisciplinary research project in the field of functional proteomics directed to the development of advanced mass spectrometry techniques for studies of receptor trafficking and receptor clustering and anchoring proteins, together with the Superconducting Detectors team at the Institute of Cybernetics lead by Dr. R. Cristiano.

Since 1998, when she was in charge of a research unit of the CNR Project ‘Biological sensors and biosensor design’, she has begun a study of the mechanisms of signal transduction following glutathione stimulation and the effects of altered redox balance on the feeding behaviour of Hydra, in collaboration with the Stazione Zoologica ‘A. Dohrn’.