Internal Seminar by Martina Chiesa
COSBI recently hosted an internal seminar by Martina Chiesa, PhD student at COSBI and at the University of Trento, who presented her work titled “Integrating systems biology and modeling to investigate risk factors in the development and progression of Parkinson’s disease.”
Martina’s research focuses on the development of a mechanistic model describing the cellular dynamics of α-synuclein, a neuronal protein whose misfolding and aggregation play a central role in Parkinson’s disease. Building upon an existing model developed by Elena Righetti (COSBI), her work integrates experimental data from in-vitro and cellular assays to characterize the processes underlying α-synuclein aggregation, degradation, and pharmacological modulation.
Although the full Quantitative Systems Pharmacology (QSP) framework is still under development, the current model already reproduces key biological behaviors reported in the literature. These preliminary results make it possible to explore therapeutic hypotheses and support experimental research aimed at understanding disease mechanisms and identifying potential intervention strategies.
The project is supervised by Enrico Domenici and Federico Reali, who guide the integration of systems biology approaches with computational modeling.
COSBI is proud to support young researchers contributing to the advancement of mechanistic understanding and therapeutic innovation in neurodegenerative diseases.
