Professor Michela Matteoli, Director of the Neuro Center of Humanitas and lecturer at Humanitas University, awarded one of the two Antonio Feltrinelli Awards for Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology for 2019.
Feltrinelli Award is awarded by the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and it is one of the most prestigious Italian prizes, established by the entrepreneur and artist Antonio Feltrinelli. The award was announced on June 20th at the Solemn Meeting at the end of the Academic Year and it will be presented during the Public Ceremony to the Gathered Classes, for the opening of the Academic Year 2019-2020, which will be held on November 8th, 2019 in the presence of senior officials.
Since 1950, the National Academy of High Schools delivers every year the Feltrinelli Awards, comparable to the most important international awards, aiming to enhance the excellence in the field of Moral and Historical Sciences, of Mathematical, Natural and Physical Sciences, of Literature, Arts and Medicine.
The studies of Professor Matteoli
Professor Michela Matteoli works on the mechanisms regulating the function of synapse, in order to understand how a defect in the processes generates neurodevelopment pathologies, such as autism, or neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. In the last few years her research activity has focused on the role the immune system plays in controlling the synaptic function in physiological and pathological conditions. The results of the latter research were published in high-impact international journals, such as Immunity and Biological Psychiatry, which dedicated the cover and scientific commentaries to such work.
In addition both to being the Head of the Neuro Center of Humanitas, a structure that includes researchers, clinicians and postgraduates working in the field of Neuroscience, starting from September, Professor Matteoli will head the Institute of Neuroscience of the CNR.
The Institute of Neuroscience is one of the most prestigious and productive institutes of the CNR network and includes 120 researchers located in different locations (Pisa, Milan, Padua, Parma, Cagliari), many of whom are widely recognized internationally for their research on the nervous system.
