Phd in PHARMACOLOGY AND TOXICOLOGY

email: silvana.gaetani@uniroma1.it
phone: +39 06 4991 2538
building: CU024
room: L023

SILVANA GAETANI
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH: Lecce, Italy; July 8th, 1972
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CURRENT POSITION: Full Professor of Pharmacology, Sapienza University of Rome and Coordinator of the PhD Program in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sapienza University of Rome
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EDUCATION
1998: Master degree in Biological Sciences magna cum laude. Univ. of Lecce Italy
2000: Board Certified Biologist (Full score). Univ. of Bari, Italy
2003: Ph.D in Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Univ. of Bari Italy
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PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2001-2003: Junior Specialist Dept. of Pharmacology, Univ. of California Irvine, California, USA
2003-2004: Post Doctoral fellow step III Dept. of Pharmacology, Univ. of California Irvine, California, USA
2004-2005: Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmacology “Brain Gain program” (Rientro dei Cervelli), Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome, Italy
2005-2012: Assistant Professor of Pharmacology, Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome, Italy
2012-2019: Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome, Italy
November 2019-present: Full Professor of Pharmacology Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome, Italy
February 2020-present: Coordinator of the PhD Program in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Sapienza University of Rome
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HONOURS AND FUNDING OBTAINED AS COORDINATOR AND/OR PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (PI)
2004-2008: Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), “Brain Gain Program” (Programma Rientro dei Cervelli) (€139000)
2005: NIDA-IUPHAR Travel Award
2007-2008: Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE DI ATENEO FEDERATO) (€5300)
2008: Selected Researcher for “Atomium Culture: the permanent platform for European excellence”
2007-2009: (COORDINATOR) MIUR National Research Grant (PRIN) (€158000)
2013-2017 (PI) MIUR Futuro in Ricerca (€228798)
2014-2018: (PI) MIUR National Research Grant (PRIN) (€103386)
2013-2014: (COORDINATOR) Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2013) (€25946)
2017-2020: (PI) MIUR National Research Grant (PRIN) (€ 40000)
2018 (COORDINATOR) Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant for conferences, seminars,WORKSHOP - CLASS A
2019-2022 (PI) MIUR National Research Grant (PRIN) (€ 114731)
2019 (COORDINATOR) Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2018) (€ 33800)
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FUNDING OBTAINED AS CO-APPLICANT
2005-2006: Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2005) (€28500)
2006-2008: Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2006-2007) (€43600-€18000)
2007-2010 MIUR FIRB Piattaforme Reti (€228154)
2008-2010: Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2008-2009) (€27000-€20000)
2010-2011: Sapienza Univ. Intramural Research Grant (RICERCHE UNIVERSITARIE 2010) (€31500)
2011-2013: MIUR National Research Grant (PRIN) (€ 79984)
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EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES
2008-present ACADEMIC EDITOR for the Journal “Plos One”
2013-present ASSOCIATE EDITOR for the Journal Frontiers in Pharmacology, section Experimental Pharmacology and Drug Discovery
2015-present MEMBER OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD of the “Journal of Drug Research and Development”
2012-2015 MEMBER OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD of the Journal “Behavioural Pharmacology”
2012 GUEST EDITOR for the special issue of the Journal Behavioural Pharmacology titled “Pharmacological Approaches to Feeding Behaviour and Eating Disorders”
2013: TOPIC EDITOR for the Special issue “Preclinical and clinical issues in Alzheimer’s disease drug research and development” for the Journal Frontiers in Pharmacology Research
2016-present Member of the EDITORIAL BOARD of Mathews Journal of Diabetes & Obesity
2017- present Member of the EDITORIAL BOARD of Journal of Drug Research and Development
2017- present Member of the EDITORIAL BOARD of Translational Neuroscience Research and Reviews
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INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL BOARDS
2009-2013 Co-opted Member European Behavioural Pharmacology Society EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
-2017-2020: member of the PhD STEERING COMMITTEE (Comite d’accompagnement), Universitè Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
-February 2020-present: elected COORDINATOR of the Ph.D program in Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sapienza University of Rome
-2017-2020: Nominated SECRETARY (Referente) of the Ph.D program in Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2006-present: Member of the Board of Professors of the Ph.D program in Pharmacology and Toxicology, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2008-2012 and 2017-present: ELECTED MEMBER OF THE DEPARTMENT ADVISORY BOARD (Giunta di Dipartimento) of the Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2017-present: ELECTED MEMBER OF THE FACULTY ADVISORY BOARD (Giunta di Facoltà) Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2008-2019: ELECTED MEMBER OF DIDACTIC COMMITTEE Master Course in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2011-2012: MEMBER OF THE RESEARCH COMMITTEE of Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2012-present: COORDINATOR of the didactic quality team of the Master Course in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2014-present: member of the “ANIMAL WELFARE BODY” (OBPA) of the Dept. of Physiology and Pharmacology “V. Erspamer”, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
-2015-2019: member of the ACADEMIC COMMITTEE for the evaluation of the PHARMACY PROFESSIONAL TRAINING, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome
-2020-present: MEMBER OF DIDACTIC COMMITTEE Master Course in Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza Univ. of Rome
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REVISION PANELS
2015-2020 GRANT REFEREE for the French National Research Agency (ANR);
2016 GRANT REFEREE for the Strasbourg Institute of Advanced Study’s (USIAS)
2015 GRANT REFEREE for Italian Ministry of University (Progr. per Giovani Ricercatori "Rita Levi Montalcini" 2015);
2018 GRANT REFEREE for the Univ. di Verona (JOINT PROJECTS-2018);
2017 GRANT REFEREE for the Univ. di Camerino (SAS Award 2017),
2020 GRANT REFEREE for the Univ. di Firenze (“GIOVANI RICERCATORI PROTAGONISTI” 2020);
2020 GRANT REFEREE for the Medical Research Foundation, UK (“Eating Disorders and Self-Harm”)
2017 REFEREE for Italian VQR 2011-2014
2004-present REFEREE for numerous scientific journals, including high impact journals
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ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES
2007: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of the Workshop of the Italian Society of Pharmacology: “Behavioral and metabolic aspects of obesity and eating disorders”, Rome March 17th, 2007
2012: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of the Workshop of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society: “Eating Behaviour and obesity, Lecce, 7-9 September 2012
2013-2015-2017-2019-2021: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of five Symposia within the Biennial meeting of the Italian Society of Pharmacology
2016: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of a Symposium within the Annual meeting of the Italian Society for Neuroscience
2017: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of a Symposium within the Biennial meeting of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society
2019: CHAIR of the Scientific Organizing Committee of a Symposium within the Biennial meeting of the Mediterranean Neuroscience Society, Marrakech (Marocco) 23-27 Giugno 2019
2020-present COORDINATOR of the scientific group “Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome and Eating disorders” of the Italian Society of Pharmacology
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INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL RESEARCH MENTORING
-Research Mentor of three visiting researchers from the following Institutions: Universidad Nacional del Litoral Santa Fe, Argentina (2013-2014); Medical College of Xiamen University, Cina (2015-2016); Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium (2017)
-Mentor of international visiting research trainees according to the following mobility programs: Science without borders - São Paulo State University (UNESP), Brasil (20/01/2015 - 19/06/2015); Erasmus Plus program - University of Coimbra, Portugal 01/10/2016 - 31/06/2017); Erasmus Plus program - Univ. of Utrecht, the Netherlands (13/02/2017-13/08/2017 and 03/09/2018-01/02/2019)
-Mentor (Academic Tutor) of 20 PhD students at Sapienza Univ. of Rome (2006-present)
-Mentor (Relatore) of 70 experimental Master Thesis in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Medicinal Chemistry, Pharmacy, and Neurobiology, at Sapienza Univ. of Rome (2005-present)
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SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH INTEREST
SG is author of 86 papers published in peer reviewed journals including high impact ones (Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell Metabolism, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Trends in Molecular Medicine, Journal of Neuroscience, Neuropsychopharmacology, PNAS, Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews) with a total number of 6087 citations and an H index of 34 (database: SCOPUS).
SG is author, also, of more than 140 abstracts presented (also upon invitation) in prestigious national and international scientific meetings and is author of two books and two book Chapters on the Basic principles of Pharmacology for Master Students.
SG gave several invited plenary lectures at Italian and International Universities (including Wakayama Medical Univ. Japan, Univ. of Lille France, European Research Institute of Rome, Univ. of Malaga Spain).
SG is author of 2 international patents
SG has focused her research activity mainly on the discovery and characterization of the pharmacological properties of bioactive lipids (N-acylethanolamides) and of modulators of their endogenous tone in the regulation/prevention of chronic conditions such as obesity, aberrant eating, mood disorders, anxiety, and neurodegenerative conditions. Such activity was mainly carried out on experimental animal models.