Maria Pia Abbracchio is an Italian pharmacologist who researches the biochemical effect of drugs at the cellular level. She has conducted research all over the world and is one of the scientists

Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...

has named as most cited scientists since 2006. She is known for her work with purinergic receptors and identification of

GPR17 Uracil nucleotide/cysteinyl leukotriene receptor is a G protein-coupled receptor that in humans is encoded by the ''GPR17'' gene located on chromosome 2 at position q21. The actual activating ligands for and some functions of this receptor are dis ...

. In 2014, she was awarded the

Order of Merit of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking ...

for her individual scientific accomplishments.

Biography

Maria Pia Abbracchio was born in Milan and completed her initial education there. In 1979, she earned a master's degree in Pharmacy and then studied as a post-graduate from 1980 to 1981 at the

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the T ...

. In 1984, she completed a specialization in

toxicology Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expo ...

from the

University of Milan The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe ...

, a PhD in Experimental Medicine at Rome in 1988, and post-doctoral studies as an Honorary Research Fellow at the

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

from 1992 to 1993. In 1994, she worked with Professor

Geoffrey Burnstock Geoffrey Burnstock (10 May 1929 – 2 June 2020) was a neurobiologist and President of the Autonomic Neuroscience Centre of the UCL Medical School. He is best known for coining the term purinergic signalling, which he discovered in the 19 ...

, the scientist who named

purinergic receptor Purinergic receptors, also known as purinoceptors, are a family of plasma membrane molecules that are found in almost all mammalian tissues. Within the field of purinergic signalling, these receptors have been implicated in learning and memory, lo ...

s and then she became the founder of the Purine Club, a non-profit scientific association for international researchers studying the

pathophysiology Pathophysiology ( physiopathology) – a convergence of pathology with physiology – is the study of the disordered physiological processes that cause, result from, or are otherwise associated with a disease or injury. Pathology is the ...

of purinergic transmission. Since 2003, she has worked with an interdisciplinary group of scientists to improve scientific research at institutions both within Italy and abroad. In 2006, Abbracchio presented findings at a symposium in Atlanta for the Society for Neuroscience which illustrates the approach of using biochemical compounds at the cellular level to inhibit brain damage after stroke. Her work has proven that G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)s play a role in controlling cellular behavior. By combining research efforts from various scientific disciplines, scientists are looking at

neurodegenerative diseases A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

multiple sclerosis Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...

and even heart attacks and stroke to see how various drugs interact with GPCRs. One receptor identified early in her research by Abbracchio, called GPR17, has shown that it reacts with certain drugs to reduce brain inflammations and improve memory and learning abilities. Abbracchio is a full professor of pharmacology at the

and directs a team of 12 scientific researchers at the Research Observatory of the university. She has authored or co-authored some 150 scientific papers and since 2006 has been listed on the

list of most cited researchers. In 2014, she was awarded the level of Commander in the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the President of Italy,

Giorgio Napolitano Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...

References

External links

Personal website

WorldCat Publications list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbracchio, Maria Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Italian pharmacologists University of Milan alumni Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Academic staff of the University of Milan 21st-century Italian women scientists 20th-century Italian women scientists