Annalisa Pastore has been awarded a grant from the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research within the framework of the PRIN 2017 call (funds granted to “Projects of Relevant National Interest”). The project ‘The role of frataxin in iron-sulfur cluster biogenesis’ received over half a million (587.000 Euro).

The aim of the project is the molecular and cellular understanding of the role of the protein responsible for the neurodegenerative disorder called Friedreich ataxia. Pastore, full professor of  Molecular biologys at Scuola Normale Superiore, has arrived in Pisa just in October 2018 but has been working on Friedreich Athaxia since 1996, the year in which the gene responsible for the disease was identified.

The project will include a molecular part in which the properties of a specific protein, frataxin, will be studied in detail to understand its role in the biogenesis of a small prosthetic group involved in the supply of electrons to the cell. In parallel, the group will study the mechanisms that determine the progress of the disease to understand which are the primary and secondary variables. For the second part of the project, Professor Pastore will bring to Scuola Normale and more generally to Pisa, cutting-edge gene editing techniques by transferring her expertise from the Italian and foreign institutions where she worked before coming to Pisa.

Prof. Pastore will coordinate a research group involving units from the Universities of Parma, Milan and CNR Rome.