Francesca Sciandra

In 2000, she received a degree in Biology at the University of Rome Sapienza, under the supervision of Prof. Bruno Giardina and Dr. Andrea Brancaccio. She studied the functional and structural properties of b-dystroglycan, a transmembrane protein important for the stability of skeletal muscle sarcolemma. She obtained the PhD in Biochemistry in 2004 working in the Dr. Brancaccio's laboratory, working on the analysis of the interaction between the dystroglycan subunits. As PhD student, she joined the Prof. Markus Ruegg Group at the Biozentrum of Basel University and she was involved in the characterization of dystroglycan in dy mice and in dy/mag-tg transgenic mice and in the analysis of dystroglycan role for the maturation of the agrin-induced of post-synaptic NMJ elements. Since 2011, she is a researcher of the Italian National Research Council and she is continuing her work on the biochemical characterization of extracellular matrix proteins involved in muscular dystrophy and in muscle inflammation.