On the occasion of the first Italian Research Day in the World, a new initiative launched by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) to promote the important work of Italian scientists and researchers in the World, the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles has invited Emiliana Borrelli, Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine to discuss her research activity on the neurotransmitter dopamine and its role in brain diseases, movement disorders and addiction. Her work has earned her international recognition and prestigious awards including the title of Knight of the National Order of the Légion d’Honneur, the most prestigious French civilian award, and the Golgi Medal Award in Neuroscience from the Golgi Foundation.
Dr. Michael J. Stamos, MD, FACS, FASCRS Dean of UCI School of Medicine and President of the Research Foundation of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, will moderate the evening.
Emiliana Borrellli will receive the IIC Los Angeles Creativity Award, which recognizes Italian excellence in the world. It was designed specifically for the Institute by Emilio Cavallini, artist and designer of international fame. The award design was inspired by the ceiling of the Pantheon in Rome.
In the past the IIC has awarded lifetime achievement prizes in the fields of science and technology to the late Renato Dulbecco, Nobel Prize in Medicine and President Emeritus at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies (2007) and Andrew J. Viterbi co-founder of the San Diego-based semiconductor and wireless communications company Qualcomm Inc. and inventor of the Viterbi algorithm, used in satellite and mobile technology (2010).
Emiliana Borrelli’s studies focus on understanding how the brain functions. In particular, since the beginning of her career she has been involved in studies of how Dopamine, a very important neurotransmitter of the central nervous system, controls a wide variety of functions, ranging from motor activity, to emotions and pleasure. Her studies are aimed at unraveling dopamine-mediated controls of these functions in healthy conditions to get insights into diseases involving dopamine. Indeed, dysfunctions of the dopamine system underlie human disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and addiction to drugs of abuse. Emiliana Borrelli has modeled these disorders in genetically engineered mice with the aim of identifying novel mechanisms that can conduct to the establishment of therapies for the treatment of dopamine-dependent disorders.
Organized by the IIC Los Angeles in collaboration with the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UC Irvine’s School of Medicine and ISSNAF – Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America Foundation.