Education
- 2017: PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Milan
- 2014 – 2017: PhD student, University of Milan and Humanitas Research Centre
- 2014 – 2014: PhD student at the Centre of Applied Neurogenetics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
- 2012 – 2013: Graduate Researcher, Department of Medical Biotechnology and Translational Medicine, University of Milan
- 2013: Master’s Degree in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine from the University of Milan
- 2011: Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Biotechnology from the University of Milan
Academic Background
- present: Fixed-term researcher, type A
- 2022 – present: Visiting scientist at the Transcriptome Technology Laboratory, RIKEN Centre for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan
- 2017 – 2024: Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University
- 2022 – 2022: Postdoctoral researcher at the Transcriptome Technology Laboratory, RIKEN Centre for Integrative Medical Sciences, Yokohama, Japan
Awards and Honors
- 2024: PI SPRINT-PD project (Grant FRRB EARLY CAREER AWARD, for 3 years, 500.000€)
- 2021: JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research in Japan
- 2019: Travel Grant for the 13th European CF Young Investigator Meeting. Paris, France.
- 2018: Post-doctoral Fellowships 2018 award from “Fondazione Umberto Veronesi”
- 2017: Travel Grant for the 21st International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders. Vancouver, Canada
- 2016: Travel Grant for the 1st International Conference in Splicing. Caparica (Lisbon), Portugal
- 2015: ESHG Poster Award, European Human Genetics Conference 2015 (Glasgow, UK) for the presentation of the poster “The plant cytokine kinetin as a potential therapeutic agent to correct CFTR splicing defects”
- 2015: Travel Grant for the 1th Italian CF Young Investigator Meeting. January 16-17, 2015. Rome, Italy.
Since completing my PhD, I have pursued my keen interest in the genetics of Parkinson’s disease (PD), which has culminated in the publication of several international articles in which I have clarified, among other things, the contribution of genetic variants in lysosomal genes to the pathogenesis of PD. In line with this interest, which has characterised my subsequent career, I spent a period of research at the University of British Columbia (Canada) in Dr Farrer’s laboratory working on the analysis of data derived from exome sequencing, and subsequently six months at RIKEN (Dr Carninci’s laboratory, Japan), where I learned how to characterise somatic recombinations mediated by repeated elements.
In 2018, I obtained a grant from the Veronesi Foundation, with which I successfully developed a low-cost multiplex allelic PCR for the rapid screening of approximately 12,000 individuals. Recently, I have started a project aimed at characterising a unique cohort of monozygotic twins discordant for PD, with the aim of identifying genomic, transcriptomic and epigenetic profiles that can anticipate the diagnosis of the disease and reveal new factors or biological processes that can modify susceptibility.
Furthermore, thanks to FRRB funding (SPRINT-PD project), I am actively studying somatic recombination and the role of inflammation in order to promote new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for Parkinson’s disease.
- Hop PJ, Lai D, Keagle PJ, Baron DM, Kenna BJ, Kooyman M, Shankaracharya, Halter C, Straniero L, Asselta R, Bonvegna S, Soto-Beasley AI; Project MinE ALS Sequencing Consortium; Wszolek ZK, Uitti RJ, Isaias IU, Pezzoli G, Ticozzi N, Ross OA, Veldink JH, Foroud TM, Kenna KP, Landers JE. Systematic rare variant analyses identify RAB32 as a susceptibility gene for familial Parkinson’s disease. Nat Genet. 2024 Jun 10. doi: 10.1038/s41588-024-01787-7.
- Straniero L, Rimoldi V, Monfrini E, Bonvegna S, Melistaccio G, Lake J, Soldà G, Aureli M, Shankaracharya, Keagle P, Foroud T, Landers JE, Blauwendraat C, Zecchinelli A, Cilia R, Di Fonzo A, Pezzoli G, Duga S, Asselta R. Role of Lysosomal Gene Variants in Modulating GBA-Associated Parkinson’s Disease Risk. Mov Disord. 2022 Mar 9. doi: 10.1002/mds.28987.
- Straniero L, Asselta R, Bonvegna S, Rimoldi V, Soldà G, Aureli M, Della Porta M, Lucca U, Di Fonzo A, Zecchinelli A, Pezzoli G, Cilia R, Duga S. The SPID- GBA Study: The Largest Monocentric Study on Sex Distribution, Penetrance, Incidence, and Association with Dementia of GBA Mutations in Parkinson’s Disease. Neurol Genet. 2020. Neurol Genet. 2020. Oct 20;6(6):e523.
- Straniero L, Rimoldi V, Melistaccio G, Di Fonzo A, Pezzoli G, Duga S, Asselta R. A rapid and low-cost test for screening the most common Parkinson’s disease-related GBA variants. Parkinsonism Relat Disord. 2020 Sep 22;80:138-141.
- Straniero L, Guella I, Cilia R, Parkkinen L, Rimoldi V, Young A, Asselta R, Soldà G, Sossi V, Stoessl AJ, Priori A, Nishioka K, Hattori N, Follett J, Rajput A, Blau N, Pezzoli G, Farrer MJ, Goldwurm S, Rajput AH, Duga S. DNAJC12 and dopa-responsive non-progressive Parkinsonism. Ann Neurol. 2017 Oct;82(4):640-646.