Giusy Pizzirusso

Giusy Pizzirusso

Anknuten till Forskning
Besöksadress: Bioclinicum J9:30, Akademiska stråket 1, 17164 Solna
Postadress: K6 Kvinnors och barns hälsa, K6 Barnonkologi och Barnkirurgi Blomgren, 171 77 Stockholm
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Om mig

  • Medical doctor and Ph.D. student
    My Ph.D. is part of the KI-NIH Doctoral Partnership Programme in
    Neuroscience, which gives me the opportunity of splitting my
    research between Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) and National
    Institute of Health (Bethesda, USA).
    The main goal of my research is to increase our understanding of the cellular
    and synaptic mechanisms underlying neuronal synchronization and electrical
    oscillations in neuronal networks during physiological and pathological
    states. This knowledge is essential to elucidate pathological network
    changes, a crucial step to finding new ways of rescuing altered brain
    oscillations and defining new targets for therapeutic intervention. We use
    ex-vivo electrophysiology, imaging, and network modeling to investigate gamma
    frequency oscillations in the neuronal networks of the hippocampus, which
    plays an important role in higher brain functions that are affected in
    various brain disorders.
    "Piero Stroder" private scholarship for honors students.

Forskningsbeskrivning

  • The guiding thread of my research is neuronal oscillations, which are
    repetitive patterns of neural activity in the central nervous system. The
    synchronized activity of large numbers of neurons gives rise
    to macroscopic fluctuations of currents, which can be observed in
    an electroencephalogram as a rhythmic fluctuation in local field
    potentials. The precise timing of neuronal-spike discharges gives rise to the
    so-called brain oscillations. Depending on their frequency, oscillations have
    been divided into different groups, each of which has been associated with a
    specific function.
    My project focuses on gamma oscillations, which are characterised by a
    frequency range between 30 and 80 Hz. Gamma oscillations can be detected in
    multiple brain regions, including the hippocampus where they are the result
    of the synchronization of action potentials of excitatory pyramidal cells
    (PC) and inhibitory GABAergic interneurons, in particular fast-spiking
    interneurons (FSN). Alterations in the synchronous activity of PC and FSN in
    the hippocampus are related to cognitive deficits and neurodegenerative
    diseases. For this reason, I evaluate the hippocampal network functionality,
    which is expressed as gamma oscillations, by performing local field potential
    and patch clamp recordings in healthy and pathological acute slices.
    The overall aim of my research is to test the hypothesis that rescuing the
    early synaptic alterations that trigger gamma oscillations impairment in
    multiple neurodegenerative conditions (including after cranial radiotherapy
    and Alzheimer’s disease) would prevent the late cognitive decline observed
    in these situations. This will provide the basis for a novel approach: detect
    and restore the brain oscillatory activity at an early stage to prevent
    severe late complications.

Artiklar

Forskningsbidrag

  • A multimodal approach to investigating the early synaptic failure in the hippocampus during amyloidogenic progression in Alzheimer’s disease.
    Gun and Bertil Stohne
    1 June 2023

Anställningar

  • Phd Stutent (KI-NIH doctoral program for neuroscience), Karolinska Institute, 2022-
  • Anknuten till Forskning, Kvinnors och barns hälsa, Karolinska Institutet, 2022-2024

Konferenser och events

  • Deltagare, OCNC2023 - OIST Computational Neuroscience Course, Project-based computational Neuroscience course held at Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (18/06/23 - 07/07/23), Untangling the mechanism of hippocampal gamma oscillation impairment and repair in an Alzheimer’s Disease model, 2023
  • Muntliga presentationer av egna accepterade abstract, Neuroscience 2023 (SFN), Functional and molecular characterization of the hippocampal network failure during early amyloid pathology in the App NL-G-F mouse model of Alzheimer's disease., 2023

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