//     LUDOVICA FILIPPINI

Striessnig Research Group
Institute of Pharmacy, Dept. of Pharmacology and Toxicology
University of Innsbruck

//     INFORMATION

Nationality: Italy
Education: MSc in Medical Biotechnology with honours, at the University of Rome
E-Mail: ludovica.filippini@uibk.ac.at
Supervisor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jörg Striessnig

//     BEYOND SCIENCE

I love reading (expecially Fedor Dostoevskij’s novels), I am interested in politics and civil rights but I am not as boring as you might think!

//     PROJECT

Correct functioning of Voltage – Gated Calcium Channels (VGCCs) is crucial for a number of physiological processes, such as neurotransmitter release, hormone secretion, excitation – transcription coupling and excitation – contraction coupling, since they mediate influx of Calcium ions in excitable cells within the human body. Due to their wide expression pattern, non – inherited variants of VGCCs- encoding genes resulting in an enhanced (or reduced) channel function are causing pathogenic phenotypes in patients. Our group’s main aim is determining whether variants of VGCCs are causative of severe pathological phenotypes, particularly the ones associated with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g. Cav 1.3 de novo variants) and, if so, how they are doing this. The ones whose biophysical properties have been characterized so far show a Gain of Channel function, suggesting that identifying a Cav1.3- selective blocker could potentially ameliorate patients’ symptoms. As a result, I am currently using Computational Drug Discovery in order to find potential drug candidates interacting with Cav1.3.

Methods: Homology Modelling, Virtual Screening, Molecular Docking, Structural Analysis

//     INTERNAL COLLABORATIONS

//     EXTERNAL COLLABORATIONS

Mag. pharm. Teresa Kaserer, PhD University of Innsbruck