Dr. Antonella Spinazzola

Biography

Antonella qualified with Class Honours in Medicine from the Catholic University in Rome and is a trained neurologist at the 'A. Gemelli' University Hospital, Rome. After completing her residency, she was awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the Italian National Research Centre Telethon, where she conducted studies on mitochondrial disorders at the Houston Merritt Clinical Research Centre, Columbia University. Under the direction of Professor Salvatore DiMauro, she contributed to significant discoveries regarding nuclear gene defects causing mitochondrial DNA dysfunction. Upon returning to Italy, she took a Senior Clinical Research fellowship at the National Institute of Neurology 'C. Besta' in Milan, where she developed further interests in mtDNA maintenance. At the Medical Research Council Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge, she received a Marie Curie Career Development Fellowship and later worked under Nobel Prize-winning Professor Sir John Walker to address fundamental questions regarding mitochondrial biogenesis. In 2013, she was awarded a senior non-clinical fellowship from MRC to continue her research at MRC's Mill Hill Laboratories in London. Antonella joined the UCL Institute of Neurology in late 2016 and was promoted to full Professor of Neuroscience and Mitochondrial Medicine in 2018.

Research Interests

Experience