Dr. Manuela Zaccolo

Biography

Manuela Zaccolo graduated in Medicine from the University of Torino, Italy, and then pursued a career in science as a post-doctoral researcher at the LMB, MRC in Cambridge, UK, working on protein engineering and in vitro molecular evolution. After four years, she returned to Italy, where she worked at the University of Padova on the generation of fluorescent sensors for real-time imaging of intracellular messengers in living cells. In 2001, she established an independent research group at the Venetian Institute of Molecular Medicine, focusing on intracellular signaling. In 2007, she moved to the University of Glasgow, where she initially held the position of Reader and subsequently became a Professor of Cell Biology. In 2012, she joined the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics at the University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of Pre-Clinical Medicine at Balliol College. Her research interests include how cells sense external stimuli, which are processed to produce functional outcomes, as well as the architectural and regulatory principles of intracellular signaling networks that achieve plasticity and context-sensitivity necessary for cell function. Specifically, her work has concentrated on cyclic nucleotide signaling in heart cell systems and the role of local regulation and compartmentalization in signal transduction, determining the specificity of cellular responses. The ultimate goal of her research is to understand how alterations in signaling networks lead to human diseases and to apply this knowledge towards developing novel therapeutic strategies.

Research Interests