Rett syndrome and neurodevelopmental disorders
Nicoletta Landsberger

Email: landsberger.nicoletta@hsr.it
Location: DIBIT1 A3, Floor 3, Room 81
Group leader, Rett syndrome and neurodevelopmental disorders Unit
Dr. Landsberger is Full professor in Molecular Biology at the University of Milan. She graduated in Biology and got her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Milan. She spent 4 years as a Postdoc in Dr. A.P. Wolffe’s laboratory at NIH (USA). From 1998 to 2015, she led the Laboratory of the Genetic and Epigenetic Control of Gene Expression at University of Insubria. From 2011 she is heading the San Raffaele Rett Research Unit at the Division of Neuroscience. Since April 2015 she moved to the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Milan, where she has started her novel Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Biology Applied to Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
Even though her previous research domain was in chromatin structure and gene transcription, her more recent research activity is exclusively dedicated to MECP2 and CDKL5 related disorders. In the past she has contributed to demonstrate that MeCP2 interacts with the Sin3A/HDAC complex and that mouse models of RTT have a defective AKT/mTOR pathway. Recently, she has demonstrated that MeCP2 is a key transcriptional factor regulating cerebral cortex development and suggested that RTT is the cumulative result of different adverse events starting during embryogenesis. She recently highlighted novel and unexpected functions of MeCP2. Further, her team has significantly contributed to the current knowledge of CDKL5.
Publication records (march 2017): 54 original papers, 5712 citations and 3 chapter books.
2017-today: Full professor in Molecular Biology, Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Traslazionale/Università di Milano
2012-today: group leader at the Divisoon of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Hospital
2015-2017: Associate professor in Molecular Biology, Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Mediche e Medicina Traslazionale/Università di Milano
2004-2015: Associate professor in Molecular Biology, Università dell’Insubria.
1998-2004: University researcher, Università dell’Insubria
1997-1998: Post Doc Fellow, Università dell’Insubria
1993-1997: Post Doc Fellow, NIH/NICHD (Bethesda, USA)
1992-1993: Fellow, Università di Milano
1989-1992: PhD Fellow, Università di Milano
1997 NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence
1998-today awarded by several funding agencies including Telethon, AIRC, Fondazione Cariplo, IRSA, LeJeune Foundation, the Italian Ministery of Health and of University, the CDKL5 Pilot Grant Program (USA), the International Rett Syndrome Foundation (USA), Cariplo - Telethon Alliance.
2011 Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana
2007-2012 Secretary of the Italian Society of Biophyisics and Molecular biology (SIBBM)
2020-today Coordinating the activities of the PhD Course in Experimental Medicine
1993: PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Università degli studi di Milano (Italy)
1989: Degree in Biological Science, Università degli studi di Milano (Italy)