Maria Beatrice Passani

Biography

Maria Beatrice Passani received her degree in Biological Sciences in 1983 as a student of the Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Florence. In 1986 he obtained the Masters in Psychobiology at the University of California Irvine (USA) where he learned and applied electrophysiological and immunohistochemical techniques to study synaptic plasticity as a physiological mechanism that underlies learning and memory. In 1993 he received his PhD in Biological Sciences from Columbia University, New York (USA). During the PhD, he studied the development of the leukemia nervous system by identifying specific molecular interactions that allow neurons to acquire their adult morphological characteristics. In 1993 MB Passani returned to Italy, performing research as an adjunct professor at the Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Florence, and in 2005 he became a University Researcher by attending the Faculty of Pharmacy of the same University. Initially, he studied the role of the central serotonergic system as modulator of the neuronal activity of rat hippocampal involved in mnemonic processes. His interests were then focused on the role of the central istaminergic system in memory, homeostatic processes, and neuroinfiammation using murine models. His studies have helped explain how istaminergic drugs may have therapeutic implications in the treatment of neurological pathologies with impaired cognitive processes, have highlighted the therapeutic potential of istaminergic drugs for the treatment of food disorders. It has also recently been involved in the involvement of the H4 istaminergic receptor in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory diseases, studying its effects on autoimmune experimental encephalomyelitis, an experimental model of multiple sclerosis

Research Interest

Her studies contributed to the understanding of if and how brain histamine may have a prospective role in the therapy of neurological and psychiatric disorders using murine models. She is currently engaged in a project aimed at understanding the relevance of brain histamine in controlling feeding behavior and evaluating the potential therapeutic use of histaminergic ligands for the treatment of eating disorders. She is also involved in learning the role of Histamine H4 receptor in the pathogenesis of neuroinflammatory autoimmune diseases, especially in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in murine model of multiple sclerosis