Education
Maria Pia Abbracchio was in born Milan and completed her initial education there. In 1979, she earned a master"s degree in Pharmacy and then studied as a post-graduate from 1980 to 1981 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. In 1984, she completed a specialization in toxicology from the University of Milan, a Doctor of Philosophy in Experimental Medicine at Rome in 1988, and post-doctoral studies as an Honorary Research Fellow at the University College London from 1992 to 1993.
Career
She has conducted research all over the world and is one of the scientists Thomson Reuter"s has named as most cited scientists since 2006. She is known for her work with purinergic receptors and identification of GPR17. Since 2003, she has worked with an interdisciplinary group of scientists to improve scientific research at institutions both within Italy and abroad.
In 2006, Abbracchio presented findings at a symposium in Atlanta for the Society for Neuroscience which illustrates the approach of using biochemical compounds at the cellular level to inhibit brain damage after stroke.
Her work has proven that G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)s play a role in controlling cellular behavior. By combining research efforts from various scientific disciplines, scientists are looking at neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson"s, Alzheimer"s, multiple sclerosis and even heart attacks and stroke to see how various drugs interact with GPCRs.
One receptor identified early in her research by Abbracchio, called GPR17, has shown that it reacts with certain drugs to reduce brain inflammations and improve memory and learning abilities. Abbracchio is a full professor of Pharmacology at the University of Milan and directs a team of 12 scientific researchers at the Research Observatory of the university.
She has authored or co-authored some 150 scientific papers and since 2006 has been listed on the Thomson Reuter"s list of most cited researchers.
