Maria Gabriella Santoro - Biography#

M. Gabriella Santoro is professor of Virology at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. After graduating in Biology at the University of Naples, she continued her training in cell biology and virology in the US as post-doctoral fellow at the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, and as lecturer at the SUNY Medical School in New York. MGS is a pioneer in the field of the antiviral and anticancer activity of prostaglandins (Science 209:1032,1980; Nature 263:777, 1976), and has unraveled the basic molecular mechanisms involved identifying key prostanoids-targets, including transcription factors HSF1 and NF-κB (Nature 403:103, 2000; Nature Biotechnol. 16:833, 1998). She also identified the chemical structure responsible for the biological activity of cyclopentenone prostanoids, opening new frontiers for developing novel antiviral and anticancer drugs. MGS played a major role in the discovery of the anti-rotavirus and anti-influenza activity of thiazolides (Lancet, 368:124-129, 2006). These last studies have been the basis for one of the largest phase 3 influenza clinical trial under an award from BARDA, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She also discovered the anti-coronavirus activity of indomethacin. Her current research interests include: the biology of the stress response; signaling and regulation of NF-κB and its involvement in virus replication and cell survival; identification of novel molecular targets for antiviral chemotherapy. MGS is an author of 3 books, more than 120 publications as first-or-last author in peer-reviewed international journals, and an inventor of more than 15 international patents. She is an elected member of EMBO, elected president of the Cell Stress Society International, and has received many prizes and distinctions for her work.

Website