Giampietro Schiavo - Biography#

Professor Schiavo is Deputy Director of the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, a UK Dementia Research Institute Investigator and the academic lead of the Alzheimer’s Research UK Drug Discovery Institute at UCL. He has a long-term interest in the mechanisms of action of bacterial protein toxins, in particular tetanus and botulinum neurotoxins, and their exploitation as tools in cell biology. His group has clarified key steps in the mechanism of ligand entry at the neuromuscular junction and other synapses, and the recruitment of ligand-receptor complexes to signalling endosomes moving along the axonal retrograde transport route. This essential transport pathway, which delivers a variety of organelles and molecular complexes to the neuronal soma, is impaired in several nervous system pathologies, such as motor neuron disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and peripheral neuropathies. Professor Schiavo and his team are identifying novel pharmacological nodes to restore axonal transport of key organelles such as signalling endosomes, mitochondria, and lysosomes in neurons both in vitro and in vivo. His research output accounts for more than 300 highly cited (>31,000; h-index 93; source: Google Scholar) peer-reviewed publications,

Education

• PhD in Biological Sciences, University of Padua, Italy (1992)
  
• MSc in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Padua, Italy (1988)

Membership of Learned Societies

• 2015 - present Member, British Society for Cell Biology
  
• 1994 - present Member, International Society for Neurochemistry

Membership of Grant Committees

• 2023 - present Chair, ATIP-Avenir program Neurosciences and neural disorders, CNRS/Inserm (F)
  
• 2023 - present Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System (LS5 panel) ERC Consolidator Grant
  
• 2022 - present EMBO Installation Grant Committee (D)
  
• 2022 - present MRC Non-Clinical Training and Career Development Panel (UK)
  
• 2018 - 2020 Deputy Chair, MRC Neurosciences & Mental Health Board (UK)

Editorial Boards

• 2022 - present Editorial Board, Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System
  
• 2007 - present Editor, Journal of Cell Science (Neuroscience)
  
• 2009 - 2024 Editor, Cell Death & Disease

Key active research grants

• 2024 MRC Project Grant. Exploiting neurological resilience controlled by Rab10 as a therapeutic target for AD. To: G Schiavo and OM Lazo. £783,309 for 36 months.
  
• 2023 UK DRI grant. Identification of convergence points in the mechanism of axonal transport and its pathological dysfunction. UKDRI-1005. To: G Schiavo. £0.9M for five years.
  
• 2023 European Union Widening - Teaming for Excellence Grant: Centre for the Technologies of Gene and Cell Therapy. €15M for six years. €0.9M to UCL.
  
• 2023 MND Collaborative Partnership Award “United2EndMND”. Co-Directors: A El-Chalabi C McDermott; 13 programme leads; G Schiavo and other 16 Co-I. £4.25M for two years.
  
• 2022 Wellcome Investigator Award “Identification of modifiers of the axonal transport pathway in health and disease”. 223022/Z/21/Z. To: G Schiavo. £2.09M for five years.