Cristina Meregalli

Assistant Professor

PhD
+39 02 6448 8142
cristina.meregalli@unimib.it
Cristina Meregalli

Curriculum Vitae

Cristina Meregalli’s fields of interest are focused on studying the pathogenesis of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neurotoxicity (CIPN) evaluated in animal models following the treatment with antineoplastic drugs, as well as on the mechanistic studies using neuronal cultures. She is an active member of Toxic Neuropathy Consortium (part of the Peripheral Nervous System Society), International Association for the Study of Pain (Neuropathic pain, NeuPSIG), SIAI (Società Italiana di Anatomia e Istologia), GISN (Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Neuromorfologia) and Italian Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AISAL); moreover she was invited reviewer for many international peer-review journals. 

EDUCATION

2017 FELASA accredited course F 023/09 for persons Functions A,C,D (species mice and rats and included the additional task specific modules: 10, 20, 21, 22).

2008-2011 Ph.D. program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano Bicocca.

2006-2008 Master of arts Medical Biotechnology, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano–Bicocca.

2003-2006 Degree in Sanitary Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, University of Milano – Bicocca.

UNIMIB CAREER

October 2020: Assistant Professor in Human Anatomy at the School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Milano-Bicocca.

2018-2020: post-doc and Assistant Contract Professor for University of Milano–Bicocca. 

2016-2017: post-doc, University of Milano–Bicocca

2012-2015: post-doc, University of Milan–Bicocca

LONG-TERM TRAINING EXPERIENCES IN FOREIGN LABORATORIES

2016: 4-month full time training period in mitochondrial trafficking measure in DRG neurons primary cultures from adult mice by confocal microscopy. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA (Prof. E. Feldman).

2014: 3-month full time training period in electrophysiological determination of electrical activity in the rat dorsal horn of spinal cord. Centre on Pain Study, School of Nursing, University of Maryland, Baltimore (MD) (Prof. S.G. Dorsey and Prof C. Renn)

TEACHING ACTIVITY

a.y. 2021/2022: Member of the Faculty of Neuroscience PhD program (since Nov2021, XXXVII cycle) – University of Milano-Bicocca

a.y. 2020/2021 – today: Human Anatomy practice lessons for students “Odontoiatria e Protesi dentaria” course at the University of Milano-Bicocca

a,y. 2017/2018 – today: Microscopic Anatomy for student of School of Medicine and Surgery at University Milano-Bicocca Surgery (course held in English language)

a.y. 2018/2019: Cytology, histology, and embryology for student of School of Medicine and Surgery at University Milano-Bicocca (course held in English language)

a.y. 2016/2017, 2017/2018: PhD program teaching activity on the topic “Molecular pathway and neurotoxicity” for PhD student in Neuroscience

GRANTS

2020-2023 Young Biomedical Researcher Starting Grant: Principal investigator and scientific coordinator of the project: “Understanding the role of tubulin post-translational modification and mitochondrial impairment in bortezomib-induced peripheral neurotoxicity”, supported by Cariplo Foundation, grant ID # 2019-1482, budget 230.900,00 euro.

2017 (ID 2017-ATESP-0120) Young talents program Award. Topic: “Insights in the mechanisms of bortezomib peripheral neurotoxicity” supported by University of Milan-Bicocca and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, budget 2000 euro.

PATENT

International Patent # WO2021067697- “Methods and Materials for treating neurotoxicity” Released 2021

AWARDS

2019 Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) congress, Travelling fellowship for Young investigator (Genova)

2018: Award AISAL prize 2018 for the best oral presentation at the AISAL meeting 2018 (400 euro, Napoli, Italy)

2014: Disease Models & Mechanisms the company of Biologists (DMM) journal, Travelling Fellowship (Award 2000 $)

2013: AISAL award (Italian Association of Laboratory Animal Sciences) 5000-euros for a training period in a laboratory abroad.

2010: Neupsig Congress Bursary Award, Athens, Greece (Travelling Fellowship, Award 2000 $)

2010: Tebu-Bio travel grant

INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC COLLABORATIONS

University of Columbia (Prof. Bartolini)

University of Michigan (Prof. Eva Feldman) 

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (Prof. Ahmet Hoke)

Centre on Pain Study, University of Maryland (Prof Dorsey and Renn)

Department of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Cytomorphology, University of Cagliari (Prof. Marina Quartu)

Istituto Nazionale Neurologico Carlo Besta, Milan (Prof. Giuseppe Lauria)

Author of 44 papers on international peer-reviewed journals (May 2022, Scopus H-index=18)

MOST RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS 

Cartelli, D., Cavaletti, G., Lauria, G., Meregalli, C. Ubiquitin Proteasome System and Microtubules Are Master Regulators of Central and Peripheral Nervous System Axon Degeneration Cells, 2022, 11(8), 1358

Bloomingdale, P., Meregalli, C., Pollard, K., Canta, A., Chiorazzi, A., Fumagalli, G., et al. (2022). Systems Pharmacology Modeling Identifies a Novel Treatment Strategy for Bortezomib-Induced Neuropathic Pain. FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY, 12 [10.3389/fphar.2021.817236].

Tarasiuk O, Cavaletti G, Meregalli C. Clinical and preclinical features of eribulin-related peripheral neuropathy. Exp Neurol. 2022 Feb;348:113925. doi: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2021.113925.

Cavaletti G, Marmiroli P, Renn CL, Dorsey SG, Serra MP, Quartu M, Meregalli C. Cannabinoids: an Effective Treatment for Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neurotoxicity? Neurotherapeutics. 2021 Oct 19. doi: 10.1007/s13311-021-01127-1.

Meregalli C, Maricich Y, Cavaletti G, Canta A, Carozzi VA, Chiorazzi A, Newbold E, Marmiroli P, Ceresa C, Diani A, Papapetropoulos S, Lee MS. Reversal of Bortezomib-Induced Neurotoxicity by Suvecaltamide, a Selective T-Type Ca-Channel Modulator, in Preclinical Models. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Oct 7;13(19):5013. doi: 10.3390/cancers13195013.

Pero ME, Meregalli C, Qu X, Shin GJ, Kumar A, Shorey M, Rolls MM, Tanji K, Brannagan TH, Alberti P, Fumagalli G, Monza L, Grueber WB, Cavaletti G, Bartolini F. Pathogenic role of delta 2 tubulin in bortezomib-induced peripheral neuropathy. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Jan 26;118(4):e2012685118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2012685118. PMID: 33468672 Free PMC article

 

Find out more on