Maria Raggio

Self-presentation:

Maria is a PhD Student in the 39th cohort at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production in University of Naples, Federico II. She is involved in managing the breeding and care of two aquatic model organisms, Danio rerio and Nothobranchius furzeri. Her research involves both in vivo and ex vivo analyses, mainly focused on the mechanisms of brain aging and food intake regulation. By using fast-aging models she truly hopes to advance understanding in how a vertebrate becomes old.

Project:

Orexinergic system and brain aging: what can we learn from fish models?

The project examines the role of orexinergic system in the short-lived fish species N. furzeri, also known as African turquoise killifish. Orexinergic system is evolutionarily well conserved, sharing a high degree of gene conservation between fish and mammals, and it is known to play several important conserved functions, i.e. stimulate appetite, modulate the organisms metabolism and regulate sleep-wake cycles and motor activity. The project aims to generate a knock-in line using CRISPR/Cas9 to measure the impact of aging on the orexinergic system. Is the orexinergic system correlated to altered motor activity of old fish? Is there any sleep impairment in old fish? And if yes, is this impairment correlated with the orexinergic system? These are just a bunch of the scientific questions we aim to address in this Ph.D project through molecular, anatomical and omics approaches.

Supervisior:

Livia D'Angelo, DVM, Ph.D
University of Naples Federico II
Dept. Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production