Pietro Scaduto is an Italian pride. He is 28, a young biologist and a researcher at the University of Texas. He received the Mason Guest Scholar Program 'Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics Award for one Alzheimer's research. An award thatUniversity of Texas Medical Branch annually assigns to a doctoral student who has distinguished himself for the results achieved in the fields of Biomedicine and Neuroscience. Another Italian abroad. Another southern excellence. Let's find out who he is and what his project consists of Research.
Pietro Scaduto: from Bagheria to Texas
Pietro was born in Bagheria, holds a Degree in Biological Sciences at the Faculty of Studies of Palermo , specialist in Biomolecular and Cellular Sciences at the University of Ferrara. Has had work experience in Malta, Austria and Spain. He is currently carrying out a PhD in Biomedicine and Neuroscience from the University of Galveston in Texas. Here, thanks to a twinning between the Sicilian and Texan universities, he gave life to an innovative study on Alzheimer's. An interesting, singular project that won him a prestigious university award. The twinning between Sicily and the USAmoreover, it is due to the figure of Francesco Cappello, professor of anatomy at the Palermo University of Medicine and that of Giulio Taglialatela, director of the American research center for neurodegenerative diseases “Mitchell Center”.
The search for Peter
The research project focuses onAlzheimer, neurodegenerative disease of which neither the cause nor the origins are yet known. Pietro's project consists in extracting the synapses of former Alzheimer's patients (obviously deceased). The synapses are subsequently transplanted into frog eggs. The eggs, in this process, reactivate the synapses and allow them to be studied in electrophysiological field (with the use of morphological and physiological techniques to characterize the morphofunctional differences). Although we do not know the causes or even the origins of the disease, thanks to some studies and also to this research, it is clear that the problem of Alzheimer's is linked to the aggregation of some proteins present in the human body and to a hyper-excitability of the nervous system. .
After winning his doctorate he moved to Galveston. He continued his studies and is followed by two academic tutors, by prof. Natale Belluardo and by prof. Agenor Limon. Pietro was born in the beautiful Bagheria, but has lived in Texas for nearly two years. Here he is comfortable, the cost of living is that of Palermo, but the salaries are higher. For the researcher, Texas is a wonderful place, it resembles the south and has rediscovered an open mind, typical of the people of the south. Going home, however, would be a dream. A small wish that could be realized if he were offered a good position at the University of Palermo.
