Welcome to the Pizzo Lab website. Our lab is located in the Vallisneri Biology Complex, a multi-department research centre of the University of Padua; we are part of the Department of Biomedical Sciences.
Historically, our lab has been interested in calcium (Ca2+), its homeostasis, and its role in cell signalling, both in health and disease.
Our research activity is mainly aimed at unravelling the intricacies of cellular calcium (Ca2+) signalling, both in health and disease, with special incidence on organelle Ca2+ handling and function. By combining biochemistry, molecular biology and imaging/electrophysiology approaches, both in vitro and in vivo, we investigate specific Ca2+ signalling pathways in normal and pathological conditions.
We are particularly interested in identifying specific Ca2+ alterations in different neurodegenerative disorders. To this end, we continue to carry out detailed analyses of various aspects of Ca2+ signalling in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. In the former, we exploit different AD mouse models, while in the latter we use Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism.
To address our research goals, we regularly generate state-of-the-art bespoke biosensors, both for Ca2+ and other ions and metabolites. To finely dissect intracellular variations, our biosensors are generally targeted to specific subcellular locations, such as the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, nucleus, peroxisomes, and plasma membrane. These tools are instrumental for determining a high-resolution map of the heterogeneity of signalling pathways within the cell.
Our lab is also part of the Advanced Light Microscopy Italian Node of Euro-BioImaging. Euro-BioImaging is a European network that offers life scientists access to imaging instruments, expertise, training opportunities and data management services, regardless of their affiliation, area of expertise or field of activity. These pan-European open access services are provided with high quality standards by leading imaging facilities and it is with pride that we offer our contribution to this innovative framework.
The Research section of this website contains additional information regarding current projects, as well as a comprehensive list of research papers that reflect our scientific activity.
The work carried out in our lab over the years relies on the continued support from various funding entities, which we gratefully acknowledge.
For details on currently active grants sustaining our current research lines, please see the Research section.
Check out the rich scientific programme of our upcoming meeting:
July 2023
Double PRIN success!
We are honoured and grateful:
Paola Pizzo's project entitled "Purinergic checkpoints in neuroinflammation and Alzheimer's disease: extracellular ATP and the P2X7 receptor as main drivers of neurodegeneration" has been funded by PRIN 2022.
June 2023
PRIN success!
We are honoured and grateful:
Diana Pendin's project entitled "Innovative chemical tools for real-time calcium imaging in organelles" has been funded by PRIN 2022.
January 2023
We are honoured and grateful:
Riccardo Filadi's project entitled "Dynamic chemogenetic reporters to decipher membrane contacts" has been funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative • Fontiers of Imaging Grant.
July 2021
We are honoured and grateful:
Cure Alzheimer's Fund has funded our project entitled "Extracellular ATP is a key factor in promoting Alzheimer's disease neuroinflammation".
September 2021
We're on the cover of
cells!
Check out Rigotto et al. 
.
June 2021
We're on the cover of
Cell Calcium!
Check out the special issue on Mitochondria: Function and disease curated by Paola Pizzo and our reviews by Filadi and Greotti and Di Benedetto et al. .
May 2021
We're on the cover of
Trends in Neurosciences!
Check out Plotegher et al. and the cover credits.
April 2021
We're on the cover of
The FEBS Journal!
Check out our State-of-the-Art Review, Rossini et al .
