Elisa Roncati Zanier MD

Elisa R. Zanier trained in Medicine, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the University of Milano. She was a Post-doctoral fellow at the Neurotrauma Laboratory, University of Los Angeles, California. She was consultant at the Neuro-Intensive Care Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milano from 2003-2007. Since 2007, she has a teaching assignment into postgraduate school of Intensive Care and Anesthesiology, University of Milano. Since 2007, she is associate researcher at the Mario Negri Institute, Milano, Italy. From 2012-2016 she leaded the Unit of Acute Brain Injury and Cell Therapy, now she is Head of the Laboratory of Acute Brain Injury and Therapeutic Strategies. 

Research activity: 

Acute brain injury can have severe and long-lasting consequences. Pharmacological neuro-protection, both for traumatic brain injury (TBI) or hemorrhagic lesions, is not available, with repeated failures of several International trials. There is a gap from successful experimental interventions in animal models and failures in clinical applications. Essential for our research, therefore, is a lively connection/interplay between the laboratory and the clinical work. Parallel exploration of mechanisms in the clinical setting (through invasive monitoring and neuro-imaging, for instance) and in the lab could refine experimental models and develop neurorestorative treatments.

Specific aims of the program:

·      To understand the mechanisms transforming an initial acute biomechanical injury into a chronic and progressive pathology.

·      To understand the heterogeneity of TBI and identify biomarkers for acute brain injury

·      To interfere with injury evolution by reducing toxic events and fostering the endogenous reparative response.

Elisa R Zanier is a member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Immunology and Intensive Care Medicine Experimental.