Marco Pignatelli
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
- Phone: 314-273-3733
- Email: marco.pignatelli@nospam.wustl.edu
Education & Training
- Residency: Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, 2014
- M.D.: University of Rome, 2008
Major Awards
- NARSAD Young Investigator Award, 2019
- Timothy Bliss, Scholar Award in Synaptic plasticity and memory, Italian Society of Pharmacology, 2012
Areas of Clinical Interest
Major Depression
Research Interests
My long-term research goal is guided by a molecular-to-in-vivo perspective and driven by two major areas of investigation: first, to obtain a mechanistic understanding of how synaptic transmission and plasticity work and contribute to information processing by neural circuits, and ultimately how synaptic transmission and plasticity occurring within specified neural circuits give rise to complex behaviors; second, to obtain a molecular-based understanding of how circuit, cellular and channel/synapto-pathies might be the subject for therapeutic intervention, with a focus on motivational behaviors and animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Towards this goal, I use synergistic state-of-the-art methodologies such as in vitro and in vivo electrophysiology, intersectional genetic approaches together with cell biology and molecular pharmacology.
Recent Publications
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Expression of the excitatory opsin ChRERα can be traced longitudinally in rat and nonhuman primate brains with PET imaging
Bonaventura, J., Boehm, M. A., Jedema, H. P., Solis, O., Pignatelli, M., Song, X., Lu, H., Richie, C. T., Zhang, S., Gomez, J. L., Lam, S., Morales, M., Gharbawie, O. A., Pomper, M. G., Stein, E. A., Bradberry, C. W. & Michaelides, M., Jul 26 2023, In: Science translational medicine. 15, 706, eadd1014.
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Synaptic Zn2+ potentiates the effects of cocaine on striatal dopamine neurotransmission and behavior
Gomez, J. L., Bonaventura, J., Keighron, J., Wright, K. M., Marable, D. L., Rodriguez, L. A., Lam, S., Carlton, M. L., Ellis, R. J., Jordan, C. J., Bi, G. H., Solis, O., Pignatelli, M., Bannon, M. J., Xi, Z. X., Tanda, G. & Michaelides, M., Dec 2021, In: Translational psychiatry. 11, 1, 570.
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Microglial activation elicits a negative affective state through prostaglandin-mediated modulation of striatal neurons
Klawonn, A. M., Fritz, M., Castany, S., Pignatelli, M., Canal, C., Similä, F., Tejeda, H. A., Levinsson, J., Jaarola, M., Jakobsson, J., Hidalgo, J., Heilig, M., Bonci, A. & Engblom, D., Feb 9 2021, In: Immunity. 54, 2, p. 225-234.e6
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Regional specificity of synaptic plasticity deficits in a knock-in mouse model of DYT1 dystonia
Martella, G., Maltese, M., Nisticò, R., Schirinzi, T., Madeo, G., Sciamanna, G., Ponterio, G., Tassone, A., Mandolesi, G., Vanni, V., Pignatelli, M., Bonsi, P. & Pisani, A., May 2014, In: Neurobiology of Disease. 65, p. 124-132 9 p.