Arcangela Iuso
undertook a PhD in Medical Biology and Biochemistry at the
University of Bari, Italy, investigating the relevance of mitochondrial function in
neurological disorders such as Parkinson, Leigh syndrome and other mitochondrial
disorders (2002-2006). She specialized in Clinical Biochemistry (2006-2011) and
completed a post-graduate diploma course in Biology of Nutrition investigating the
effects of natural antioxidants in human nutrition.
After concluding a post-doctoral fellowship at the university of Bari (2006-2008)
during which she investigated the role of the cAMP cascade on the activity, assembly
and stability of the respiratory chain complex I under physiologic and pathologic
conditions, she moved to Munich, Germany, where she continued her research in the
area of mitochondrial disorders and expanded it to NBIA.
Currently, she is a senior scientist at the Helmholtz Zentrum München and the
scientific coordinator of the international biobank for Neurodegeneration with Brain
Iron Accumulation (NBIA) at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. She has
been awarded a number of fellowships, of note those from FEBS, EMBL and
SIBioC and grants from NBIA patient associations.
Research focus
At the Helmholtz Zentrum München she conducts basic and pre-clinical research on
mitochondrial disorders, with a focus on NBIA and metabolically related disorders,
such as those resulting from PPCS and SLC25A42 deficiency. She is interested in
understanding the function of poorly characterized proteins, such as C19orf12, to
explore rational therapeutic strategies. To this aim, she uses a range of model
systems, including primary patient cells, stem cells, and genetically modified fruit
flies and mice.