Meet the Editorial Board

Working Experience:

In 1999, Fabio Coppedè joined Prof. Lucia Migliore’s group at the Department of Human and Environmental Sciences of the University of Pisa for the preparation of his Master Degree thesis in Biological Sciences. In that period he worked on oxidative DNA damage and genetic susceptibility to Parkinson’s disease. In 2000, he was the recipient of a “Mobility Grant” from the University of Pisa and had the opportunity to conduct research as academic visitor in Prof. David Collier laboratory, at the Department of Psychiatry of the King's College London, for the completion of his Master Degree research project.

Back to Italy, he continued his research career in Prof. Lucia Migliore group working respectively as trainee (2001-2002) and Ph.D. student (2002-2005). In those years, he still carried out research on DNA damage in neurodegenerative diseases, but focused his main research activity on the contribution of folate metabolism to cancer and maternal risk of birth of a child with Down syndrome. Particularly, in 2002-2003 he had the opportunity to work as visiting researcher in Prof. Martyn T. Smith group at the School of Public Health of the University of California at Berkeley, where he collaborated to a project aimed at addressing the contribution of polymorphisms in genes of the folate metabolic pathway as risk factors for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

After the completion of his Ph.D. program, Dr. Coppedè worked as postdoctoral researcher (2005-2006) in Prof. Maria Eriksson group at the Department of Medical Nutrition of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, where he conducted research on allele-specific gene expression levels in cells of individuals affected by premature aging syndrome.

He returned to Italy in 2006 as postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Gabriele Siciliano group at the Department of Neuroscience of the University of Pisa, where he worked until 2010 mainly focusing on genetic susceptibility to neurodegenerative diseases and on genetic risk factors linked to the risk to conceive children with Down syndrome.

From 2010 to 2013, Dr. Coppedè teached at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Pisa, as a Contract Professor in Genetics and Medical Genetics. In that period he collaborated to several research projects with Prof. Lucia Migliore, including genetic association studies, biomonitoring studies of human populations, in vitro studies to evaluate the genotoxicity of environmental contaminants, and a study of correlation among genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors in colorectal cancer funded by Istituto Toscano Tumori.

In 2011, Dr. Coppedè was the recepient of a Research Grant from the Italian Ministry of Health and gained research independence as Principal Investigator of a project dealing with folate metabolism and epigenetics in Alzheimer's disease, at the Department of Laboratory Medicine of the Pisa University Hospital.

Since 2013, Dr. Coppedè is an Assistant Professor (RTD-a) in Medical Genetics at the Department of Translational Research and New Technologies of the University of Pisa, and on January 2014 he obtained the Italian habilitation as Associate Professor in Medical Genetics. He is currently involved in several research projects on genetic and epigenetic biomarkers of complex diseases. Particularly, his current research interests include:

1. Investigating the contribution of one-carbon metabolism and epigenetic factors to the risk of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune disorders and cardiovascular diseases. The group is currently addressing this topic by means of several approaches, including the analysis of plasma values of methyl donor compounds (folate, homocysteine and related B vitamins), genotyping for polymorphisms of genes involved in folate metabolism, and the analysis of the methylation status of selected genes in cell cultures, blood DNA, or cells obtained from the patient’s affected tissues. Furthermore, we are developing high-throughput methods for the analysis of DNA methylation, and we are interested in the application of artificial intelligence systems for the understanding of complex interactions among genetic, environmental and epigenetic factors in those diseases.

2. Addressing the maternal risk of having a child with Down syndrome related to folate metabolism. This topic is investigated by means of several approaches, including measurements of plasma biomarkers of one-carbon metabolism; genotyping for polymorphisms in folate metabolizing genes; analysis of chromosome damage and malsegregation events in mothers of Down syndrome individuals; application of artificial neural networks in order to understand how predictive could be all the above biomarkers to asses the risk for a young woman to give birth to a child with Down syndrome; literature meta-analysis approaches.

3. Addressing the genotoxic and epigenetic properties of nano sized materials. This topic is investigated by means of a panel of in vitro approaches to evaluate the genetic and epigenetic changes induced in cell cultures by nanoparticles and nanomaterials.

Research Products:

Dr Coppedè is author of almost 70 peer reviewed articles (indexed in PubMed, Scopus and/or ISI web of knowledge databases), 15 book chapters, 90 meeting abstracts, and several divulgative articles in Italian journals. According to Scopus (Author ID: 8972617800) he received over 1680 citations and has a current h-index = 24.