Professor
University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti Pescara
Italy
Feliciano Protasi is Professor of Physiology at the University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara (Italy) and directs a multi-disciplinary research program mainly supported by Telethon ONLUS (Italy) and by the National Institute of Health (USA). After graduating in 1991 in Biological Sciences at the University of Perugia (Italy), Dr. Protasi moved to the USA to join the laboratory of Prof. Clara Franzini-Armstrong (1993-1997) at the Univ. of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), where he was involved in projects aiming to understand the differences between skeletal and cardiac excitation-contraction (EC) coupling, the mechanism that activates release of Ca2+ (and hence contraction) in muscle. In the second part of his experience abroad (1997-2002), Dr. Protasi joined the lab. of Prof. Paul D. Allen at the Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA) where he received training in molecular biology and Ca2+ imaging while continuing his studies in the interaction between proteins involved in EC coupling.
Dr. Protasi returned to Italy in 2002 as Associate Professor to join the newly opened institute CeSI (Center for Research of Ageing at Ud’A). He soon established his own lines of research, mainly focused in unraveling the patho-physiological mechanisms underlying ageing and myopathies caused by alterations in Ca2+ handling in striated muscles.