RTDA Dipartimento di medicina Molecolare e Biotecnologie Mediche

Speranza Esposito line of research concerns the study of molecular markers and use of advanced technologies for the
analysis of genomic abnormalities in human genetic diseases. Her research focuses on the study of genetic diseases,
mainly Cystic Fibrosis to identify molecular biomarkers of responce of therapy and clarify the molecular mechanism
underlyng the action of current drugs used for Cystic Fibrosis care. She has experience in lentiviral particle production
and trasduction. She worked also on genome-editing systems, based on Crispr/Cas9 technology, with particular attention
to the efficiency and off-target aspects of this powerful technology. She used human primary cell lines derived from Cystic
Fibrosis patients to molecular studies by advanced technologies as RNAseq, qRTPCR, digital PCR and for metabolomic
studies by lipid extraction and chromatography techniques. Currently, she is Researcher at Department of Molecular
Medicine and Medical Biotechnology of University Federico II, recluted on SPOKE 3 of MNESYS project for the study
of Schizofrenia in particular to define panels of biochemical markers that can contribute to the diagnosis of schizophrenia
and better define its pathogenesis and identify biomarkers of response to therapy. For the realization of project she is
working to develop ex-vivo preclinical models(reprogrammed ihPSC cellsderived from patients with diagnosed
Schizophrenia) on which to evaluate the epigenetic, genetic (modification of gene expression and transcriptomics) and
metabolic modifications induced by drugs, to then identify a panel of biomarkers to be tested prospectively on each
individual patient before the start of therapy to predict the individual responce.