Valeria Di Leo

Biography

I completed my undergraduate studies in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies (University of Bari – Italy), and my master’s degree in Functional Genomics with first class honours (University of Trieste – Italy).

In 2017, I was awarded an Erasmus student exchange studentship that allowed me to join Newcastle University for the first time. Here, I followed an experimental project on centronuclear myopathy at the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre. Then, I moved to the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research to undertake my PhD project under the supervision of Dr Amy Vincent, Dr Oliver Russell, Dr Helen Tuppen and Professor Gráinne Gorman to understand the effects of resistance exercise training on mitochondrial dysfunction in neuromuscular patients.

I now work as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Centre under the supervision of Dr Amy Vincent and Professor Gráinne Gorman, where I am continuing my research on the effects of resistance exercise training on mitochondrial dysfunction, aiming to identify some key signature targets for the future development of exercise mimetic drugs for the cure of mitochondrial dysfunction.

Research Focus

The effects of resistance exercise training on mitochondrial dysfunction in mitochondrial myopathy and myotonic dystrophy type 1 patients.

Mitochondrial myopathy and myotonic dystrophy type 1 are some of the most common inherited form of neuromuscular disorders presenting mitochondrial dysfunction, and for which no treatment is currently available. Resistance exercise training has been proven to induce beneficial effects in improving mitochondrial deficiency in skeletal muscle. Hence, the main aim of my research is to identify some key signature targets for future exercise-mimetic drugs development for the cure of mitochondrial dysfunction in neuromuscular disorders.

Awards

1st Prize poster at the Wellcome Trust Translational Partnership at Newcastle Conference 2022

World Muscle Society Fellowship Award 2022

Sponsor: Wellcome