Dr. Gaia Colasante earned her Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Milan and her Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Molecular Medicine from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, conducting research under the supervision of Dr. Vania Broccoli. Her focus was on forebrain development, particularly investigating the role of the transcription factor Arx in these processes. This interest led her to the laboratory of Professor Jeffrey Golden at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she continued her research on the role of Arx in GABAergic interneuronal migration using time-lapse imaging techniques.

Upon returning to San Raffaele Hospital, she shifted her focus to cellular reprogramming. She defined a cocktail of transcription factors capable of converting fibroblasts and pluripotent stem cells into GABAergic interneurons, aiming to provide a cell source for cell replacement therapies in epilepsy. More recently, she has employed the CRISPR/dCas9 activator strategy to enhance the regulation of therapeutic genes in both genetic and non-genetic forms of epilepsy.

Dr. Colasante currently serves as a project leader at San Raffaele Hospital, where she a oversees a research team dedicated to investigate mechanisms underlying Dravet Syndrome and related neurodevelopment disorders and to the development of gene therapy for their treatment. She has recently become a member of the International League Against Epilepsy Advanced Gene Therapies Task Force and joined the scientific advisory board of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation.