Annamaria De Luca

Professor of Pharmacology

Italy

Annamaria is a pharmacologist specialized in pre-clinical in vivo and ex vivo studies of inherited and acquired neuromuscular disorders. In this general frame, she has a long lasting experience in preclinical research on pharmacological treatments for DMD and muscle channelopathies and collaborates with leading scientists in the field.

She developed multidisciplinary assays for mdx mice and largely contributed to standardization of methods used to test pathology progression and drug efficacy, especially muscle functionality and electrophysiology. She has a profound knowledge of mouse physiology and pathology as well as of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetic topics for classical and innovative approaches, and hence of the critical points that make out the quality of a study in translational research of novel therapeutics. She is actively engaged in the pre-clinical work within TREAT-NMD and started working at the harmonization of preclinical studies on mdx before TREAT-NMD was launched. She has been an active TACT reviewer since 2009 and a member of TACT Core committee since December 2015.