Coccetti Paola, PhD
Associate Professor of Biochemistry
room 5013, building U3, tel.: +39 02 6448 3521
lab 5011, building U3, tel. +39 02 6448 3513
PubMed, ReserachGate, Scopus, ORCID, Google Scholar, LinkedIn
Group leader - Laboratorio di Biochimica Cellulare e Biosegnalazione
Area di ricerca: Scienze Biomolecolari
Keywords
Budding yeast, metabolism, cell cycle, aging, signaling, nutrients, functional food, neurodegeneration, protein aggregation, systems biology
Background
The research activity focuses on elucidating the molecular mechanisms that regulate signal transduction, cell growth and cell cycle regulation, with particular emphasis on energy metabolism and its dysfunctions associated with human diseases.
Research interest
Metabolic Alterations in Alzheimer’s Disease: serine metabolism, strongly affected in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), are studied in hiPSC-derived astrocytes and post-mortem hippocampal samples from AD to develop robust cellular models for studying neurodegenerative diseases.
Bioactive Compounds against Neurodegeneneration and Lipid Dysmetabolism: bioactive compounds from plant extracts (https://www.nbfc.it/) along with their cellular and molecular mechanisms against aging, protein aggregation associated with neurodegeneration, and dysregulation of lipid metabolism are under study.
Metabolic Regulation of AMPK: using high-resolution live-cell imaging and quantitative single-cell analysis, we are studying how feedback mechanisms and cell cycle context converge to fine-tune cellular responses to metabolic stress.
Research projects
2026-2029: HORIZON-MSCA-2024-DN-01, research title: “Understanding and Postponing Yeast Death to Improve Production (UPsYDE, proposal number 1011227210)”, PI of Milano-Bicocca Research Unit: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101227210.
2022-2025: “Identification of bioactive molecules extracted from plants with anti-aging, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties”, funded by the European Union—NextGenerationEU; Award Number: Project code CN_00000033, Concession Decree No. 1034 of 17 June 2022. Adopted by the Italian Ministry of University and Research, CUP, H43C22000530001, Spoke 6, Project title “National Biodiversity Future Center—NBFC”, Biodiversity and human wellbeing, CUP: H43C22000530001, 2022-NAZ-0450/COCCETTI.
2022-2025: “ON Foods - Research and innovation network on food and nutrition Sustainability, Safety and Security – Working ON Foods”, - Research and Innovation Network on Food and Nutrition Sustainability, Safety and Security", Spoke 6– NextGenerationEU), CUP: H43C22000820001, 2022-NAZ-0456/COCCETTI.
2019-2023: PRIN 2017 (2017H4J3AS_004, Settore ERC LS1, Coordinator: Prof. Loredano Pollegioni), title of the project: “Dissecting serin metabolism in the brain”, CUP:H45J19000470006, PI of Milano-Bicocca Research Unit: COCCETTI.
Selected publications
-Coccetti P* et al. Acteoside exerts neuroprotective effects by preventing α-synuclein aggregation and oxidative stress in models of Parkinson’s disease. Neurotherapeutics. 2025 Dec 22:e00825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurot.2025.e00825
-Tripodi F, Lambiase A, Moukham H, Spandri G, Brioschi M, Falletta E, D’Urzo A, Vai M, Abbiati F, Pagliari S, Salvo A, Spano M, Campone L, Labra M, Coccetti P*. Targeting protein aggregation using a cocoa-bean shell extract to reduce α-synuclein toxicity in models of Parkinson’s disease. Current Research in Food Science 2024, 9, 100888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crfs.2024.100888. *Corresponding author
-Maffioli E, Murtas G, Rabattoni V, Badone B, Tripodi F, Iannuzzi F, Licastro D, Nonnis S, Rinaldi AM, Motta Z, Sacchi S, Canu N, Tedeschi G, Coccetti P*, Pollegioni, L (2022). Insulin and serine metabolism as sex-specific hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in the human hippocampus. Cell Rep. 2022 40(10):111271. Doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111271. *Co-corresponding author with Pollegioni L. e Tedeschi G.
*Corresponding author.
Coccetti’s Lab – #CoccettiLab_BtBs
last update January 2026