Mattia Giovenzana

Dr. Mattia Giovenzana is a young PhD student in the field of neurosciences at the University of Milano-Bicocca. He works under the mentorship of Prof. Laura Musazzi, and his research is mainly focused onMajor depressive disorder and sleep alterations. In particular, his project consists in using the standard mouse model of depression based on chronic restraint stress to evaluate sleep disturbances together with transcriptional, translational, proteomic, and structural remodeling changes in the hippocampus. The aim of the project is to unveil the impact of chronic stress on hippocampal physiology and structure. Although ambitious, this path, never attempted before, promises to make a significant step forward in understanding the effects of stress in the brain. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology in 2021, followed by a Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnologies in 2023. In april 2023, he participated to the ERASMUS Traineeship call and has been selected, receiving a fellowship to visit the lab of Prof. Per Svennigsson, at the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (SE), where he spent 6 months.Thanks to the various experiences gained during his training and the scientific interests he has developed, he is able to combine a broad knowledge of animal models, with particular attention to mice and rats, with molecular techniques up to advanced concepts of microscopy. Heis a positive and enthusiastic person, who interacts very well with other people.

PhD research project

Unveiling the interplay between chronic stress and sleep at the level of spine remodeling, transcriptional, translational, and proteomic changes in the hippocampus of mice

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common psychiatric illness in the world and a leading cause of disability [1]. MDD symptoms include significant drop in mood, reduction of interests, changes in the content of thought and alterations of cognition, as well as vegetative problems, such as sleep and appetite alterations. MDD patients frequently show REM sleep disturbances particularly in the first third of the night, with reduced REM sleep latency, increased REM sleep time and density, and decreased non-REM sleep. Despite this evidence, the role of sleep disturbances in mood and cognitive impairments associated with MDD is still largely unknown. In this context, the use of animal models could be crucial to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms. Importantly, sleep has a major impact on synaptic plasticity, normalizing synaptic strength and cellular homeostasis. Sleep was also shown to regulate neuronal structural plasticity in both cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Intriguingly, since long-term changes associated with synaptic plasticity require protein synthesis to persist over time, it has been proposed that sleep may support brain plasticity by regulating translation, particularly of specific subsets of mRNAs. Studies on stress-based animal models of depression showed that stress induces a dysregulation of sleep along with mood and cognitive disturbances, but the molecular and structural signature of these behavioral alterations is not yet known.