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Lab Directory

Alessandro Guidotti MD

  • Scientific Director, Psychiatric Institute
  • Distinguished Professor
Alessandro Guidotti is the Scientific Director of the Psychiatric Institute, and Professor of Psychiatry and Biochemistry at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago. Prof. Guidotti’s outstanding research record ranges from the report that benzodiazepines, allosterically acting at specific GABAa receptor sites, enhance GABA’s gating of Cl channels dating back to the 1970′s up to his recent pioneer studies on the role of reelin in human cortex and on demethylation of promoters expressed in GABAergic neurons as a potential mechanism of antipsychotic action.

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Alessandro Guidotti

James Auta PhD, PharmD, MBA

  • Associate Professor

Associate Professor at UIC. Dr. Auta has extensive experience on the behavioral, molecular and neuropharmacology of GABAergic, glutamatergic and nicotinic receptors neurotransmission; and more recently, the neuropharmacology and pathology of the cerebellum during acute and chronic alcohol exposure.

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James Auta

Graziano Pinna PhD

  • Associate Professor
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine
Graziano Pinna, PhD, main research focus is on PTSD Research and Education. He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UIC. He earned her undergraduate degree and a Laurea of Doctor at University of Cagliari (Italy). He obtained a PhD in Neuroendocrinology at the Free University of Berlin (Berlin, Germany) before being appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UIC.

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Graziano Pinna

Luca Spiro Santovito MD

  • Research Scholar
  • Department of Psychiatry
  • University of Illinois at Chicago
Dr. Santovito has obtained his MD in Medicine and Surgery with the qualification cum laude in October 2019 at the University of Milan, after his final project at the neuroimmunology and neuromuscular unit at “I.R.C.C.S Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta” with Dr. Maggi and Prof. Lauria. The aims of his project, “Natural history of skeletal muscle laminopathies: a 2-year prospective study”, were better understanding the progression of these rare diseases, provide useful outcomes in disease-modifying trials and sensitive and meaningful clinical outcomes encompassing motor functions, fatigue and patient’s quality of life.

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Luca Santovito