Sandro Goruppi, Ph.D.

Sandro Goruppi is a Research Associate at MCRI. After receiving his PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Trieste, Italy, he worked as a postdoctoral Fellow at ICGEB (International Center for Genetic Engeneering and Biotechnologies) and at LNCIB (National Laboratory Consortium Inter University for Biotechnologies) in Trieste, Italy. During this period he contributed to the identification of a novel growth factor, Gas6, and in the characterization of its biological activities, which are mediated by receptors of Axl tyrosine kinase family. In 1999 Dr. Goruppi was appointed as postdoctoral fellow in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Dr. John Kyriakis' laboratory.

Dr. Goruppi's ongoing work focuses on the identification and characterization of genes required for the propagation of diabetic nephropathy. Diabetic nephropathy is manifested by an excess of extracellular matrix deposition and hypertrophy of a specific smooth muscle-like cell type in the glomerulus, the mesangial cell. In addition to glucose, vasoactive peptides, such as endothelin and angiotensin, are elevated in diabetic kidney and can trigger mesangial cell hypertrophy. The current focus of Dr. Goruppi's work is the characterization of a novel gene, p8, that was isolated in a microarray-based transcriptional profiling and that was demonstrated to be a key regulator of Endothelin-induced hypertrophic response in mesangial cells.