Elisa Landi

Elisa works on Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), a common inherited eye disease that is a frequent cause of cornea-related blindness. Her project is a collaboration with the University Eye Clinical Maastricht and Radboud UMC (Hans van Bokhoven). In the last decade, multiple genetic and molecular studies have implicated an intronic CTG trinucleotide repeat expansion within the TCF4 gene as a causal variant in the majority of FECD patients. Since the molecular mechanisms fueling the disease are not fully understood. This project aims to develop an in vitro cell platform making use of patient-derived inducible pluripotent stem cells and the CRISP/Cas9 editing machinery to model the disease pathogenesis and test novel therapies.

When she is not in the lab, Elisa likes to travel with her backpack, join Pearl Jam concerts and spend time with family and friends. 

Research:

Targeting TCF4 triplet expansion repeat in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: Towards a cell platform for disease modelling.

Education:

MSc, Medical, Molecular, and Cellular Biotechnologies, San Raffaele University, Italy (2020)

BSc, Medical Biotechnology, University of Florence, Italy (2017)