Ohio State - Nationwide Children's Hospital - Research For Muscle Biology and Disease
 

 

Frederica Montanaro , Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Department of Pediatrics
Center for Gene Therapy  WA-3020
700 Children’s Drive
Columbus, OH 43210

Phone: (614) 722-2875
Fax: (614) 722-5893
Email: Federica.montanaro@nationwidechildrens.org

Education & Training:
McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada, 1991 BSc in Biology and Neuroscience
McGill University, Montreal, QC Canada, 1999 Ph.D. in Biology and Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School, 2005 Postdoctoral Fellowship

Research Interest:
 My laboratory is interested in muscle regeneration and in the development of cell-based therapies for muscular dystrophy disorders, in particular Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. On one hand, we are studying in vitro models of muscle regeneration to identify genes and pathways that are important for the activation of muscle stem cells and their participation in muscle repair. We are using a combination of gene expression arrays and RNA interference to identify and characterize genes of interest. On the other hand, we have identified stem cells from the adult skin that are able to participate in muscle repair following vascular delivery. We are now optimizing the transplantation parameters and further characterizing these cells to improve the efficiency with which they repair dystrophic muscles.

Selected Publications:

  • Montanaro F., Lindenbaum M. H., Carbonetto S. (1999) a-dystroglycan is a laminin receptor involved in extracellular matrix assembly on myotubes and muscle cell viability. J. Cell Biol. 145: 1325-1340.
  • Montanaro F.and Carbonetto S. (2000) Developmental biology of synapse formation. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. http://www.els.net/
  • Montanaro F. and Carbonetto S. (2003) Targeting dystroglycan in the brain. Neuron 37(2):193-196.
  • Montanaro F., Liadaki K., Volinski J., Flint A., Kunkel L.M. (2003) Skeletal muscle engraftment potential of adult mouse skin side population cells. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 100:9336-9341.
  • Montanaro F., Liadaki K., Schienda J., Flint A., Gussoni E., Kunkel L.M. (2004) Demystifying SP cell purification: viability, yield and phenotype are defined by isolation parameters. Exp. Cell Res. 298: 144-154.
  • Guyon J.R., Mosley A.N., Jun S.J., Montanaro F., Steffen L.S., Zhou Y., Nigro V., Zon L.I., Kunkel L.M. (2005) Delta-sarcoglycan is required for early Zebrafish muscle organization. Exp. Cell Res. 304: 105-115.
  • Liadaki K., Montanaro F. and Kunkel L.M. Cellular-mediated delivery: the intersection between regenerative medicine and genetic therapy. In “Duchenne muscular dystrophy: Advances in therapeutics”. Editors Rando T. and Chamberlain J. 2006.
  • Kaspar, R.W., Allen, H.D. and Montanaro, F. (2009). Current understanding and management for dilated cardiomyopathy in Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 21:241-249.