Giada Frenzilli

Giada Frenzilli was born in Pisa in 1968. She is Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa. She got a degree in Biological Science at Pisa University in the academic year 1991-1992 (110 summa cum laude), and a PhD in Genetics at Ferrara University in 1997, spending part of her doctorate research at the Integrated Laboratory System (NC, USA) pioneering the use of Comet assay in human and environmental monitoring. She got fellowships and contracts from 1997 to 1999 and a Post-Doc fellowship from 1999 to 2002 at Pisa University. Assistant Professor since 2002, she got an award by the Environmental Mutagenesis Society as “best researcher of the year” in 2004 in the environmental mutagenesis field. Giada Frenzilli has more than twenty-five years of experience as a genetic toxicologist with special emphasis on cytogenetic mechanisms, study design and data analysis. She has used a multi-biomarker approach to study the cellular impact of physical and chemical environmental pollutants, like ionizing radiation, loud noise, heavy metals, organic compounds and drugs of abuse in animal models, human populations and sentinel species. Another field of interest concerns the study of cellular mechanisms underlying the onset of different diseases. At present, one of her main interest is “nano-eco-genotoxicology”, aimed to study the cytotoxic and genotoxic effects of nanomaterials by in vitro and in vivo approaches. She has been carried out research projects, on amorphous silica particles on murine alveolar macrophages (RAW 264.7) and human epithelial lung (A549) cell lines, selected as representative of occupational and environmental exposure (PRIN 2007 –National Program on the” mechanisms responsible for cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of silica NANOPARTICLES and NANOMETRIC fibrous silicates having strictly controlled size, structure and composition” (2007498XRF), Unit Coordinator) and on the evaluation of genotoxic potential of nanosized titanium dioxide, which is one of the most widely used nanomaterial in a range of products/processes including cosmetics, sun screens, paints, pharmaceuticals, building materials, paper industry and waste water treatment in different cell lines (PRIN 2009- National Program on the “Marine ecotoxicology of MANUFACTURED NANOMATERIALS. Biological effects and bioaccumulation of combined exposure to nano-TiO2, metals and dioxin on edible species”). The role of nanomaterials in environmental remediation has been studied in two projects based on European funds, i.e. POR CRO FSE 2007-2013, Use of carbon based-nanoparticles to remediate metal and organic polluted environments. Biological response evaluation in sentinel species”, Principal Investigator and POR-FESR 2014 – 2020- “Nanomaterials for the remediation of environmental matrices associated with dewatering (NanoBonD)”, Unit Coordinator. Invited speaker and chair-person at national and international workshops and conferences since 1993 to date, she followed her inclination for multidisciplinarity dedicating many efforts to attract scientists with different expertises, setting up international collaborations. The quality of Giada Frenzilli scientific activity is supported by 77 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books (H-index= 35), many invited lectures, hundreds of abstracts and participations in conferences. Tutors of many degree and PhD students, she has been teaching at the International Summer School “From genes to cells: a basic course of molecular, cellular, and ultrastructural biology” since 2013 to date and currently reviews scientific papers for Mutagenesis, Mutation Research (“Top reviewer” in 2010), Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis, Aquatic Toxicology, Biomarkers, Chemosphere, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Marine Environmental Research, Environmental Pollution, Water Research, PlosOne, Food and Chemical Toxicology, Nanotoxicology.