Dr. Marco Martina is a Professor of Neuroscience as well as Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Trieste and obtained an MSc and Ph.D. in Biophysics at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA). His lab has three main research lines: one is cellular neurophysiology, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms of action potential generation and propagation and the role of dendrites in post-synaptic signal integration. This interest leads to a keen translational interest in pathological conditions characterized by neuronal hyperexcitability, such as epilepsy and pain, as well as in the function of GABAergic signaling. The second research line of the lab focuses on the central (brain) mechanisms mediating chronic pain, with particular emphasis on the role of the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Finally, his lab has worked for many years to clarify the role of unipolar brush cells in cerebellar function and disease.
