معرفی
Alessia Fornoni, M.D., Ph.D., FASN is a tenured Professor of Medicine and Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She serves as Director and Chair of the Peggy and Harold Katz Family Drug Discovery Center, Co-Director of the MSTP program and CTSI/KL2 program, and Assistant Dean for Research Training and Development.
Dr. Fornoni earned her M.D. from the University of Pavia (1995) and her Ph.D. in Medical Pharmacology from the same university (2000). She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Renal Cell Biology at the University of Miami (2001) and clinical training in Nephrology at Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia (1998).
Her internationally renowned research focuses on:
- Mechanisms of proteinuria in glomerular diseases
- Cholesterol and sphingolipid metabolism in podocytes
- Insulin signaling and mitochondrial dysfunction
- Translational drug discovery for Alport syndrome, FSGS, and diabetic nephropathy
This work has generated multiple patents, founded start-up companies, and advanced into human clinical trials.
Dr. Fornoni has published in JCI, NEJM, Nature Medicine, Cell Metabolism, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Communications, Diabetes, and others (H-index 52). Recent 2025 publications highlight novel lipophagy inducers, the role of SMPDL3b in Alport syndrome, renal lipid metabolism in collagenopathies, and sub-analyses of finerenone trials.
She has received numerous honors:
- Member, American Society for Clinical Investigation (2017)
- Member, Association of American Physicians (2021)
- Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (2018)
- Multiple mentorship and research awards from the University of Miami and national organizations
Dr. Fornoni has successfully mentored graduate students, nephrology fellows, and post-doctoral trainees across the globe, earning recognition as Best Graduate School Mentor of the Year (2016), Provost Scholar Award (2018), and Provost Mentorship Award (2024). Her laboratory is funded by NIH, industry, and private foundations and serves as a training ground for the next generation of physician-scientists.
