Claudia Fallini received her Ph.D. from the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) in 2009, where she gained interest in the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms leading to neurodegeneration. In particular she focused her studies on the role of mRNA regulation in the maintenance and function of motor neurons. After graduating, she moved to the US to start her postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Bassell at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she continued to pursue her research interests in neurodegeneration and applied her skills to the study of the motor neuron diseases SMA and ALS.
In 2012, Dr. Fallini moved to the Landers lab at UMASS Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, to continue her research on the study of the molecular mechanisms leading to ALS, focusing on the role of the cytoskeleton in modulating neuronal degeneration. She started her independent laboratory at URI in September 2019, focusing her studies on the interplay between cytoskeletal alterations and nuclear function using cellular and animal models of ALS. These studies highlight the importance of the cytoskeleton in regulating basic cellular functions in neurons that are disrupted in disease.