Marta Filizola is a computational biophysicist who studies
membrane proteins.
Filizola's research concerns
drug discovery the application of methods of
computational chemistry and
theoretical chemistry
Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry which develops theoretical generalizations that are part of the theoretical arsenal of modern chemistry: for example, the concepts of chemical bonding, chemical reaction, valence, the surface o ...
to biochemical and biomedical problems.
Filizola is the dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences at the
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. Where she is a professor of
pharmacological
Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...
sciences and
neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, developme ...
, and also the Sharon and Frederick A. Klingenstein-Nathan G. Kase, MD Professor.
She is best known for her work aimed at providing mechanistic insight into the
structure,
dynamics, and function of
G protein-coupled receptors
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), also known as seven-(pass)-transmembrane domain receptors, 7TM receptors, heptahelical receptors, serpentine receptors, and G protein-linked receptors (GPLR), form a large group of evolutionarily-related p ...
using methods such as
molecular modeling
Molecular modelling encompasses all methods, theoretical and computational, used to model or mimic the behaviour of molecules. The methods are used in the fields of computational chemistry, drug design, computational biology and materials scien ...
,
bioinformatics,
cheminformatics, enhanced
molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamic "evolution" of t ...
simulations, and rational
drug design
Drug design, often referred to as rational drug design or simply rational design, is the inventive process of finding new medications based on the knowledge of a biological target. The drug is most commonly an organic small molecule that acti ...
approaches. The Filizola laboratory's research has steadily been funded by the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH) since 2005.
As of 2016, Filizola is active in five research projects funded by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH, in turn, is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and is the prima ...
(NIMH), and the
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
Education
A native of Italy, Filizola received her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from th
University Federico II in Naples(class of 1993), and earned her PhD in computational chemistry from the
Second University of Naples
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...
in 1999, though conducting most of her doctoral studies at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. She went on to pursue a postdoctorate in computational biophysics from the Molecular Research Institute in California, moving to New York City in 2001.
Career
Filizola joined the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eig ...
(MSSM) as an instructor in 2002. She continued in this role at Weill Medical College (WMC) of
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, also in New York City, until she was promoted assistant professor in 2005. She returned to Mount Sinai as an assistant professor in the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology, where she was later promoted associate professor (with tenure since January 2013), and then full professor in 2014.
Following three years as co-director of the Structural/Chemical Biology and Molecular Design (SMD) Graduate Program, and one year as co-director of the Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology (BSP) Graduate Program, she was appointed dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences at Mount Sinai in May 2016. Dr. Filizola has also served as grant reviewer for NIH and other agencies for over 10 years. Currently, she is a regular study section member of the Biophysics of Neural Systems (BPNS) study section of NIH.
Awards and honors
Filizola's awards and honors include the title of European doctor in biotechnology from the European Association for Higher Education in Biotechnology in
Genova
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of G ...
, Italy (1999), a National Research Service Award from NIDA (2002), The Doctor Harold and Golden Lamport Award for Excellence in Basic Research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine (2008), and an Independent Scientist Award from NIDA (2009–present). She is also a member of the Faculty of 1000 for Pharmacology and Drug Discovery since 2013.
Research
Filizola's research program is mainly focused on G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), which are the targets for about half of all currently used drugs. Special effort in her lab has been devoted to the subfamily of opioid receptors to discover/design novel painkillers with reduced abuse liability and other adverse effects. A second important line of investigation in the Filizola lab is on beta3 integrins towards the discovery of novel therapeutics to treat renal, hematologic, neoplastic, bone, and/or fibrotic diseases.
To obtain rigorous mechanistic insight into the structure, dynamics, and function of GPCRs and beta3 integrins, the Filizola lab uses several computational structural biology tools, ranging from molecular modeling, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular dynamics simulations, a variety of enhanced sampling algorithms, and rational drug design approaches. Much of the work is done in close collaboration with major experimental labs with whom we have established longstanding synergistic ties.
Dr. Filizola is the author of over 100 original papers and chapters in the areas of computational chemistry/biophysics and drug discovery, as well as the editor of 2 books: "G Protein-Coupled Receptors - Modeling and Simulation" and "G Protein-Coupled Receptors in Drug Discovery". She is also an inventor, with a number of patents to her credit.
Publications (partial list)
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References
External links
Filizola Laboratory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Filizola, Marta
Living people
Place of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Women biophysicists
Italian women biologists
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai faculty
University of Naples Federico II alumni
Polytechnic University of Catalonia alumni
Italian women academics
Computational chemists
American women academics
21st-century American women