Postdoctoral Spotlight: Luca Franchini, PhD

Luca Franchini, PhD

Luca Franchini, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow in the Orlandi Lab at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Franchini received his degree in Pharmacy from the University of Bologna, in Italy, and completed his PhD in Pharmacological, Experimental and Clinical Sciences at the University of Milan, where he studied molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity associated with NMDA receptors in the hippocampus.

“I have always been interested in science since I was a kid. I remember one day my parents gifted me a microscope and I really enjoyed taking a closer look at what surrounds us,” Franchini said. “During my Pharmacy studies, I really enjoyed chemistry and pharmacology, and I decided to take advantage of my thesis project to move abroad and challenge myself with a lab experience in a different culture and language.” He developed the thesis for his Pharmacy degree at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. It explored the role of oxysterols in cognitive resilience to aging.

Today, Franchini works in the lab of Cesare Orlandi, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology and Physiology, where he investigates ligands and signaling mechanisms of orphan G-protein coupled receptors expressed in the brain.

Recently, he spearheaded research that aims to advance large-scale drug screenings. Working with Orlandi, Associate Professor John Lueck, PhD, and fellow postdoctoral fellow Joe Porter, PhD, the team developed GzESTY, a new method to better understand the largest group of cell surface receptors, GPCRs, which currently account for a third of existing drug targets. Many of these receptors are not fully understood, especially those with unknown natural activators. This research, published in Nature Communications, used the GzESTY tool to detect the presence of activators for two orphan receptors in the mouse brain. Researchers used a Keyence microscope to verify receptor expression and their plasma membrane localization in this research. A Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience pilot grant helped the Orlandi Lab acquire this tool in 2021.

“The opportunity to be a part of the Orlandi Lab at the University of Rochester is why I moved to the United States,” said Franchini. “It matched my pharmacology background, and we shared the same interest in providing novel pharmacological targets and pathways for future therapeutic strategies.”

Originally published in NEUROSCIENCE Volume 26.