Simone Di Giovanni

Simone Di Giovanni, PhD

Professor, Chair

Department of Brain Sciences

Imperial College London, UK

About the Speaker:

Professor Simone Di Giovanni is a Professor of Neuroscience at Imperial College where he holds a Chair in Restorative Neuroscience and where he leads a research group that investigates mechanisms and treatment for injuries and disorders that affect the peripheral nerves and the spinal cord and for pain conditions in the nervous system. Professor Di Giovanni holds a honorary post within the NHS as a consultant in Neurology. His research and clinical work have broad implications for conditions spanning from traumatic, vascular, inflammatory, degenerative and metabolic (such as diabetes) damage to the spinal cord, spinal roots and peripheral nerves and for pain syndromes in the nervous system.

Professor Di Giovanni is also involved in developing novel neurorehabilitation strategies.

Previously, since 2006, he worked at the University of Tuebingen, Germany as a Research Group Leader, where he was also a consultant clinician in Stroke and General Neurology.

Professor Di Giovanni did his post-doctoral training in Neuroscience studying gene expression regulation after spinal cord injury at Georgetown University, Washington DC, 2001-2004 where he became research Instructor (2004-2006). He studied Medicine at La Sapienza University and did his Neurology training at Catholic University, Rome, Italy.

Selected Recent Publications:

Serger E, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Chadwick JS, Kong G, Zhou L, Crawford G, Danzi MC, Myridakis A, Brandis A, Bello AT, Müller F, Sanchez-Vassopoulos A, De Virgiliis F, Liddell P, Dumas ME, Strid J, Mani S, Dodd D, Di Giovanni S (2022) The gut metabolite indole-3 propionate promotes nerve regeneration and repair. Nature 607:585-592.

Zhou L, Kong G, Palmisano I, Cencioni MT, Danzi M, De Virgiliis F, Chadwick JS, Crawford G, Yu Z, De Winter F, Lemmon V, Bixby J, Puttagunta R, Verhaagen J, Pospori C, Lo Celso C, Strid J, Botto M, Di Giovanni S (2022) Reversible CD8 T cell-neuron cross-talk causes aging-dependent neuronal regenerative decline. Science 376:eabd5926.

De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, Amachree S, Miao J, Zhou L, Todorova R, Thompson R, Danzi MC, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Wittig I, Shah AM, Di Giovanni S (2020) Enriched conditioning expands the regenerative ability of sensory neurons after spinal cord injury via neuronal intrinsic redox signaling. Nat Commun 11:6425.

Kong G, Zhou L, Serger E, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Mclachlan E, Freiwald A, La Montanara P, Shkura K, Puttagunta R, Di Giovanni S (2020) AMPK controls the axonal regenerative ability of dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons after spinal cord injury. Nat Metab 2:918-933.

La Montanara P, Hervera A, Baltussen LL, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Kong G, Chadwick J, Gao Y, Bartus K, Majid QA, Gorgoraptis N, Wong K, Downs J, Pizzorusso T, Ultanir SK, Leonard H, Yu H, Millar DS, Istvan N, Mazarakis ND, Di Giovanni S (2020) Cyclin-dependent-like kinase 5 is required for pain signaling in human sensory neurons and mouse models. Sci Transl Med 12:eaax4846.