Researcher
Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department

Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale
80121 Napoli - Italia

Tel: +39 0815833373
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Link google scholar: https://scholar.google.it/citations?user=RJvR1ckAAAAJ&hl=it
ORCID: 0000-0002-3302-1698
Lab website: https://carrellalab.wordpress.com/

ERC sectors –LS1, LS5
Settori scientifico-disciplinari – BIO/11, BIO/13

Componenti:
Giovanni Di Gregorio Barletta, Post-Doctoral fellow
Gianluca Fasciolo, Post-Doctoral fellow
Giacinto De Vivo, Post-Doctoral fellow
Tosca van Gelderen, Post-Doctoral fellow
Gabriele De Falco, PhD student OU-SZN
Jessica Pisano, Research Fellow
Imma Famiglietti, Master Thesis Student (Federico II University)

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as an intriguing class of regulatory non-codingRNAs because of their powerful and well-conserved mechanism of sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene regulation. In particular, each miRNA influences hundreds or thousands of target genes, and small changes in miRNAs can alter large gene regulatory networks, conferring robustness to biological processes and thereby influencing phenotypic traits in a coordinated manner. The complexity of their activity is further increased by the IsomiRs (isoforms of miRNAs), generated by mature miRNA processing variations, alternative transcription start sites and/or miRNA editing (such as A-to-I editing). These variants of a particular miRNA, that differ from the canonical sequence in terms of length or nucleotide sequence, are functionally distinct or have different target profiles. In my working career, I focused my attention on the dissection of miRNA functions during eye development and on the design of strategies to modulate their function for biomedical applications. My main research activity in SZN is focused on the study of how miRNAs could be a major regulatory force in the evolution of regulatory networks complexity and the formation of novel regulatory circuits that influence the behavior, physiology, and morphology of organisms, generating phenotypic diversity and rapid adaptation to changing environments. In particular, my research group is now focusing the activities on the study of miRNAs role in cellular metabolic adaptation and the conservation of these functions using different cellular model.

Selected Publications

• Georgios Petrogiannakis, Irene Guadagnino, Santiago Negueruela, Martina Di Guida, Elena Marrocco, Mariateresa Pizzo, Annalaura Torella, Mariateresa Zanobio, Marianthi Karali, Diego Luis Medina, Sabrina Carrella, Sandro Banfi. “In vitro high-content screening reveals miR-429 as a protective molecule in photoreceptor degeneration”. Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acid (Accepted on 18th Dec 2024)

• Carrella S*, Di Guida M, Brillante S, Piccolo D, Ciampi L, Guadagnino I, Garcia Piqueras J, Pizzo M, Marrocco E, Molinari M, Petrogiannakis G, Barbato S, Ezhova Y, Auricchio A, Franco B, De Leonibus E, Surace EM, Indrieri A, Banfi S*. miR-181a/b downregulation: a mutation-independent therapeutic approach for inherited retinal diseases. EMBO Mol Med. 2022 Oct 4:e15941. doi: 10.15252/emmm.202215941. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36194668.*co-corresponding authors

• Ciampi L, Mantica F, López-Blanch L, Permanyer J, Rodriguez-Marín C, Zang J, Cianferoni D, Jiménez-Delgado S, Bonnal S, Miravet-Verde S, Ruprecht V, Neuhauss SCF, Banfi S, Carrella S, Serrano L, Head SA, Irimia M. Specialization of the photoreceptor transcriptome by Srrm3-dependent microexons is required for outer segment maintenance and vision. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Jul 19;119(29):e2117090119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2117090119. Epub 2022 Jul 12. PMID: 35858306; PMCID: PMC9303857

• Alessia Indrieri†, Sabrina Carrella†, Alessia Romano, Alessandra Spaziano, Elena Marrocco, Erika Fernandez-Vizarra, Sara Barbato, Mariateresa Pizzo, Yulia Ezhova, Francesca M. Golia, Ludovica Ciampi, Roberta Tammaro, Jorge Henao-Mejia, Adam Williams, Richard A. Flavell, Elvira De Leonibus, Massimo Zeviani, Enrico M. Surace, Sandro Banfi*, Brunella Franco*. “miR-181a/b downregulation exerts a protective action on Mitochondrial Disease models”. EMBO Molecular Medicine, 2019 † co-first authors;

• Sabrina Carrella, Ylenia D’Agostino, Sara Barbato, Sabina P. Huber-Reggi, Francesco Giuseppe Salierno, Anna Manfredi, Stephan C.F. Neuhauss, Sandro Banfi, Ivan Conte (2015). “miR-181a/b control the assembly of visual circuitry by regulating retinal axon specification and growth”. Dev Neurobiol 75: 1252-1267.