I was born in Rome, Italy some fifty years ago, but presently live and work in Florence, Italy. Apart from science, I love music (any kind), theatre and spend some of my free time reading novels and essays. I have a special interest in collecting old medicine books. During my holidays, I practice hiking, sailing or travelling by motorcycle. I love all these activities and nurture them as long as they do not conflict with my other passion: scientific research.

I am full Professor in the Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology in the Medical School of the University of Florence, where I graduated in Medicine and Surgery in July 1977. My thesis focused on the pharmacology of GABAA receptor-mediated electrophysiological responses in the frog spinal cord.

My research career began the following year, when I entered the specialization program in neurology. I was offered a fellowship by Professor Giancarlo Pepeu, Head of the Neuropharmacology Unit of the Department of Pharmacology, to investigate cholinergic mechanisms in the CNS. I graduated as a neurologist in 1982.

Since then I have been investigating several aspects of neurotransmission in the rat hippocampus, with neurochemical and electrophysiological techniques often in combination. For instance, in 1983 we used electrophysiological recording and quantitative mass-spectrometry to demonstrate that selective stimulation of the hippocampal stratum radiatum releases glutamate and aspartate from the Schaffer collateral commissural pathway and that the release is inhibited by activation of A1 purinergic receptors. Similarly, in 1991, we combined electrophysiological recording with in situ phosphorylation and showed that the presynaptic protein B-50 (GAP-43) was phosphorylated during long-term potentiation induced by high-frequency stimulation. In between 1980 and1990, I spent about four years in different European laboratories such as the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Mainz working with Prof. K. Loeffelholz and the Pharmacology Department of the Medical School at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, where I started my training in intracellular electrophysiology with Prof. A. Nistri.

I came back to Florence in 1990, after two years in the laboratory of Dr. Y. Ben-Ari in Paris, where I got acquainted with voltage-clamp recordings from hippocampal pyramidal cells. Since then, I focused my investigation on two major topics: i) neurophysiological characteristics and pharmacological modulation of theta burst- and high-frequency stimulation-induced long-term potentiation in hippocampal slices, ii) modulation of hippocampal neurotransmission by 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin).
Recently, we started the study of the effects of the synthetic drug 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA, street name “ecstasy”) on hippocampal neurotransmission and 5-hydroxytryptaminergic cell activity in the dorsal raphe nucleus.

Since 1996, my research has been funded with grants from the European Commission within the 4th, 5th and 6th Framework Programmes in Neuroscience.

Renato Corradetti, MD, Professor of Pharmacology, Department of Preclinical and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy

Dr. Coradetti will be at the University of Arizona October 3-17, 2004 on a collaborative research visit to work with Dr. Bruce McNaughton, Neural Systems, Memory & Aging and to interact with undergraduate students who are potential BRAVO! applicants. Be on the lookout for the date and time of his research seminar and other opportunities to interact with Dr. Corradetti.