Maria Rosaria obtained her PhD in Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology at the University of Federico II of Naples, in which she studied the pathogenic mechanism of an unknown mutation of the domain C4 of cardiac myosin-binding protein C (cMyBPC). In 2019 she graduated from the Specialization School in Clinical Pathology and Clinical Biochemistry (equivalent to Spanish BIR). Also in 2019, she joined the group of Molecular Mechanics of the Cardiovascular System as a postdoctoral scientist to further exploit the synergies started during her time as a PhD student. Specifically, she investigated novel molecular and nanomechanical phenotypes of cMyBPC missense Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) variants.
Taking advantage of her expertise in cell biology, she is currently working on the development of novel tools to study pathomechanisms of mutations in titin that cause dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) (funded by a Myoseeds grant), and how mechanical alterations of titin in living cells can be related to sarcomere malfunction and cardiomyopathies (ERC Consolidator Grant ProtMechanics-Live).
