Biography
- Rolando Meloni obtained the medical doctor degree at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and the habilitation to direct research (HDR) at the Pierre et Marie Curie University in Paris. Following his interest in neuropsychiatric research, he spent 5 years, initially as post-doc and then as research assistant professor, in the Department of Pharmacology at the Georgetown University Medical School (Washington DC, USA) investigating the therapeutic effects of intra-cerebral grafts of dopaminergic cells in animal models of Parkinson’s disease.
- Then, after training in molecular genetics at the Centre d’Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (Paris, France) and at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (London, UK), he joined the Laboratoire de Génétique de la Neurotransmission at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, where he developed genetic and molecular studies for the identification and the functional validation of risk genes for neuropsychiatric diseases.
- Presently, as Principal Investigator in the Department of Biotechnology and Biotherapy at the ICM, he implemented brain lentiviral-mediated gene transfer in animal models for the behavioral, cellular and molecular characterization of novel therapeutic targets for Parkinson’s disease.
Publications
- Meloni, R. and K. Gale (1990). "Pharmacological evidence for feedback regulation of dopamine metabolism in solid fetal substantia nigra transplants." J Pharmacol Exp Ther 253(3): 1259-1264.
- Meloni, R., M. Leboyer, F. Bellivier, B. Barbe, D. Samolyk, J. F. Allilaire and J. Mallet (1995). "Association of manic-depressive illness with tyrosine hydroxylase microsatellite marker." The Lancet 345(8954): 932-932.
- Meloni, R., V. Albanese, P. Ravassard, F. Treilhou and J. Mallet (1998). "A tetranucleotide polymorphic microsatellite, located in the first intron of the tyrosine hydroxylase gene, acts as a transcription regulatory element in vitro." Hum Mol Genet 7(3): 423-428.
- Albanese, V., N. Faucon Biguet, H. Kiefer, E. Bayard, J. Mallet and R. Meloni (2001). "Quantitative effects on gene silencing by allelic variation at a tetranucleotide microsatellite." Hum Mol Genet 10(17): 1785-1792.
- Arányi, T., B. A. Faucheux, O. Khalfallah, G. Vodjdani, N. Faucon Biguet, J. Mallet and R. Meloni (2005). "The tissue-specific methylation of the human Tyrosine Hydroxylase gene reveals new regulatory elements in the first exon." Journal of Neurochemistry 94(1): 129-139.
- Khalfallah, O., N. Faucon Biguet, J. Nardelli, R. Meloni and J. Mallet (2008). "Expression of the transcription factor Zfp191 during embryonic development in the mouse." Gene Expr Patterns 8(3): 148-154.
- Del Zompo, M., G. Severino, R. Ardau, C. Chillotti, M. Piccardi, C. Dib, G. Muzard, S. Soubigou, M. Derock, R. Fournel, Y. Vaubien, S. Roche, L. Bowen-Squires, E. Génin, E. Cousin, J.-F. Deleuze, N. Faucon Biguet, J. Mallet and R. Meloni (2010). "Genome-scan for bipolar disorder with sib-pair families in the Sardinian population: A new susceptibility locus on chromosome 1p22–p21?" American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics 153B(6): 1200-1208.
- Meloni, R., J. Mallet and N. Faucon Biguet (2011) "Brain Gene Transfer and Brain Implants." Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology 4 DOI: 10.2202/1941-6008.1141.
- Del Zompo, M., J. F. Deleuze, C. Chillotti, E. Cousin, D. Niehaus, R. P. Ebstein, R. Ardau, S. Mace, L. Warnich, M. Mujahed, G. Severino, C. Dib, E. Jordaan, I. Murad, S. Soubigou, L. Koen, I. Bannoura, C. Rocher, C. Laurent, M. Derock, N. Faucon Biguet, J. Mallet and R. Meloni (2014). "Association study in three different populations between the GPR88 gene and major psychoses." Mol Genet Genomic Med 2(2): 152-159.
- Ingallinesi, M., L. Le Bouil, N. Faucon Biguet, A. Do Thi, C. Mannoury la Cour, M. J. Millan, P. Ravassard, J. Mallet and R. Meloni (2015). "Local inactivation of Gpr88 in the nucleus accumbens attenuates behavioral deficits elicited by the neonatal administration of phencyclidine in rats." Mol Psychiatry 20(8): 951-958.