BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:icalendar-ruby
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
X-WR-CALNAME:BME 7900 Seminar / Cornell Initiative for Menopause Health Eng
 ineering Seminar: Roberta Marongiu (Weill Cornell Medicine)
X-WR-TIMEZONE:Eastern Time (US & Canada)
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260512T064415Z
UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_52250237611046
DTSTART:20260313T185500Z
DTEND:20260313T201000Z
DESCRIPTION:Rethinking Neurodegeneration Through the Lens of Endocrine Tran
 sition\n\nNeurodegenerative diseases\, including Parkinson’s and Alzheim
 er’s disease\, exhibit striking sex differences in prevalence\, risk\, a
 nd progression. Yet the endocrine transitions that may shape this vulnerab
 ility remain largely under-modeled in experimental systems. In this talk\,
  I will present a framework positioning menopause as a neuroendocrine tran
 sition state that remodels circuit stability\, inflammatory tone\, and bra
 in–body communication. Using a mechanistic model of accelerated ovarian 
 failure\, we investigate how dynamic hormonal fluctuations alter neuronal 
 vulnerability and neuroimmune dynamics. I will present unpublished finding
 s from our laboratory suggesting that endocrine instability - rather than 
 chronological aging alone - acts as a systems-level modifier of disease tr
 ajectory. By integrating circuit neuroscience\, gene therapy\, and sex-inf
 ormed modeling\, this work advances a biologically grounded framework for 
 studying and targeting neurodegenerative vulnerability.\n \n\nBio: Roberta
  Marongiu is an assistant professor of genetics and neuroscience at Weill 
 Cornell Medicine. Her research focuses on how biological sex and menopause
  shape brain vulnerability in aging and neurodegenerative disease. \n\nMar
 ongiu earned her Ph.D. in medical genetics and neuroscience at Sapienza Un
 iversity of Rome\, training with Enza Maria Valente during the discovery o
 f the Parkinson’s disease-associated gene PINK1\, contributing to the es
 tablishment of mitochondrial dysfunction as a central mechanism in Parkins
 on’s pathogenesis. She completed her postdoctoral training at Weill Corn
 ell Medicine with Michael Kaplitt\, where she developed AAV-based gene the
 rapy strategies targeting Parkinson’s motor and non-motor symptoms.\n\nH
 er laboratory now integrates AAV-mediated gene therapy\, circuit-level neu
 roscience\, and innovative models of menopause to investigate how endocrin
 e transitions remodel dopaminergic\, hippocampal\, and gut–brain circuit
 s in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Bridging mechanistic experim
 entation with computational approaches\, her group leverages large-scale e
 lectronic health records\, patient-derived datasets\, and machine learning
  frameworks to model disease trajectories\, define sex-specific risk archi
 tecture\, and identify therapeutic targets and drug repurposing opportunit
 ies. Her work is supported by the NIH and major foundations\, and she serv
 es in international leadership and editorial roles\, and patient’s organ
 izations advancing sex-informed precision medicine in neurodegeneration.
GEO:42.446873;-76.477196
LOCATION:Weill Hall\, 226
SUMMARY:BME 7900 Seminar / Cornell Initiative for Menopause Health Engineer
 ing Seminar: Roberta Marongiu (Weill Cornell Medicine)
URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.cornell.edu/event/bme-7900-seminar
CATEGORIES:Seminar
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR