School of Medicine
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Pasqualina Colella
Senior Research Scientist, Pediatrics - Genetics
BioDr. Pasqualina Colella is a distinguished scientist with expertise in gene and cell therapy for inherited diseases. She is currently a Senior Research Scientist at Stanford University, where she pioneers innovative cell therapy approaches for neuropathic lysosomal storage diseases (LSDs). Her research investigates hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and genome editing to target untreatable diseases caused by progranulin deficiency.
Dr. Colella earned her PhD at TIGEM (Italy), where she developed therapeutic strategies for inherited blindness due to retinal photoreceptor degeneration. Her work included pioneering dual AAV-mediated large gene delivery to the retina for Usher syndrome type 1B (USH1B) and Stargardt disease (STGD).
During her postdoctoral studies at Genethon (France), Dr. Colella focused on gene therapy for Pompe disease, an LSD with neuromuscular manifestations. She addressed immune responses and efficacy limitations of preclinical in vivo AAV gene therapy through transgene engineering, including the development of highly secretable GAA and tandem promoters.
Dr. Colella’s research has been foundational for ongoing clinical trials for USH1B and Pompe disease.
With 30 published manuscripts—16 as the first author and 6 as a co-corresponding author—and 5 patents, Dr. Colella has a robust track record in the field. She is dedicated to driving innovations in gene and cell therapy for untreatable diseases and mentoring the next generation of scientists.
Dr. Colella has been awarded the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and was selected as a finalist for the ERC Starting Grant 2019.
