Dr Alessandra Granata
Dr Alessandra Granata is a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, and a group leader at the Cambridge Cardiovascular Interdisciplinary Research Centre.
She is an accomplished stem cell biologist with extensive experience in disease modelling for cardiovascular and neurovascular disorders. Her research centres on using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to investigate the mechanisms underlying cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD), stroke, and vascular dementia.
Dr Granata currently leads a multidisciplinary research programme developing human in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier to study both monogenic and sporadic forms of cSVD. Her work integrates stem cell biology with microfluidics, transcriptomics, and high-throughput drug screening to identify novel therapeutic targets. She is a former Medical Research Foundation Mid-Career Fellow and a co-applicant on several major grants from organisations including Alzheimer’s Research UK, the Stroke Association, the British Heart Foundation, and the Rosetrees Trust.
Throughout her career, Dr Granata has contributed to international collaborations and published in leading journals including Nature Genetics and Stem Cell Reports. She is a regular speaker at international conferences and actively engages in public and patient outreach through groups such as the CADASIL Support Network and COL4A1/A2 patient associations.
Dr Granata earned her PhD in Biological Sciences from King’s College London and her undergraduate degree from the University of Milan. She also serves on the editorial board of BMC Cardiovascular Disorders and is a member of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. At Cambridge, she contributes to postgraduate education as a member of the Clinical Neurosciences Department Graduate Committee and through student supervision. She is also part of the Mid-Career Fellows (MCF) support network, offering peer support across the Clinical School.
At Clare Hall, Alessandra is accompanied by her husband, David White, a horticulturist with a diploma in horticulture and decades of experience. He is a member of the Horticultural Society and a passionate rowing coach for the City of Cambridge and Colleges.
Select publications
- Maha Al-Thani, Mary Goodwin-Trotman…and Alessandra Granata. A novel human iPSC model of COL4A1/A2 small vessel disease unveils a key pathogenic role of matrix metalloproteinases. Stem Cell Reports, 2023, ISSN 2213-6711. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stemcr.2023.10.014.
- Sarah McNeilly, Cameron R Thomson, Laura Gonzalez-Trueba, Yuan Yan Sin, Alessandra Granata, …and Tom Van Agtmael. Collagen IV variants cause hypertrophic remodeling and endothelium-dependent hyperpolarization in small vessel disease with intracerebral hemorrhage. 2024 eBioMedicine, Volume 107, 105315
- Sri S, Greenstein A, Granata A…and Wardlaw JM. A multi-disciplinary commentary on preclinical research to investigate vascular contributions to dementia. Cereb Circ Cogn Behav. 2023 Oct 11;5:100189. doi: 10.1016/j.cccb.2023.100189.
- Granata, A. Functional genomics in stroke: current and future applications of iPSCs and gene editing to dissect the function of risk variants. BMC Cardiovasc Disord 23, 223 (2023).
- Davaapil H, McNamara M, Granata A, Macrae RGC, Hirano M, Fitzek M, Aragon-Martin JA, Child A, Smith DM, Sinha S. A phenotypic screen of Marfan syndrome iPSC-derived vascular smooth muscle cells uncovers GSK3β as a new target. Stem Cell Reports. 2023 Feb 14;18(2):555-569.
- Granata A, Kasioulis I, Serrano F, Cooper JD, Traylor M, Sinha S and Markus HS. (2022) The HDAC9 stroke-risk variant promotes apoptosis and inflammation in a human iPSC-derived vascular model. Front. Cardiovasc. Med., 30 March 2022;
- Pokhilko A, Brezzo G, Heilig R, Lennon R, Smith C, Allan SM, Granata A…. Horsburgh K. Global proteomic analysis of extracellular matrix in mouse and human brain highlights relevance to cerebrovascular disease. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2021;41:2423–38.
- Granata A, Serrano F, Bernard WG, McNamara M, Low L, Sastry P and Sinha S. (2017) An iPSC-derived vascular model of Marfan syndrome identifies key mediators of smooth muscle cell death. Nat Genet. Jan;49 (1):97-109.
Select awards
- Medical Research Foundation Mid-Career Fellowship 2019
Competitively awarded to support independent research into mechanisms of stroke in young people. - Best Research Award, Cardiology Conference, 2023
Recognised for Research in Vascular Dementia.
Further links
https://www.cardiovascular.cam.ac.uk/directory/agranata
