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Faculty Profile


Bio - Monalbano, Mauro

  • Dr. Mauro Montalbano currently is Assistant Professor (N-T Track) at the Neurology Department at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. He is also a junior faculty member of the Mitchell Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases from 2022.

    Dr. Montalbano obtained his bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences in 2009, conducting embryology research under the mentorship of Dr. Di Bernando and Dr. Anello at the Italian Center of National Research, CNR, Palermo, Italy. He studied the mechanisms of action of transcriptional factor Hbox12 during the embryonal development of Paracentrotus Lividus.

    Dr. Montalbano obtained a master’s degree in Cellular and Molecular biology at the STEBICEF Laboratory of Polyclinic (University of Palermo, Italy) under the mentorship of Prof. Renza Vento, Director of Biochemistry Laboratories.

    Dr. Montalbano obtained two PhDs degrees graduating from a combined international program between University of Palermo (UNIPA, Italy) and University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB, Texas, USA) in 2016. Under the mentorships of Dr. Luca Cicalese and Dr. Cristiana Rastellini in surgery department Dr. Montalbano developed a new protocol for isolation of primary human hepatocytes from human liver cancer.

    In 2016, Dr. Montalbano joined as post-Doctoral fellow the Biomedical Engineering Laboratories of Prof. Massoud Motamedi in UTMB. Here Dr. Montalbano developed microscopy and imaging skills at the Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBME) working on an Alzheimer’s disease Project in collaboration with University of Texas of Austin.

    In 2017 Dr. Montalbano joined Prof. Rakez Kayed Lab in the Neurology department of UTMB as post-Doctoral fellow. Dr. Montalbano project is focused on investigating the potentially toxic interaction between tau and RNA-binding protein (RBPs) family Musashi and TDP-43 in AD and other neurodegenerative diseases as frontotemporal dementia (FTLD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He is interested in studying the aspects of tau interactions in AD and its toxic effects on neurons in early stages of the disease.

    In, 2021 Dr. Montalbano has been awarded with International Research Fellowship from Alzheimer’s Association for 2-years project on Musashi proteins and tau strains toxic crosstalk.

    • Bachelor’s degree in Biological Science, University of Palermo UNIPA, Italy
    • Master’s degree in molecular and Cellular Biology, UNIPA, Italy
    • PhD in Neuroscience, University of Texas Medical Branch, UTMB, USA
    • Post-Doc Training, Department of Neurology, UTMB, USA
  • Clinical
    • Biomarkers
    Research
    • RNA-Binding Proteins, RNA metabolism, Tau protein, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Brain Aging and Nuclear Dysfunction