About
Carmela is a Distinguished Principal Investigator and expert on stress signaling responses. While at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), she identified and characterized a small molecule that activates the translation initiation factor eIF2B and antagonizes the integrated stress response (ISR), a central and conserved signaling pathway. eIF2B activators are now in clinical studies in multiple indications with Carmela as the scientific lead since the eIF2B drug development program’s inception.
During her tenure at Calico, Carmela has built up a lab to pursue the understanding of stress signaling networks in homeostatic and pathological states. The lab uses a variety of techniques, ranging from biochemistry, cell biology, mouse genetics, and genome-scale molecular approaches to unravel the changes that take place in these networks in disease states with a particular emphasis on neurodegeneration and as we age.
Before earning her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from UCSF, Carmela also earned a M.S. in Biology from the University of Buenos Aires.