Dr. Graziana Gatto
Professor University Hospital Cologne
Postdoctoral Fellow Salk Institute, San Diego
PhD Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Munich
Until she was 17, Dr. Graziana Gatto was sure she wanted to be a doctor. But within two weeks of shadowing doctors in a hospital, she knew she could never be in medicine—not because of clinical work but because she couldn’t bear bringing bad news. Pivoting instead to research, she has let her curiosity drive her ever since. Graziana’s scientific career is marked by serendipitous encounters and supportive mentors that guided her journey from studying cancer to neurodevelopment to sensorimotor neuroscience. Today, she is a Professor of Neurobiology of Motor Control at the University Hospital Cologne, where she leads the Sensorimotor Adaptation lab. Her lab combines advanced genetic tools, circuit mapping, and behavior to study how spinal circuits ensure robustness and flexibility of movements.
After her brief stint in a hospital caused her to reimagine her dream of being a medical doctor, Graziana chose instead to pursue undergraduate and master's degrees in Biotechnology for Healthcare at the University of Naples. As part of her thesis, she worked on the role of non-coding RNAs in cancer, specifically how microRNAs contribute to the oncogenic effects of Epstein-Barr virus. But one day, she sat in on a seminar by the eminent Italian neuroscientist Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini and was awestruck by her passionate lecture on neurotrophic factors for neuronal axon growth—a Nobel Prize-winning discovery. This moment was a turning point for Graziana, sparking her fascination with neuroscience. Eager to get some exposure to neuroscience, Graziana spent a summer abroad at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. There, she attended seminars in developmental neuroscience and was even offered a place in their doctoral program. However, the magic of Dr. Levi-Montalcini's lecture remained in the back of her mind. Thus, when she interviewed at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Munich with Dr. Rüdiger Klein, who studied axon guidance and neurotrophic factors, she knew that she had found the perfect place to do her PhD.
In the Klein lab, Graziana asked how axons navigate during early development to find the right synaptic targets, with a focus on peripheral sensory and motor neurons in the spinal cord. At the end of developing axons are finger-like extensions called axon growth cones, which can extend or retract upon interacting with local molecular cues and thus be steered toward the right targets. Working alongside a postdoc, she found that motor axons require cooperation between two different signaling systems to innervate the correct targets. A receptor (Eph) and its binding molecule (ephrin) repel axons from the wrong site, while a diffusible neurotrophic factor GDNF attracts them to the right termination zone. Another unexpected discovery came one day as Graziana was looking through the microscope at stained axons in embryonic spinal cord tissue from mice missing the enzyme PTPRO. She noticed an unusual branching pattern in the trigeminal ganglion, a sensory nerve innervating the face. This led to the discovery that PTPRO regulates neurotrophin signaling and prevents excessive arborization of the trigeminal axons. Along the way, Graziana learned that even seemingly straightforward scientific ideas can lead to nonlinear paths. For her, being in a supportive and friendly environment was key to thriving and persevering through the inevitable challenges.
Towards the end of her PhD, inspired by another postdoc in the lab Dr. Sonia Paixao, Graziana decided to pivot her research focus. She decided to work at the interface between sensation and action to better understand how movement is executed and adapted. At a conference on sensorimotor circuits in Cologne, Germany, she met Dr. Martyn Goulding, who offered her a postdoc position on the spot. While she was still making up her mind, she got recurring advice that she should imagine what topic she could work on for the rest of her life, as that passion would motivate her to overcome the technical challenges along the way.
Trusting her instincts, she moved across continents to the Goulding lab at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California. There, she combined intersectional genetics and circuit tracing to understand how the spinal cord routs sensory signals such as touch, itch, and pain to trigger appropriate reflexes. At the time, researchers debated whether these signals traveled along distinct, dedicated pathways (the labeled line theory) or were interpreted through patterns of combined input (the population coding theory). Graziana’s painstaking experiments with rodents provided a nuanced perspective: spinal reflex pathways were spatially segregated across different laminae, but each reflex consisted of molecularly diverse excitatory interneuron cell types that increased its robustness and flexibility. Her research showed that excitatory interneurons in superficial spinal layers mediate protective reflexes like itch and pain-related scratch or withdrawal, while deeper interneurons control corrective reflexes, such as adjusting gait after stumbling. This work, published in Neuron, provided a comprehensive topographic and cellular map of the coding logic in the spinal cord.
As her postdoc ended, Graziana was eager to start her own lab but felt uncertain of her chances in the highly competitive academic job market. To keep her options open, she applied to editorial and industry roles but quickly realized that academia’s intellectual freedom suited her best. Just as she prepared to double down on the faculty position search in 2020, however, the COVID-19 pandemic led many departments to freeze hiring. Fortunately, a colleague pointed her to a job opening at the University Hospital Cologne, where she eventually ended up starting her lab. Graziana says that learning to juggle finances, negotiations, and hiring people in the early faculty months were quite stressful and that her postdoc did not fully prepare her for these new dynamics. Among resources that helped was a management training camp organized by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) for early stage faculty, which taught her to reflect on the values she cared about most. For Graziana, these core values are curiosity, collaboration, passion, and scientific rigor.
Today, Graziana leads the Sensorimotor Adaptation Lab in University Hospital Cologne, which focuses on how we generate movements flexibly, doing “the same movement differently every time”, and how in some disorders, this flexibility is lost. Graziana is excited to discover how the spinal cord supports this flexibility and adaptation. She emphasizes that the spinal cord is not a passive conduit to the brain but instead actively filters sensory information and tailors this filtering to the ongoing action. Within her team, there are members developing machine learning tools, behavioral assays, genetic manipulations, and anatomical tracing methods. Being situated within the neurology department, Graziana also plans to work with clinical students on more translational projects, bridging rodent neuroscience with patient work.
As a mentor, Graziana believes in working with individual team members to shape project directions, accommodating their career plans, scientific interests, and methodological preferences. At the same time, she acknowledges the role of serendipity and unexpected results in determining the course of a project. For her own part, despite her own administrative responsibilities, she still finds joy in the day-to-day science, stating “[if] a student has a nice picture at the microscope, they know they should come and get me”. For her, mentoring and watching people grow as scientists has unexpectedly been the most rewarding aspect of being a PI. Much like axons finding their path using various guidance cues, Graziana’s journey was shaped by interactions with different people over the years. She hopes that her own legacy will be the people she mentors and supports, who will continue to grow and make new discoveries.
Find out more about Graziana and her lab’s research here.
Listen to Margarida’s full interview with Graziana on Jan 23, 2025 below!
