Paola Leone, Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

, is a leading researcher of Canavan disease

Canavan disease

Canavan disease, also called Canavan-Van Bogaert-Bertrand disease, aspartoacylase deficiency or aminoacylase 2 deficiency, is an autosomal recessive degenerative disorder that causes progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain. Canavan disease is also one of the most common degenerative...

.

Dr. Leone was born and raised in Cagliari

Cagliari

Cagliari is the capital of the island of Sardinia, a region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name Casteddu literally means castle. It has about 156,000 inhabitants, or about 480,000 including the outlying townships : Elmas, Assemini, Capoterra, Selargius, Sestu, Monserrato, Quartucciu, Quartu...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. She received her undergraduate and graduate training in Italy, followed by post-doctoral studies in Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in New Haven, CT

New Haven, Connecticut

New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...

. She holds a doctorate degree in Neuroscience from the University of Padua

University of Padua

The University of Padua is a premier Italian university located in the city of Padua, Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 as a school of law and was one of the most prominent universities in early modern Europe. It is among the earliest universities of the world and the second...

. Her work on Canavan disease started at Yale, where she collaborated with other early pioneers in gene therapy

Gene therapy

Gene therapy is the insertion, alteration, or removal of genes within an individual's cells and biological tissues to treat disease. It is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for disease development...

. She left Yale in 1998 to co-direct the (now defunct) Cell & Gene Therapy Center at Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University

Thomas Jefferson University is a private health sciences university in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States. The university consists of six constituent colleges and schools, Jefferson Medical College, Jefferson College of Graduate Studies, Jefferson School of Health...

 in Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. She now directs The Cell & Gene Therapy Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is the state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey, United States. It has eight distinct academic units...

. Current work involves the first gene therapy clinical trial for a neurological degenerative disorder.