Antonella Peruffo was born in Sandrigo (VI), on September 2nd, 1972. In 2002 she graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Padova, and obtained the PhD title at the same University in 2007. In 2002 she worked with a postgraduate grant at the Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK. From March 2003 to October 2004 she has been post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of Experimental Veterinary Science, University of Padova, Legnaro (PD), Italy, then (October 2004 to October 2005) technical research assistant in the same laboratory.In February 2006 she obtained a tenure track position as research assistant professor of veterinary anatomy at the Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Padua, where she is currently employed.
Scientific skills of Antonella Peruffo:

Cell Biology:
• Establishment and characterization of primary cell cultures from brain tissue of bovine, mouse, rat,Drosophila melanogaster.
• Establishment and characterization of stabilized cell lines from bovine fetal brain.
• Establishment of cell lines from skin samples of the marine mammals Tursiops truncates mammals

Study of the expression of the enzyme aromatase cytochrome P450 in the hypothalamus of bovine fetus in both sexes and its role in sexual differentiation during embryonic development.

Molecular biology
• rt-PCR
• Real Time rt-PCR and data analysis

Characterization of estrogen receptor ER-alpha and ER-beta, and aromatase P450 in neurons and astrocytes in primary cultures of hypothalamus and frontal cortex. Study of the role of neuroactive steroids in the regulation of profile gene expression of aromatase P450 and estrogen receptor during differentiation of in male and female bovine brain.

Immunohistochemical techniques
• Immunohistochemical analysis of neurons and astrocytes in primary culture
• Immunohistochemical characterization and distribution of estrogen receptors ER-α and ER-β and the enzyme aromatase P450 in human fetal cortex at different stages of development.
• Immunohistochemical characterization using specific markers of endothelia cell line derived from the marine mammals Tursiops truncates

Study of the trophic effects induced by the hormone estradiol on primary neuronal cultures derived from fetal bovine hypothalamus and frontal cortex.

Histological evaluation of cow-hide samples and quantitative analysis of the components of the dermis. (FSE Project).

Neuroanatomical and topographical study of the brain in terrestrial and marine Cetartiodactyla and monodactylus mammals.

• Study of the brain of the domestic Bos taurus: weight, encephalization and cerebellar quotients, and comparison with other domestic and wild Cetartiodactyla

Recently her scientific are addressed to neuroanatomy with the aim to study dimorphisms in the brain cytoarchitecture of Cetartiodactyla. Her implemented automated image analysis and novel data analytics approaches to quantify morphometric structural differences in the brain cytoarchitecture, coordinating a multidisciplinary team (statistic, anatomy and engineering).

Presently, her obtained different immortalized cell lines from terrestrial (Bos taurus) and marine mammals (Tursiops truncatus, Grampus griseus, Ziphius cavirostris). Antonella Peruffo performed the patent (Ns. rif.: P021281IT) named “System of marine mammal cells for live cell analysis, toxicological tests and throughput discovery applications”.

1.Mapping of the sexual dimorphic brain areas in the mammalian brain using automated image analysis.


2.Set-up of new multivariate testing and ranking inference to quantify brain cytoarchitecture complexity.



3.Development of in vitro method for primary cells cultures from marine mammals tissues.