Dr. Monica G. Ferrini holds an MS in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Physiology from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. As a pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellow, she worked on the interaction between estrogen and glucocorticoid receptors in the brain, as it relates to sexual dimorphism, aging, and its stress response. During this time, she focused on the role of the glucocorticoid receptor in aging within the central nervous system and found that estradiol has a potent effect on the aged male brain in response to stress through the regulation of the glucocorticoid receptors. This was the first indication that the decreased levels of reproductive hormones modulated neuronal cytotoxicity and the impaired response to stress that occurs with aging.
In February 1999, Dr. Ferrini joined the Division of Urology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and LaBiomed as a visiting scholar to work on the role of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in the central nervous system and the lower urinary tract in aging. She found that iNOS is a key factor in two opposing pathological processes, namely neurotoxicity in critical related regions of the hypothalamus during senescence, and as a defense mechanism against aging or injury-associated fibrosis in the lower urinary tract.
Due to these findings, she directed her research on studying the role of iNOS on fibrosis and oxidative stress in the lower urinary tract in different conditions such as Peyronie’s disease, diabetes, and aging. By counteracting fibrosis and oxidative stress, the nitric oxide derived by iNOS would improve smooth muscle compliance thus enhancing erectile function.
In January of 2008, Dr. Ferrini joined Charles R. Drew University (CDU) as an Assistant Professor. She focused her research on the effect of PDE5 inhibitors in counteracting corporal fibrosis associated with neuropraxia or nerve damage as a consequence of radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer.
Currently, she is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Health and Life Sciences at CDU. She is the director of the BS in Biomedical Sciences and the MS in Biomedical Sciences at CDU.
Recently, her laboratory is geared towards performing translational research where they examine the efficacy of nutraceuticals that modulates the production of nitric oxide in the prevention of osteoporosis.
With more than 90 papers in peer review journals in the field of neurobiology and urology, Dr. Monica Ferrini gives her expertise to the scientific community as she has been passionate about providing effective teaching, mentoring, and research training to a large number of undergraduate and graduate students.