Prof. Melissa Marie Formosa

Prof. Melissa Marie Formosa

Prof. Melissa Marie Formosa

  B.Sc.(Hons)(M.L.S.),M.Sc.(Bio.Med.Sci.)(Ulster),Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Room 26
Block A, Level 1
Mater Dei Hospital
Msida
Dr Melissa Formosa obtained her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Malta (UM) in 2014, and holds a full-time resident academic position at the Department of Applied Biomedical Science within the Faculty of Health Sciences, UM. She is also an associate member at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Biobanking at the UM.

She leads the ‘Malta Osteoporotic Fracture Study’ consisting of more than 1000 Maltese individuals affected with osteoporosis including postmenopausal women and extended families affected with osteoporosis. The collection forms part of an international multi-study consortium known as GENOMOS investigating the genetics of osteoporosis and other musculoskeletal traits.

Her work on osteoporosis has been presented at several international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. She is currently using the zebrafish model to investigate the role of novel genetic factors in the susceptibility of familial osteoporosis with the aim of identifying possible bone targets for customised treatment.
  • Molecular genetics
  • Genomics
  • Translational research
  • Zebrafish animal model
  • Osteoporosis and musculoskeletal traits
  • Rare diseases
  • Complex diseases
  • ABS5001 - Advanced Genetics and Molecular Techniques
  • ABS5002 - Research, Data Analysis and Interpretation
  • CPH1906 - Research Tools and Study Design in Molecular Pharmacology
  • CPH2906 - Drugs used in Ophthalmology, Blood Disorders, Bone Disorders, Vitamins and the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen
  • CPH2909 - Practical Research Training
  • CPH3901 - Pharmacotoxicology, Toxicogenomics, Drugs of Abuse
  • CPH3905 - In Vitro and in Vivo Models and Translational Research in Pharmacology and Toxicology
  • CPH5401 - Fundamentals of Pharmacotoxicology: Principles, Classification and Toxicokinetics
  • CPH5402 - Mechanisms of Drug Toxicity: Molecular, Cellular and Pathological
  • MLS1001 - Introduction to Biomedical Biochemistry and Cell Biology
  • MLS2001 - Clinical Biochemistry
  • PHB1504 - Model Organisms in Biological Research
Ongoing research projects:
Malta Osteoporotic Fracture Study (Principal Investigator)
GeOM Study: Unravelling the Genetic determinants of Familial Osteoporosis in Malta (Principal Investigator)
GEMSTONE Cost Action: Genomics of MusculoSkeletal traits Translational Network (Working Group 3 Leader) - https://cost-
gemstone.eu
MetaBone: Metabolomics to identify novel biomarkers for Bone disease
TargetID: Drug Targets for Infectious Diseases (Working Group Leader)
ZeEBRA Project: https://www.um.edu.mt/r/projects/zeebra/
GRIT Study: The Genetics of Osteoporosis in Malta

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