Elisabetta (Liz) Soragni is the Director of Research of the Friedreich’s Ataxia Research Alliance. Dr. Soragni completed her Ph.D. and undergraduate studies in Italy at the University of Parma. She did her post-doctoral training with Dr. Peter Geiduscheck at the University of California San Diego, on the mechanism of RNA polymerase III transcription. She then joined the laboratory of Joel Gottesfeld at the Scripps Research Institute as a Research Associate and later as a Staff Scientist. She became interested in triplet repeat diseases with particular focus on Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA). Dr. Soragni studied the mechanism of FXN gene silencing in FRDA and contributed to the development of HDAC inhibitors as potential treatment for this disease. She developed cellular models of triplet repeat diseases suitable to study disease mechanism and for drug screening. She was awarded several fellowships from NAF, FARA, Ataxia UK, Ataxia Ireland and GoFAR to study the mechanism of action of HADC inhibitors in reversing FXN gene silencing. Dr. Soragni has authored numerous research articles and served as ad-hoc reviewer for scientific journals and funding agencies. At FARA, Dr. Soragni’s role involves the identification of research priorities to fulfill the organization’s mission of developing effective treatments for FRDA, and the management of FARA’s grant program. She is also directing several high priority research projects to fill gaps in FRDA research areas not fully addressed by investigator-initiated programs.
Director of Research