Research Bio
Alessandra Ferrari studies how cells traffic and sense cholesterol and other lipids, and how these processes go awry in metabolic disease. Her group combines cell biology, biochemistry, and quantitative imaging to map non?vesicular transport routes between the plasma membrane and endoplasmic reticulum, identify the proteins that mediate lipid transfer, and determine how nutritional cues regulate these pathways. By defining the molecular logic of cholesterol homeostasis, her work illuminates mechanisms that contribute to cardiometabolic disorders and suggests targets for therapeutic intervention. Ferrari’s publications have helped reveal how Aster proteins facilitate cholesterol movement and how lipid flux integrates with broader metabolic signaling.
Ferrari is an Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology. She leads a cross?disciplinary lab focused on lipid trafficking in physiology and disease. Her expertise is lipid metabolism and intracellular cholesterol transport, emphasizing how cells maintain membrane composition and metabolic balance.
cholesterol trafficking, lipid metabolism, non-vesicular transport, cell biology, metabolic disease
