Dr. Laura Anselmi received her pharmacy degree and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pavia in Italy.  During her PhD she focused on neurophysiology and pharmacology of gastrointestinal motility. After her PhD she moved to UCLA as a postdoctoral researcher where she explored the neuroinflammatory mechanisms involved in ulcerative colitis and IBS (Intestinal Bowel Syndrome).  She then moved to the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine as a junior faculty member, where she utilized and developed cutting edge optogenetic approaches in order to dissect and explore the prodromal development of Parkinson’s disease within the gut-brain axis. Currently, she is Research Faculty in the Heart and Vascular Institute at Penn State College of Medicine.  Presently, Dr. Anselmi’s research efforts have taken a new direction, centered on exploring the mechanisms driven by spinal-mediated neural pain circuits within a well-established model of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). In these studies, she has integrated whole cell patch-clamp electrophysiology of dorsal root ganglia neurons, with in vivo studies of neural mediated blood pressure regulation in pain. The overarching goal of her research is to decipher the underlying signals involved in the development of PAD.