biology

Marta Filizola

Marta Filizola is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Marta Filizola rather than just read about it. In short: Marta Filizola is a computational biophysicist who studies membrane proteins. Filizola's research concerns drug discovery and the application of computational chemistry and theoretical chemistry to biochemical and biomedical problems.

Key takeaways

Marta Filizola belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Reproduce the core statement of Marta Filizola from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Marta Filizola is a computational biophysicist who studies membrane proteins. Filizola's research concerns drug discovery and the application of computational chemistry and theoretical chemistry to biochemical and biomedical problems. Filizola is the dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is a professor of pharmacological sciences and neuroscience, and also the Sharon and Frederick A. Klingenstein-Nathan G. Kase Professor. She is best known for her work aimed at providing mechanistic insight into the structure, dynamics, and function of G protein-coupled receptors using methods such as molecular modeling, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, enhanced molecular dynamics simulations, and rational drug design approaches. The Filizola laboratory's research has steadily been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 2005. As of 2016, Filizola is active in five research projects funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Education Born in Italy, Filizola received her bachelor's and master's degrees in chemistry from the University Federico II in Naples[link removed] (class of 1993), and earned her PhD in computational chemistry from the Second University of Naples in 1999, though conducting most of her doctoral studies at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain. She went on to pursue a postdoctorate in computational biophysics from the Molecular Research Institute in California, moving to New York City in 2001.

Career Filizola joined the Department of Physiology & Biophysics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) as an instructor in 2002. She continued in this role at Weill Medical College at Cornell University. and was promoted assistant professor in 2005. She returned to MSSM as an assistant professor in the Department of Structural and Chemical Biology, where she was later promoted associate professor (with tenure since January 2013), and then full professor in 2014. Following three years as co-director of the Structural/Chemical Biology and Molecular Design Graduate Program, and one year as co-director of the Biophysics and Systems Pharmacology Graduate Program, she was appointed dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences at MSSM in May 2016. Filizola also served as grant reviewer for the NIH and other agencies for over 10 years. Currently, she is a regular study section member of the Biophysics of Neural Systems (BPNS) study section of NIH.

Awards and honors Filizola's awards and honors include the title of European doctor in biotechnology from the European Association for Higher Education in Biotechnology in Genova, Italy (1999), a National Research Service Award from NIDA (2002), The Doctor Harold and Golden Lamport Award for Excellence in Basic Research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine (2008), and an Independent Scientist Award from NIDA (2009–present). She is also a member of the Faculty of 1000 for Pharmacology and Drug Discovery since 2013.

Research Filizola's research program is mainly focused on G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs), which are the targets for about half of all currently used drugs. Special effort in her lab has been devoted to the subfamily of opioid receptors to discover/design novel painkillers with reduced abuse liability and other adverse effects. A second important line of investigation in the Filizola lab is on beta3 integrins towards the discovery of novel therapeutics to treat renal, hematologic, neoplastic, bone, and/or fibrotic diseases. To obtain insight into the structure, dynamics, and function of GPCRs and beta3 integrins, the Filizola lab uses computational structural biology tools such as: molecular modeling, bioinformatics, cheminformatics, molecular dynamics simulations, and rational drug design approaches. Much of the work is done in close collaboration with major experimental labs with whom the lab has established longstanding synergistic ties. Dr. Filizola is the author of over 100 original papers and chapters in the areas of computational chemistry/biophysics and drug discovery, as well as the editor of 2 books: "G Protein-Coupled Receptors - Modeling and Simulation" and "G Protein-Coupled Receptors in Drug Discovery". She is also an inventor, with a number of patents to her credit.

Publications As of 2026, Filizola has been cited 10,943 times, has an h-index of 53 and an i10-index of 121. Her top four publications cited articles by rank:

Promoting transparency and reproducibility in enhanced molecular simulations. Nat Methods 16, 670–673 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-019-0506-8 PMID 31363226 Cited by 1065 González-Maeso, Javier, et al. "Identification of a Serotonin/Glutamate Receptor Complex Implicated in Psychosis." Nature, vol. 452, no. 7183, 2008, pp. 93–97, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06612 PMID 18297054 Cited by 995 Ferré, Sergi, et al. "G Protein–Coupled Receptor Oligomerization Revisited: Functional and Pharmacological Perspectives." Pharmacological Reviews, vol. 66, no. 2, 2014, pp. 413–434, https://doi.org/10.1124/pr.113.008052 PMID 24515674 Cited by 661 Guo W, Urizar E, Kralikova M, Mobarec JC, Shi L, Filizola M, Javitch JA. Dopamine D2 receptors form higher order oligomers at physiological expression levels. EMBO J. 2008 Sep 3;27(17):2293-304. doi: 10.1038/emboj.2008.153. PMID 18668123 Cited by 395

References

External links Filizola Laboratory

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Marta Filizola

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Marta Filizola claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Marta Filizola before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Marta Filizola ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Marta Filizola

In research: Marta Filizola appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Marta Filizola in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Marta Filizola is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American women, American women academics, Computational chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Marta Filizola outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Marta Filizola in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Marta Filizola means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Marta Filizola out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Marta Filizola in simple terms?

Why does Marta Filizola matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Marta Filizola?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Marta Filizola.