Fabrisia Ambrosio

Ambrosio was born and raised in Brazil before moving to Pennsylvania as a teenager when her father became a physics professor at Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. While living in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, she attended Mansfield High School. Upon graduating, Ambrosio completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Mansfield University before moving to Canada for her Master of Science at the Université Laval. She completed her graduate degree in 1998 and returned to Pennsylvania for her Master's in physical therapy from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University. ==Career==

Upon completing her PhD, Ambrosio accepted a faculty position in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt). In 2015, Ambrosio served as the senior investigator on a study that researched how arsenic and other environmental contaminants exposures may affect stem cells and their function in adulthood. Using mice, her research team found that chronic exposure to arsenic could lead to stem cell dysfunction that impairs muscle healing and regeneration. Following this, she received two National Institutes of Health awards to study the anti-ageing effect of the protein α-Klotho and dysfunctional muscle remodeling and regeneration in environmental disease. Later that year, in December 2016, Ambrosio was named the Director of Rehabilitation for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) International while maintaining her rank of associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. As the Director of Rehabilitation for UPMC International, Ambrosio was the co-recipient of the ''Aging Cell's'' Best Paper Prize for 2017 for her co-authored paper "Aging of the skeletal muscle extracellular matrix drives a stem cell fibrogenic conversion." She followed this up with the discovery that α-Klotho had the ability to repair DNA damage in the mitochondria. Based on this discovery, she became the co-principal investigator on a project to investigate the effects of a-Klotho on those with Alzheimer's disease. In the same year, Ambrosio also received the 2020 Life Sciences Award from the Carnegie Science Awards program in recognition of her scientific advances that benefit the economy, health, or societal wellbeing of the region. She was also recognized by Pittsburgh Business Times as a 2021 Women of Influence for her "pioneering research" into regenerative medicine and rehabilitation. In 2022, Ambrosio was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering for "outstanding contributions to the novel field of Regenerative Rehabilitation, integrating applied biophysics and cellular therapeutics to optimize tissue function." ==Personal life==

Outside of Pitt, Ambrosio and her mother established the Ambrosio Academy, a school that teaches English to disadvantaged children in Brazil. She also served as co-course director of a training course to recruit under-represented minorities and provide a hands-on introduction to research strategies and methods in bioengineering. ==References==