Francesca Sciandra received a degree in Biology at the University of Rome Sapienza in 2000. She studied the functional and structural properties of b-dystroglycan, a transmembrane protein important for the stability of skeletal muscle sarcolemma. She obtained a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2004, working on the analysis of the interaction between the dystroglycan subunits. As a Ph.D. student, she joined the Prof. Markus Ruegg Group at the Biozentrum of Basel University, and she was involved in the characterization of dystroglycan in dy mice and dy/mag-tg transgenic mice, as well as the analysis of the role of dystroglycan in the maturation of the agrin-induced post-synaptic NMJ elements. Since 2011, she has been a researcher of the Italian National Research Council, and she is continuing her work on the biochemical characterization of extracellular matrix proteins involved in muscular dystrophy and in muscle inflammation.