Alessandra Baracca is a Full Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Italy. She received Laurea cum laude in Biological Sciences from the Faculty of Mathematics, Physic and Natural Sciences, University of Bologna, in 1982, and her Ph.D. in Cellular Biology and Physiology from the University of Bologna in 1988. She was a Research fellow at the Department of Bioenergetics, Institute of Physiology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Prague (1986) and Guest researcher at the Department of Neurology, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University (2002). She is an expert in cellular bioenergetics and mitochondrial pathophysiology. The main research interests are: pathogenic mechanisms of neurological disorders associated with mtDNA mutations and/or mitochondrial dysfunctions; hypoxia and mitochondria in pathophysiology; bioenergetics and metabolism in normal and cancer cells. She is a member of the Italian Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Society (SIB) and of the Italian Group of Biomembranes and Bioenergetics (GIBB). Since 2023 she has also been a member of the Academy of Sciences of Bologna Institute.