Dr Stephanie Bezzina Wettinger, B.Sc., M.Phil., Ph.D., Lecturer in Molecular
Genetics.
Dr Stephanie Bezzina Wettinger graduated with a B.Sc. in Biology and Chemistry in
1993 and an M.Phil. in Molecular Biology and Genetics in 1998. Between 1997 and
2008 she worked with the Department of Pathology within the Maltese Department of
Health to set up and coordinate genetic diagnostic testing and related quality control
procedures at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, directed by Prof. Felice, and
performing research on the Maltese population to determine local mutations for a
number of diseases, including work on recurrent miscarriages. In 2002 she was
awarded a Marie Curie fellowship at the Laboratory of Experimental Internal
Medicine at the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam where she carried out
research on inflammatory RNA profiles in myocardial infarction with Prof. Pieter
Reitsma and Prof. Frits Rosendaal at the Leiden University Medical Center. She
continued this work for her Ph.D. which she completed in 2007.
In 2003 she obtained EU FP5 funding to join the Geoparkinson project and
successfully coordinated the Maltese arm of this project managing a team of medical
and scientific researchers. The project included the setting up of a collection for the
study of gene-environmental interactions in Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism.
She is currently coordinating a collaboration between the University of Malta and the
Department of Health to study myocardial infarction in the Maltese population, a
project for which she has been awarded funding through the National Research and
Innovation Programme 2008 coordinated by the Malta Council for Science and
Technology. Her research interests include genetics of complex diseases,
particularly inflammation, myocardial infarction as well as Parkinson’s disease, and
biobanking.
Publications:
van Minkelen R, Bezzina Wettinger S, de Visser M, Vos H, Reitsma PH, Rosendaal
FR, Bertina R and Doggen CJM. Haplotypes of the Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist
Gene, Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist mRNA Levels and the Risk of Myocardial
Infarction. Atherosclerosis, 203: 201-205, 2009.
Dick FD, De Palma G, A Ahmadi, Scott NW, Prescott GJ, Bennett J, Semple S, Dick
S, Counsell C, Mozzoni P, Haites N, Bezzina Wettinger S, Mutti A, Otelea M, Seaton
A, Söderkvist P, Felice A, on behalf of the Geoparkinson Study Group.
Environmental risk factors for Parkinson's disease and parkinsonism: the
Geoparkinson study. Occup. Environ. Med. 64: 666-672, 2007.
Dick FD, De Palma G, Ahmadi A, Osborne A, Scott NW, Prescott GJ, Bennett J,
Semple S, Dick S, Mozzoni P, Haites N, Bezzina Wettinger S, Mutti A, Otelea M,
Seaton A, Soderkvist P, and Felice A, on behalf of the Geoparkinson Study Group.
Gene-environment interactions in parkinsonism and Parkinson's disease: the
Geoparkinson study. Occup. Environ. Med., 64: 673-680, 2007.
Felice AE, Borg J, Pizzuto M, Cassar W, Galdies R, Bezzina Wettinger S, Schembri
Wismayer S, Hunter GJ, Caruana MR, Farrugia M and Scerri CA. A Review of Cis-
Trans Interplay Between DNA Sequences 5' to the (G)gamma- and beta-Globin
Genes Among Hb F-Malta-I Heterozygotes/Homozygotes and beta-Thalassemia
Homozygotes/Compound Heterozygotes, and the Effects of Hydroxyurea on the Hb
F/F-Erythrocyte; the Need for Large Multicenter Trials. Hemoglobin 31(2):279-88,
2007.
Pulis S, Scerri CA, Galdies R, Schembri Wismayer P, Galdies R, Bezzina Wettinger
S, Felice AE. Differential Effect of the XMN I site on (G)gamma Globin Among
Newborn Hb F Malta I Heterozygotes and adult beta-zero thalassaemia
Homozygotes. Hemoglobin 31 (1):71–82, 2007.
Bezzina Wettinger S and Reitsma PH. Atherosclerosis and its Acute Consequences:
Insights from Genetic Association Studies. Current Genomics
6(6), 411-430, 2005.
Bezzina Wettinger S, Doggen CJM, Spek CA, Rosendaal FR, Reitsma P. High
Throughput mRNA Profiling Highlights Associations Between Myocardial Infarction
and Aberrant Expression of Inflammatory Molecules in Blood Cells. Blood 105(5),
2000-2006, 2005.
Abela Medici J, Bezzina Wettinger S, Scerri CA, and Felice AE. Comparative
Frequency of Coagulation Factor II and Coagulation Factor V alleles among
Newborn and Senior Citizens. Malta Medical Journal, 17,1,20. 2004.
Balim Z, Kosova B, Falzon K, Bezzina Wettinger S, and Kolak Y. Budd-Chiari
Syndrome in a Patient Heterozygous for the Point Mutation C20221T of the
Prothrombin Gene. Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis 1: 852-853, 2003.
Bezzina Wettinger S, Galdies R, Scerri C, and Felice AE. Characterization and
Locus Assignment of Two Alpha KGlobin Variants Present in the Maltese Population:
Hb St Luke’s [Alpha95(G2)Pro®Arg] and Hb Setif [Alpha94(G1)Asp®Tyr].
Hemoglobin 23(2), 145-157, 1999.
Felice AE, Bezzina Wettinger S, Buhagiar S, Cassar W, Galdies R, Grech JL,
Grochowska, Marwan M, Micallef E, Pizzuto M, Pulis S, Scerri CA, AlShinawi C:
Molecular Epidemiology of Haemoglobin in Malta and the Molecular Biology of in
vivo Globin Gene Expression. Life Chemistry Reports 15,1, 27-36, 1997.
Felice AE, Balim Z, Bezzina C, Bezzina Wettinger S. Allele Frequencies of Selected
Polymorphisms Related to Thrombosis in the Maltese Population. Abstract No. 4089,
Abstracts for the 42nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology,
Blood, Volume 96, Number 11, Part 2, p94b, 2000