About
31
Publications
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249
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
November 2014 - present
Position
- Fellow
Description
- I am involved in a project to understand and study, in a cellular model, the very early biological processes altered in Alzheimer’s disease.
May 2012 - September 2014
GEMES srl
Position
- Responsabile Reparto Ricerca
Description
- I was involved in two European research projects.in which I had to clone different antimicrobial and antiinflammatory molecules to functionalize orthopedic devices
January 2007 - April 2010
Position
- PhD Student
Description
- During my PhD I investigated the antiproliferative role of chromatin modifiers, like TSA or NaB, in association with traditional chemotherapic drugs, like Doxorubicin or cis-platin, in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines HA22T and HepG2.
Education
January 2011 - June 2012
Field of study
- Bioinformatic and Biotechnologies applied to genetic diseases
January 2007 - April 2010
September 1999 - July 2004
Publications
Publications (31)
To date, drug pollution in aquatic systems is an urgent issue, and Danio rerio is a model organism to study the toxicological effects of environmental pollutants. The scientific literature has analyzed the effect of human drug pollution on the biochemical responses in the tissues of D. rerio adults. However, the information is still scarce and conf...
The knowledge on echinoderm coelomocytes has increased in recent years, but researchers still face a complex problem: how to obtain purified cells. Even flow cytometry being useful to address coelomocytes in suspension, the need for a method able to provide isolated cells is still noteworthy. Here, we use Imaging Flow Cytometry (IFC) to characteriz...
The present work was designed to identify and characterize novel antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from Charybdis pancration (Steinh.) Speta, previously named Urginea maritima, is a Mediterranean plant, well-known for its biological properties in traditional medicine. Polypeptide-enriched extracts from different parts of the plant (roots, leaves and bu...
Background and aims
Fish by-products are generally used to produce fishmeal or fertilizers, with fish oil as a by-product. Despite their importance, fish wastes are still poorly explored and characterized and more studies are needed to reveal their potentiality. The goal of the present study was to qualitatively characterize and investigate the ant...
Echinoderms are a phylum of deuterostomic invertebrates that play a key role in maintaining the biodiversity of marine ecosystems. They represent a good study model for immunity because their coelomic fluid contains different types of cells involved in the inflammatory response: the coelomocytes. In the case of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus,...
Background
The immune system of echinoderm sea urchins is characterised by a high degree of complexity that is not completely understood. The Mediterranean sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus coelomocytes mediate immune responses through phagocytosis, encapsulation of non-self particles, and production of diffusible factors including antimicrobial mol...
The immune system of the sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus is highly complex and, as yet, poorly understood. P. lividus coelomocytes mediate immune response through phagocytosis and encapsulation of non-self particles, in addition to the production of antimicrobial molecules. Despite this understanding, details of exactly how these processes...
With the aim to obtain new antimicrobials against important pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, we focused on antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from Echinoderms. An example of such peptides is Paracentrin 1 (SP1), a chemically synthesised peptide fragment of a sea urchin thymosin. In the present paper, we report on the b...
Anthropogenic noise is considered one of most widespread pollutant in marine environment. The noise produced by anthropogenic activities is increasing at global scale due to commercial shipping, seismic surveys, sonar, recreational traffic and mineral extraction activities from ocean depths (Deep Sea Mining-DSM). These noises is known to have an im...
The immune system of marine invertebrates, in particular that of holothurians, still requires further study. Our research showed that coelomocyte cells contained in the coelomic fluid of the sea cucumber, Holothuria tubulosa, are able to lyse, in vitro, red blood cells in rabbits and sheep.
A plaque-forming assay showed spherule cells to be the eff...
Medicinal mushrooms represent an unlimited source of polysaccharides with nutritional, antitumoral, antibacterial, and immune-stimulating properties. Traditional studies of epigeous higher Basidiomycetes have recently been joined by studies of hypogeous fungi and, in particular, of so-called desert truffles. With the aim to obtain novel agents agai...
Proteomic changes have been described in many neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the early events in the onset of the pathology are yet to be fully elucidated. A cell model system in which LAN5 neuroblastoma cells were incubated for a short time with a recombinant form of Aβ42 (rAβ42) was utilized. Proteins extr...
Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of different anesthetic drug combinations on the Caspian Pond turtles (Mauremys caspica).
Subjects and Methods: Three groups of the Caspian Pond turtles (n = 6) were anesthetized with three different drug combinations. Initially, a pilot study was conducted to determine the best dru...
Sea urchin innate immune response involves important proteins such as membrane receptors, which trigger different intracellular signaling pathway, and inflammatory factors. Previously we reported the cloning and characterization of the TLR, belonging to the family of Toll like receptors, from the coelomocites of sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. He...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and the AD patients gradually lose cognitive function, control over their sense of orientation, their emotions, and other aspects of behaviour. Pathohistologically, AD is characterised by the presence of extracellular deposits of beta amyloid protein (Aβ) in diffuse and neuritic plaques a...
Implant-associated infections are one of the most serious complications in orthopaedic surgery. The increased use of orthopaedic devices, whose surfaces are an ideal substrate for the bacterial growth, has substantially increased the cases of infected implants. Therefore, the cost for the treatment of such infection is tremendous and it is estimate...
While a variety of Gram-positive and negative bacteria as well as fungi have been involved as causative organisms in foreign body-related infections (FBRIs), staphylococci, particularly
Staphylococcus epidermidis and other coagulase negative staphylococci (CoNS) account for the majority of infections, both of temporarily inserted and of permanently...
The mRNA and protein levels of RKIP are reduced and those of YY1 increased in clinical HCC. Loss, mutation, or promoter hypermethylation of the RKIP gene may not account for the downregulation of RKIP in HCC. Histone deacetylation can silence gene expression and play a significant role in hepatocarcinogenesis. The histone deacetylase inhibitor (HDA...
We focus on to the role of the transcription factors NF-κB and Yin Yang 1 (YY1) and of Raf-1 kinase inhibitory protein (RKIP) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). YY1, whose expression is enhanced by NF-κB, favors tumorigenesis. RKIP inhibits the oncogenic activities of MAPK and NF-κB pathways and promotes drug-induced apoptosis. Mutual influences be...
We examine the possible evidence that the phytochemical curcumin may overcome resistance to hormonal and cytotoxic agents in breast cancer. We present our observations on MCF-7R, a multidrug-resistant (MDR) variant of the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. In contrast to MCF-7, MCF-7R lacks aromatase and estrogen receptor alpha (ERalpha) and overexpres...
Projects
Projects (2)
Italia-Malta Interreg program
The Bythos Living Lab's primary aim is to increase investment in research and innovation in biotechnologies for human health and blue growth.
The Bythos living lab, financed with 2,600,000 euros, will create links and synergies between enterprise and research in order to promote investment and stimulate demand in the development of commercially exploitable biotechnology products applied to the domain of human health. It endeavours to bring the results of research in the biotechnologies sector to the market.
A living lab is an instrument to sustain a dynamic, efficient, innovation process. It aims to "accomplish the quadruple helix by harmonizing the innovation process between four main stakeholders: companies, users, public bodies and researchers ". The Bythos Living Lab is an 'open' space set up in both Sicily and Malta where researchers and experts in blue biotechnology, business experts and experts from the fishing and waste industries come together with SMEs operating within the fisheries sector (fishers, fish-farming enterprises, fish processing enterprises, fisher cooperatives, fish waste removal services, food services), the pharmaceutical/cosmetics industries and the organic waste management sector and for the co-creation, experimentation and exploration of new opportunities tailor-made for the economies of the two islands. It is the concept of user-driven biotechnology systems in a real-world context: 'cross-fertilization' of skills between stakeholders.
The Bythos living lab domain will focus on biotechnologies for the extraction of bioactive molecules (BAMs) to be applied human health and the pharmaceutical/cosmetics industry. There will also be a focus on the production of animal feed (primarily fish feed) from the fish waste following the BAMs extraction in order to achieve zero waste.
The lab will comprise a biotechnology space for i) the pre-treatment of fish waste before being sent to the partner labs for product definition, ii) the development of prototype procedures and basic training for enterprises; and a business space for i) the development of tailor-made business plans and modelling for the commercial exploitation of the health products; ii) production opportunity transfer to the enterprises; iii) B2B meetings between enterprises, the pharmaceutical/cosmetics industry and the fish farming sector; iv) information days, training and streaming between Sicily and Malta for the exchange of skills etc. Living lab participants can learn biotechnology procedures for BAMs extraction with antibacterial/antimicrobial action (including collagen) from fish waste - an extremely high value added product - and fish food production methods for zero waste.
General objective:
Promote integration between research and the business sector so that results from research in the field of biotechnology for human health are taken forward to the market, thereby contributing to generating jobs and business opportunities, and increase investment in research and innovation in the economies of Sicily and Malta.
Promote sustainable management of resources and 'cleaner production' in the fishing industry and food services sector in Sicily and Malta, thereby minimizing risks associated with waste for the environment.
We search and characterize natural antimicrobial peptides from fungi, plants and marine invertebrates.
In particular we test for antibiofilm activity and produce them with recombinant techniques
