BORGHETTI Paolo
In vitro and in vivo studies on chondrogenesis and biocompatibility tests on biomaterials focusing on cartilage repair and tissue engineering of cartilage, specifically as following:
1) Characterization of the chondrocyte differentiation process to prevent dedifferentiation of horse articular chondrocytes when used for cell-based therapies and tissue engineering.
2) Strategies are tested in vitro to reduce chondrocyte de-differentiation using different micro-environmental conditions such as hyperosmolarity, platelet lysate (PL), growth factors (glutamine, betaine) and chondroprotective factors, such as hyaluronic acid.
3) Tests on biomaterials with different composition (chitosan, hyaluronic acid, PL) and in different form (scaffolds, 3D-printed scaffolds, films, nanoparticles) for tissue engineering of cartilage and bone repair applications.
In collaboration with Prof. Saleri Roberta, in vitro studies on the intestinal porcine epithelial cell line J2 (IPEC-J2) addressing to:
- Protective role of different nutritional additives and pathophysiological factors on intestinal epithelial barrier integrity and function.
- Effects of nutritional factors on intestinal immunity in terms of inflammatory and immune responses in association with tight junction protein (TJp) functions to develop novel antimicrobial strategies.
Studies of experimental and applied immunology and immunopathology concerning the immunophenotype (flow cytometry analysis) and immune activation analysis (ELISpot) of lymphocyte subpopulations in domestic animals during infection or neoplastic diseases.
CABASSI Clotilde Silvia
Research activity is focused on antibiotic resistance, in particular to the detection of multi-resistant bacteria in animals, and on the development and evaluation of new molecules with antimicrobial activity on bacterial reference and field strains and biofilm. This activity is also evidenced by the development and patenting of two new families of antimicrobial peptides(New amino acid sequences with microbicidal activity derived from naja atra cardiotoxin 1 (CTX-1) Cabassi C.S., Sala A., 2016, PCT/EP2016/061022; New cyclic cationic peptides with antimicrobial activity. Baroni M.C., Cabassi C.S., Romani A. 2014. WIPO/PTC - WO 2014/102596 A2).
CACCHIOLI Antonio
The research topics of biotechnology field concern:
- the study of in vivo and in vitro experimental models for the evaluation of osteogenesis and osteointegration, cellular and tissue interaction with new generation bioactive surfaces and nanomaterials, cell therapy approaches for osteochondrogenesis;
- histological and anatomical study for the setting up and validation of new animal models in the pre-clinical research lung field.
The applied techniques are morphometric analysis , morphostructural histology and dynamic histomorphometry, SEM and TEM ultrastructural analysis, cytologic assays, cyto- and histo-chemistry, immunofluorescence.
CAVIRANI Sandro
Personal and collaborative research interests of Prof. Cavirani are in understanding the pathogeneses of naturally occurring viral and bacterial diseases of domestic animals, mainly focusing on diagnosis and vaccine based prophylaxis. Active research projects in his lab involve testing hypotheses that define parameters to exploit and compare traditional as well as new generation vaccines. In the broader contest the expertise’s current mission of Prof. Cavirani includes solving problems associated with the application of commercial vaccines using alternative protocols of immunization. Additionally Prof. Cavirani is involved on the discovery and use in silico projected anti-bacterial peptides.
DONOFRIO Gaetano
1) Involvement of BoHV-4 in bovine post-partum metritis.
Viruses are an important and common cause of genital tract disease in humans and domestic animals, which affect the quality of life and cause infertility. Bovine herpesvirus 4 (BoHV-4) is a virus that in most species and cell types causes little damage. However BoHV-4 seems to be associated with uterine disease in cattle. We have shown that the virus appears to “hijack” the cellular machinery of uterine stromal and epithelial cells, to drive viral replication, leading to extensive damage. We are mainly focused on elucidate the effect on viral replication by host factors that modulate the uterine environment, and identifythe molecular mechanisms by which the host’s molecules interact with the virus.
2) Development of models for lung inflammation based on in vivo image analysis.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a very common interstitial lung disease derived from chronic inflammatory insults, characterized by massive scar tissue deposition that causes the progressive loss of lung function and subsequent death for respiratory failure. We are mainly focused on the generation of an in vivo model based on a reporter gene construct, containing the luciferase open reading frame under different promoter control regions, to be tested on bleomycin-treated mice to investigate, in real time, the correlation between bleomycin treatment, inflammation, tissue remodeling and fibrosis. Bioluminescence emitted by the lungs of bleomycin-treated mice and molecular tomography, successfully allows real time monitoring of fibrosis establishment. The reporter gene technology experienced in our lab in collaboration with a drug company, represent an advanced functional approach for real time non-invasive assessment of disease evolution during therapy, in a reliable and translational living animal model.
PASSERI Benedetta
animal disease both in spontaneous and experimental pathology:
1) Experimental and applied Immunology, immunopathology;
2) Immunological features in neoplastic diseases
3) Immunophenotype of lymphocytes subpopulations in parasitic diseases of domestic animals
4) In vitro and in vivo studies on condrogenesis and osteogenesis and biocompatibility test on biomaterials used for tissue engineering of cartilage
TADDEI Simone
1) In vitro evaluation of antimicrobial agents;
2) Epidemiological surveys on bacterial diseases of domestic and wild animals.
