Head of the Laboratory Marzia Bedoni received her MSc degree in Biological Sciences in 2004 and her PhD degree in Morphological Science in 2007 (University of Milan). From 2007 to 2010 she carried out her Post-Doctorate at the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Biophotonics (LABION) of FDG granted by the Cariplo Foundation, Seed Capital and Seventh Framework Programme. From January 2011 she is permanent researcher in FDG. During her research activity at LABION she has worked on multiple project: i) nano-biophotonics for the characterisation of exosomes as regenerative rehabilitation markers; ii) biophotonics application for diagnosis and therapy monitoring in neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), skin diseases (psoriasis, cancer), leukemia and; iii) nanoparticles toxicity on human skin biology; iv) biocompatibility in transdermal drug delivery and dry electrodes devices. From 2007 she is also lecturer in Human Anatomy for the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Milan. She received some awards during international congresses for her research studies. She is author of several papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals , abstracts for national and international congresses and she is also co-inventor of 4 patents. She is board member of the “Society for Cutaneous Ultrastructure Research (SCUR)”, and ordinary member of the “European Society of Dermatological Research” and the “Italian Society of Human Anatomy”. She is involved in several national and international projects. Email: mbedoni@dongnocchi.it
Alice Gualerzi received her Master’s degree in Biology applied to biomedical research in 2009 and her PhD degree in Morphological Sciences in 2013 at the University of Milan, focusing her research on the morphological analysis of skin and oral mucosa after exposure to exogenous stimuli in a 3D culture model. In 2012 she collaborated for six months as Junior Research Specialist with Dr. Chia-Ling Tu the University of California San Francisco and she was later granted with a postdoctoral scholarship funded by Sardegna Ricerche to work at BT (Biomedical Tissues) srl c/o Parco scientifico e tecnologico Polaris (Pula, CA) in the field of cardiovascular tissue engineering, regenerative medicine, and nanotoxicity. She joined LABION in 2014 and the main focuses of her research are: i) biophotonic characterization of extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells to be used as regenerative agents and plasma exosomes as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for regenerative rehabilitation; (ii) Raman spectroscopy for the characterization of cells and tissues in health, pathology and for nanotoxicology purposes. She is author of several papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals and of several abstracts for national and international congresses. Since 2022 , she is board member of the Italian Society for Extracellular Vesicles (EVIta – www.evitasociety.org)
Email: agualerzi@dongnocchi.it
Silvia Picciolini graduated in pharmaceutical chemistry and technologies (CTF) at the University of Milan on March 2014. She spent one year at FDG doing research experience for her experimental thesis in collaboration with a spin off of the Joint Research Centre (Ispra) aimed at the optimization of nanohole arrays as solid SERS substrates for the detection of genetic biomarkers of acute myeloid leukemia, to evaluate the minimal residual disease. She was granted with an AXA scholarship for the Raman analysis of lipids in the blood of Alzheimer’s patients. In 2019, she has completed her PhD in Translational and Molecular Medicine at University of Milano-Bicocca working at LABION on a project aimed at the detection and characterization of neural extracellular vesicles from human plasma by a SPRi based biosensor, in order to identify their role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Now, she is applying the optimized SPRi platform for the rehabilitation monitoring of stroke and heart failure patients. She worked also on the biophotonics characterization of liposomes as therapeutic agents for neurological diseases (NEVERMIND project). She is co-author of several publications in international peer-reviewed journals and abstracts of national and international conferences.
Email: spicciolini@dongnocchi.it
Francesca Rodà received her Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies at the University of Turin in July 2020. She made her sperimental thesis on the effect of lyoprotectants in the freeze-drying of liposomes. She joined LABION in 2020 where she has started to work with nanotechnologies and biophotonics techniques. Currently, she is a PhD student in Clinical and experimental medicine and she works for University of Modena and Fondazione Don Gnocchi. Her research focuses on synthesis and advanced characterization of nanomedicines for hard-to-treat diseases. She is co-author of several publications in international peer-reviewed journals and abstracts of national and international conferences.
Email: froda@dongnocchi.it
Valentina Mangolini received her Master’s degree in “Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology” at the University of Pavia on 20th April 2020.
She did an experimental thesis at the nanomedicine laboratory in the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Science L. Sacco, working on the development of engineered ferritin nanoparticles to target tumor-associated fibroblasts for the treatment of triple negative breast cancer.
From November 2020 to August 2021, she worked in a company for the processing of Covid-19 swabs and the creation of DNA biobanks of patients with Huntington and Parkinson’s disease.
She has worked at LABION on the “NEVERMIND” project for the biophotonics characterization of liposomes as therapeutic agents for Glioblastoma and Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, she is PhD student at University of Brescia working on a project about the Raman spectroscopy analysis of liquid biopsies in collaboration with the LABION team.Email: vmangolini@dongnocchi.it
Luana Forleo received her Master’s Degree in Experimental and Applied Biology at the University of Pavia, in April 2021. She wrote her thesis during her internship at the Epigenetics Laboratory of ICS Salvatore Maugeri, on the epigenetic landscape alteration and on the differences between chronological and biological age after SARS-CoV2 infection. She worked on the CORSAI project (EraPerMed funded grant) at LABION, where she used the Raman Spectroscopy technology (RS) to develop a validate method for the personalized management of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Currently, she is doing a PhD in Translational Medicine at University of Milan in association with Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi and LABION, focusing on Chronic Pulmonary diseases (CPD). The project aims to investigate CPD using innovative technologies, including Raman Spectroscopy and Surface Plasmon Resonance imaging, in combination with standard molecular methods for the detection and characterization of specific disease biomarkers in patient’s saliva.
Email: lforleo@dongnocchi.it
Aurora Mangolini received her Master’s Degree in Biotechnology in Medicine at the University of Milano Bicocca in March 2023. She made her sperimental thesis at the Laboratory of Nanomedicine and Clinical Biophotonics (LABION, Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Milan) focusing on the role of serum extracellular vesicles as potential biomarker of rehabilitation after cerebral stroke. Currently, she is working at LABION on the same project and on ENEA (Exercise aNd hEArt transplant) project, a randomized controlled trial whose general aim is the comparison in terms of safety and efficacy of cardiac telerehabilitation and onsite rehabilitation in patients who undergo heart transplantation.
Email: amangolini@dongnocchi.it
Rita Martino received her Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Turin in October 2022. She did an experimental thesis in Advanced Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology Laboratory (DSTF, UniTo), working on the development of HPLC protocol to quantify stearoyl-L-carnitine in PLGA nanoparticles for the treatment of Myotonic Distrophy type 1. After graduating, she worked for Sanofi in the department of Quality Assurance Product of sterile production site. In October 2023, she started working at LABION on SEMISOFT project (ERC funded grant) to find biomarkers in human saliva for early diagnosis of Parkinson ‘s disease by using SEMISOFT software and Raman Spectroscopy.
Email: rimartino@dongnocchi.it
Martina Gerli received her Master’s Degree in Veterinary Biotechnology Sciences at the University of Milan in September 2022. In 2021 she started an internship at the laboratory of Biomedical Embryology (DIVAS, UniStem) of the University of Milan, where she wrote her thesis regarding the rejuvenation of human old ovarian cells by using extracellular vesicles purified by conditioned medium of young ones, seeded on a decellularized pig ovary scaffold. Recently, she obtained a postgraduate certification in Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at the G. Marconi University of Rome.
At LABION she actually works on PANDORA project, where she uses Raman Spectroscopy to find biomarkers for the differential diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease and Atypical Parkinsonisms in patient’s saliva.Email: mgerli@dongnocchi.it
Stefano Faggiano graduated in Biology Applied in Biomedical Research at the University of Milan, in April 2023. His Master’s degree thesis was written during his year of internship at the laboratories of Unit of Experimental Cardio-Oncology and Cardiovascular Aging of Centro Cardiologico Monzino, with a focus on the characterization of an inflammatory pathway during senescence and vascular calcification, for the development of an inflammatory treatment. After his degree, he worked at Humanitas Research Hospital, in Cancer Pharmacology Lab. Using NGS techniques, he studied the relationship between the genomic characterization of ovarian cancers and the probability of recurrence, and the clinical variables of OS and PFS in clinical studies, for an early detection. At LABION he works on the CORSAI project (EraPerMed funded grant), where he uses the Raman Spectroscopy technology to develop a validated method for the personalized management of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
Email: sfaggiano@dongnocchi.it
