People

Prof. Stefania Rapino received her degree in Chemistry (summa cum laude) in 2002 and her PhD in Chemical Science in 2005 at the University of Bologna. From 2006 to 2008 she worked as postdoctoral fellow in Congenia s.r.l (Company Biotech in Milan, Italy). From 2008 to 2012 she worked as senior postdoctoral fellow at the European Insititute of Oncology (IEO, Milan, Italy), directing for two years the Cellular Electrochemistry Laboratory in collaboration with Prof. Pier Giuseppe Pelicci's Group. Since October, 1st 2012 she is Assistant Professor at the University of Bologna in Physical Chemistry.

Prof. Rapino was granted (≈300.000 euro) from Health Minister of Italy for young researcher and mentioned as one of the best female innovative researcher (Tecnovisionarie) by Women&Technology International Association. She has been working at the cutting edge between biology and medicine, electrochemistry and material science, micro-structuration and functional imaging of living cells applied to cancer research. She is actively working in the field of Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) applied to living cell research. She plays a pivotal role in scientific cooperation between European Institute of Oncology and CHIM@UNIBO, involved in projects concerning some of the most advanced topics of bio-electrochemistry for cancer research. Using her interdisciplinary approach and SECM she gave a breakthrough insight in the study of cancer metabolism, cell respiration, study of cancer redox balance also for diagnosis, Warburg effect at single cell level via SECM and some applications of nanotechnology in cancer. She spent research periods at University of Namur (Belgium), at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris, France), at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal - CRPP (Bordeaux, France) and at the University of Oldenburg (Germany). She co-authored about 30 papers published in high-impact peer-reviewed Journals with an overall IF of 198.

She is member of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI), the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE) and the Electrochemical Society (ECS). She is also member of the Management Committee (Official National Substitute) of the EUROS COST FP7 action and a member of the council of the Interdepartmental Center Galvani CIG UniBo.

Dr. Malferrari graduated with honours in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2008 and he got a PhD in Cellular, Molecular and Industrial Biology in 2012, both at the University of Bologna. From 2012 to 2016 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dept. of Pharmacy and Biotechnology in Bologna, under the supervision of Prof. G. Venturoli. He investigated the role of protein-solvent dynamical coupling in the intraprotein electron transfer events catalyzed by photoexcitable membrane proteins; his interests have then extended to the bc1 complex and to the effects of ionic liquids on membrane permeability. His competences include membrane protein purification, flash-induced time-resolved visible spectroscopy, static and difference FTIR Spectroscopy, the analysis of kinetics and absorption spectra through ad hoc developed C routines. In 2010 and 2013 he visited the CEA-Saclay (France) and from 2011 to 2014 he has been regularly hosted at the Max Plank Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (Germany). From March 2017 to December 2019, under the supervision of Dr. S. Rapino, He worked at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bologna on the research project “Acute myeloid leukemia Investigation with functional Device in lieu of Animals: AIDA”, founded by the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC). At present, Marco Malferrari is a Junior assistant professor (fixed-term) in Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry "Giacomo Ciamician" at the University of Bologna.

He graduated in Photochemistry and Molecular Materials with honours at the University of Bologna. He is attending the second year of the PhD course in Nanoscience of Medicine and the Environment at the Department of Chemistry of University of Bologna. During his PhD, under the supervision of Prof. Stefania Rapino, He is working on the development of micrometric and nanometric electrochemical sensor as probes for Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) for high-spatially resolution investigation of cell metabolism. His project is also focused on characterization of cancer cell microenvironment using fluorescent microscopy techniques, including confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).

 Master Degree in Chemistry

She graduated in Chemistry at the University of Bologna and She got her PhD in Nanoscience for Medicine and the Environment in 2022 at the University of Bologna. During her thesis project, supervised by Prof. S. Rapino, she studied the chemistry that governs cancer cell microenvironments working on the research project “Acute myeloid leukemia Investigation with functional Device in lieu of Animals: AIDA”  funded by AIRC. Her PhD project focused on the formulation of functional soft 3D-bioprinted materials and in electrochemical characterization with Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM). She worked also in the development of new nanobiosensors for intracellular analysis.

She graduated in Chemistry with honours at the University of Bologna and She got a PhD in Chemistry at the University of Bologna in 2023. During her thesis project, supervised by Prof. S. Rapino, she worked on the development of micrometric electrochemical biosensors to spatially address cellular metabolism in tumors. Her PhD project was focused on the development and optimization of electrochemical biosensors for the characterization of the tumoral microenvironment through the use of  Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM).

Dr. Bartolini earned his PhD in Chemistry in Dr. Rapino’s group at the University of Bologna. His project concerned the design and development of a new etching system for the optimization of probes for scanning probes microscopies, in collaboration with the italian mechanical machinery company “Poletti Cosimo S.N.C.”. He also achieved, by Organic Molecular Beam Epitaxy, perfectly flat monolayers of organic semiconductor materials, to test their biocompatibility and the effect on cell morphology and adhesion. He is currently contributing to the development of a fast and effective electrochemical technique to detect a biomarker of heart injury in patient’s blood, a project supported at the European Institute of Oncology (IEO) in Milan. He works in collaboration with the National Research Council (CNR) at the Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (ISMN) in Bologna (Dr. Cristiano Albonetti). He spent a research period abroad at the University of Sheffield (UK). Atomic Force Microscopy, Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Molecular Beam Epitaxy are among the techniques he is familiar with.

Dr. Soldà graduated in Chemistry at the University of Padova with honours. She got her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Bologna working in collaboration with the European Institute of Oncology (IEO, Milan) under the supervision of Dr. S. Rapino and Prof. F. Paolucci. Her PhD project, partially supported by Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC), was mainly focused on the development of novel ultramicrosensors for investigation of single living cell metabolism and identification of cancer cells by Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM). She spent research periods at University of Warwick (Coventry, UK), at University of Connecticut (USA) and at NTNU (Norway). Her expertise includes SECM, basic electrochemistry, surface functionalization and modification for biosensor development, cell cultures, in vivo and ex tissues analysis, toxicological analysis, cell counting, FACS analysis and Confocal Microscopy. 

She is Chair of the European Young Chemists' Network (EYCN) of EuCheMS. She is member of the Italian Chemical Society (SCI) and the secretary of the Young Group of Italian Chemistry Society as delegate of the Electrochemistry Division. She is also member of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE).

She graduated in Molecular and Cellular Biology with honours at the University of Bologna; her thesis project, supervised by Dr. S. Rapino, was focused on the study of cell response to variations of chemically controlled microenvironment by converging the Scanning Electrochemical Microscopy (SECM) and bio-molecular analyses. During her research fellow she studied the cancer cell redox state changes upon electromagnetic irradiation, exploiting cell functional imaging using SECM. 

Oscar Menni (MSc in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnologies)

Rosario Alga (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Clara Vianello (MSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology)

Silvia Grillini (MSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology)

Sara Stagni (MSc Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology)

Irene Papiano (MSc degree in Photochemistry and Molecular Materials)

Nicolò Quaresima (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Marzia Santamaria (MSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology)

Francesco Roggiani (MSc degree in Chemistry)

Mattia Colucci (MSc degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology)

Cecilia Wetzel (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Caterina Rovegno (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Martina Cardi (BSc in Biotechnology)

Maria Chiara Gaeta (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Alessandra Azzali (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Lorenzo Succi (BSc degree in Biotechnology)

Jacopo Stefanelli (MSc degree in Chemistry)

Davide Biancone (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Moreno Guernelli (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Antonella Botta (MSc degree in Chemistry)

Daniela Salvatore (MSc degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology)

Giulia Biffi (BSc degree in Chemistry)

Maila Becconi (BSc degree in Chemistry)