People

Alberto Danielli

Alberto Danielli

Group Leader

Alberto Danielli is a molecular biologist at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the University of Bologna (UniBO; Italy). Currently he serves as Associate Professor in Molecular Biology at the same University.

AD graduated with honors in Agricultural Sciences at UniBO, carrying out research on the molecular characterization and epidemiology of phytopathogenic mollicutes. He obtained his PhD degree in 2002 from the University of Heidelberg (D) after having completed the EMBL PhD Programme to study to the molecular and cellular biology of mosquito immune-responses and malaria transmission in the lab of Prof. F.C. Kafatos. He was awarded a european TMR fellowship for collaborative work between the group of Insect Immunity led by J.A. Hoffmann at the CNRS Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IMBC) in Strasbourg (F) and the EMBL. Thereafter AD joined the lab of Prof. V. Scarlato at UniBO, working as post-doctoral fellow to elucidate regulation of gene expression in bacteria, with particular emphasis on transcriptional regulation of virulence factors, metal-ion homeostasis, stress-response and host-pathogen interactions in the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. From 2005 to 2015 AD served as Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Science (UniBO), using H. pylori as model system to study gene regulation of infectious agents that have the ability to persist as obligate, life-lasting pathogens.

At the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, AD currently addresses biotechnological research for the development of innovative nanomedicines and biosensors. He combines advanced molecular techniques with chemical and synthetic biology approaches to exploit filamentous phages as therapeutic and biological vectors, as well as nanotechnological scaffolds for biosensors and bio-conjugations.

Paolo Emidio Costantini

Paolo Emidio Costantini

Post-doc

Paolo Costantini is a molecular microbiologist, working as postdoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna.

PC obtained his MSc degree in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology at the University of Bologna with an experimental thesis on the re-definition of NikR regulon in Helicobacter pylori, under the supervision of Prof. Danielli A and Dr. Vannini A. During his PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Bologna he characterized and studied possible application of Lactobacillus strains with antimicrobial activity (Supervisors: Dr. Cappelletti M, Prof. Vitali B, Dr. Ñahui Palomino RA). As visiting PhD student, PC worked in the lab of Dr. Margolis L. at the National Institute of Health – NIH (USA), where he investigated anti-HIV-1 activities exerted by bacterial extracellular vesicles. PC also collaborated with the Molecular and Applied Microbiology lab (UniBO) and the biotech company NAICONS SRL (Milan, Italy), on the discovery of novel antimicrobial compounds produced by microorganisms isolated from pristine and extreme environments. At the end of 2020, PC joined the lab of Prof. Danielli A. at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology - UniBO, working as postdoctoral researcher to develop innovative antitumoral and antimicrobial therapies phage mediated.

Michela Nigro

Post-doc

Nanophage: Molecular engineering of the M13 phage into a nanobiotechnological platform for photodynamic, sonodynamic and photothermal cancer therapy

In collaboration with NanoBioInterface Lab / Prof. Matteo Calvaresi

 

Tommaso Rossi

Tommaso Rossi

PhD Student

Natural and modified bacteriophages, self-assembling VLP/NPs in the sustainable control of PWD in pigs.

In collaboration with Prof. Paolo Trevisi / DiSTAL Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agro-alimentari

ALENA KALTENBRUNNER

PhD student

Engineering of an orthogonal phage-vector platform for photosonodynamic therapy of ovarian and breast cancers

LUCIA PAPPAGALLO

LUCIA PAPPAGALLO

PhD student

Neurophage: molecular engineering of phage nanoparticles for non-invasive neuronal photostimulation

MBTlab_2023

MBTlab_2023

Lab members

from left to right:

Alberto Danielli

Alena Kaltenbrunner - pre-doc

Paolo Emidio Costantini - post-doc

Luca Ulfo - pre-doc

Lucia Pappagallo - pre-doc

Tommaso Rossi - (kneeled) pre-doc

MBT_Lab 2020

MBT_Lab 2020

Lab members (CoViD photoshop)

front (left to right)

Annapaola Petrosino - PhD student

Rebecca Samoggia - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology - thesis internship

Elisa Lazzarini - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology - thesis internship

Sara Mechregui - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology - thesis internship

rear

Luca Ulfo  - PhD student

Roccopio Malaspina - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology - thesis internship

Paolo Emidio Costantini - post-doc

 

MBT_Lab 2019

MBT_Lab 2019

Lab members

MIGHTY YEAR!

from left to right:

Francesca Piro - MSc Molecular and Cellular Biology (UniBO) - thesis internship (> @ IIT Neaples!)

Silvia Lucci - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology (UniBO) - thesis internship

Luca Cis - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology (UniBO) - thesis internship

Luca Ulfo - MSc Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology (UniBO) - thesis internship (> predoc @MTBlab!)

Francesco Borsari - MSc Industrial Biotechnology (UniMoRe) - visiting thesis internship collaboration with Prof. C.A. Bortolotti

MBT_Lab 2018

MBT_Lab 2018

Lab Members

from left to right:

Edoardo Sarti - MS student - Molecular & Industrial Biotechnology (>ETH Micorbiology and Immunology PhD programme)

Stefano Alpi - MS student - Molecular & Industrial Biotechnology

Michela Nigro - MS student - Molecular & Industrial Biotechnology (> predoc @ IIT Genova)

Elena Ferrari - MS student - Molecular & Industrial Biotechnology