Phd in CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

email: francesco.spallotta@uniroma1.it
phone:

room: 14

EDUCATION:
02/2011: PhD Experimental Medicine -
12/2006: MSC (110/110 cum laude) in Molecular, Cellular and Medical Biotechnologies
10/2004: BSC (110/110 cum laude) in Biotechnologies

RESEACH EXPERIENCE:
09/2022-present: Assistant Professor (RTDB), Dept. Biol. and Biotech. "Charles Darwin" - Sapienza University of Rome (Italy)
11/2019-08/2022: Researcher at National Research Council (CNR) - Integrate Pathophysiology Laboratory at IASI (Italy)
07/2018-02/2020: Senior scientist at Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory – Department of Oncology of Turin University – Candiolo Cancer Institute – Turin (Italy)
08/2012-06/2018: Researcher at Division of Cardiovascular Epigenetics - Goethe University – Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
02/2010-06/2012: Postdoctoral fellow/PhD studetnt at Vascular Biology and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory – Centro Cardiologico Monzino – Milan (Italy)
01/2007-01/2010: PhD student at Vascular Pathology Laboratory - Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata (IDI) – Rome (Italy)

AWARDS:
11/2016: FTGB Young Investigator Award - Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology, American Heart Scientific Session 2016 New Orleans, USA.

GRANTS AND AWARDS

2023-2025: Grant as Co-PI (PI: Prof. Sabrina Arena) from Ministero dell’Università e della ricerca (MUR – Bando PRIN 2022 PNRR), Italy. Project title: “Exploiting metabolic vulnerabilities to overcome resistance to targeted therapies in colorectal cancer”
2023-2025: Personal grant from Ministero dell’Università e della ricerca (MUR – Bando PRIN 2022), Italy. Project title: “- Insight into the role of brain cell-derived exosomes as mediators of insulin resistance-associated epigenetic alteration affecting cognitive function”
2022-2023: Personal grant from Sapienza University of Rome (Bando di Ateneo SEED), Italy. Project title: “The hyperglycaemic memory impact on the epi-metabolic landscape of pancreatic tumor stroma”.
2020-2025: Personal grant from AIRC (My First AIRC Grant), Italy. Project title: “Metabolic regulation of the DNA demethylation enzymatic machinery in pancreatic cancer”
2020-2021: Grant as Co-PI (PI: Dr. Valerio Azzimato) from Karolinska Institutet Research Foundation (Grants 2020-2021), Sweden. Project title: "Targeting metabomiR-144 to prevent the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis"
2017: Personal grant from Fachbereich Medizin Frankfurt-Stiftungsmittel 2016, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Project title: “Identification of zinc-finger protein Castor 1 (Casz1) targets important during cardiac mesenchymal stromal cell reprogramming into cardiomyocyte precursors”
2016-2017: Grant as Co-PI (PI: Dr. Daniela Serio) from Kerckhoff Klinik, Bad Nauheim, Germany. Project title: “Analysis of epi-metabolic effect of statins and type II diabetes on cardiac fibroblasts and lymphocytes in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and the indication of coronary artery bypass operation (ACB)”
2015-2016: Personal start-up grant from the DFG (German Research Foundation), Excellence Cluster Cardio Pulmonary System (ECCPS)”, Germany. Project title: “Epimetabolic Assessment of Human Cardiac Stromal Cells as “Sensors” of the Heart micro-environment”
2015: Personal start-up grant from the LOEWE Center for Gene Therapy (LOEWE-CGT), Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Project title:” Identification of zinc-finger protein Castor 1 (Casz1) targets important during cardiac mesenchymal stromal cell reprogramming into cardiomyocyte precursors”
2012-2013: Personal start-up grant from the LOEWE Center for Gene Therapy (LOEWE-CGT), Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Project title:” Identification of functional long non coding RNAs crucial for human stromal cell reprogramming to vascular and cardiac precursors in response to nitric oxide”
11/2016: Personal award: FTGB Young Investigator Award from the Council on Functional Genomics and Translational Biology, American Heart Scientific Session 2016 New Orleans, USA

MEMBERSHIP SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY (past/present):
- American Heart Association (AHA)
- European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD)
- American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
- European Association for Cancer Research (EACR)

CONTRIBUTION TO SCIENCE:
Published papers: 44; Citations: 1462; h-index: 23 (according to Scopus)
Scopus ID: 35604948700
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0466-6286

EDITIORIAL ACTIVITY:
Part of the reviewer board for the International journal NUTRIENTS https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients/submission_reviewers) and occasional reviewer of international peer- reviewed journal including: Theranostics, eBiomedicine, Cell Death and Differentation, European Journal of Pharmacology, Plos One, Scientific Reports, Cancers, Antioxidant, Metabolites.