Biochemistry

Research themes and Projects

• Study of oxidative stress in vivo and in vitro in different physiopathological conditions (Sorrenti V., Vanella L., Di Giacomo C., Acquaviva R., Tomasello B., Barbagallo I., Campisi A., Raciti G.)
• Natural compounds and their chemopreventive  and antioxidant effects in vivo and in vitro (Sorrenti V., Vanella L., Di Giacomo C., Acquaviva R., Tomasello B., Barbagallo I. Campisi A., Raciti G.)
• Role of heme oxygenase in the metabolic syndrome and cancer (Sorrenti V., Vanella L, Barbagallo I.)
• Vascular homeostasis and DDAH / NOS pathway (Sorrenti V.)
• Evaluation of the biological activity of natural molecules and of new synthetic  compounds  able to modulate the activity of different enzymes (eg: Heme oxygenase-1, Eme oxygenase-2, nNOS, iNOS, eNOS, TG2) (Sorrenti V., Vanella L., Di Giacomo C., Acquaviva R., Barbagallo I., Campisi A., Raciti G.)
• Effects of haevy metals  (in particular Hg) in human astrocytoma cell lines  (Tomasello B.)
• Epigenetic analysis (global methylome and sirtuins activities/expression) and inflammatory biomarkers in cancer and/or normal cell lines (Tomasello B.)
• Biomolecular approaches in Autism and neurodegenerative diseases: vit.D and its metabolome, polymorphisms of one carbon cycle, Gut microbioma analysis and biomarkers of gut permeability; Exome test and metabolomic analysis related to selected pathways (Tomasello B.)
• Analysis of DNA fragmentation and methylation on tumor cells and on spermatozoa (Tomasello B.)
• Hadron therapy in breast cancer on mice (Acquaviva R., Di Giacomo C., Tomasello B.)
• Analysis of the hormone stress response in charged particles radiation therapy (Acquaviva R., Di Giacomo C., Tomasello B.)
• Role of tissue transglutaminase  (TG2) on excitotoxicity induced by glutamate in astrocytes and neural stem cells in primary culture (Campisi A., Raciti G.)
• Effect of neuronutraceutics and newly synthesized molecules on the expression levels of tissue transglutaminase in olfactory ensheathing cells stem cell cultures exposed to amyloid beta (Campisi A., Raciti G.)
• Evaluation of molecular mechanisms of new malaria vaccine candidates in preclinical models (Campisi A.).

Staff