PhD candidate Ilaria Passalacqua, XXXII CICLO
Thesis: “Elucidating the role of Extracellular Vesicles on Pulmonary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells
- Pulmonary Arterial Endothelial Cells crosstalk in Human Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension using novel cutting-edge technologies to image functional cargo transfer”Supervisor: Prof. Alessandro Celi
Research activity
: During my 3-year PhD I have worked on different projects. I spent first year working on defining the potential expression of Tissue Factor (TF) by monocytes and endothelial cells during hyperglycaemic conditions obtaining, in both cases, increased TF expression in concentration and activity in these cells types, when stimulated by Lipopolysaccharide (LPS).During my second year, my project was changed, and I carried it out at the Queen’s Medical Research Institute, at The University of Edinburgh. The aim of this project was to assess the role of Extracellular Vesicles produced by Human Pulmonary Arterial Smooth Muscle Cells treated with an excess of TGF-β1 (mimicking PAH in vitro) are involved in transporting functional cargo into Human Pulmonary Arterial Endothelial Cells, their neighbour cells.
During my internship at the CVS, University of Edinburgh, I have acquired competence in the relevant tasks required for the application of Cre-loxP methodology to monitor transfer of EVs RNA cargo from donor to recipient primary vascular cells in vitro. These were: 1) production of lentiviral vectors, 2) transduction of primary cells, 3) sorting of fluorescent cells by FACS, 4) co-culture of different vascular cell types, 5) quantification of recombination (fluorescent colour switch) by FACS, and also 6) ICC method, 7) qPCR method.
The third year was spent between The Edinburgh University and University of Pisa where I eventually started writing my thesis.
Conferences and Workshops
I took part as Poster Presenter to these conferences:
- EVIta 2019 – Palermo – 06-08/11/2019 Poster presentation - ESV-EVBO 2019 - Maastricht – 15-18/04/2019 Poster presentation - CVS annual Symposium – Edinburgh - 14/06/2018 Poster presentation I have also attended the following conferences and workshops:
- Vesicles, Extracellular RNA and Infectious Disease – Edinburgh - 09/05/2019 - Workshop: Maastricht University - 15/04/19 - Mass Spectroscopy
Publications
I am co-author in the following articles:
- Extracellular vesicle cross-talk between pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells and endothelium during excessive TGF-β signalling: implications for PAH vascular remodelling”
De la Cuesta F, Passalacqua I, Rodor J, Bhushan R, Denby L, Baker AH Cell Communication and Signaling, 2019, doi: 10.1186/s12964-019-0449-9.
- “CD18-mediated adhesion is required for the induction of a proinflammatory phenotype in lung epithelial cells by mononuclear cell-derived extracellular vesicles”
Neri T, Scalise V, Passalacqua I, Giusti I, Lombardi S, Balia C, D’Alessandro D, Berrettini S, Pedrinelli R, Paggiaro P, Dolo V, Celi A. Exp.Cell.Res. doi: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2018.02.023
- “Tiotropium inhibits proinflammatory microparticle generation by human bronchial and endothelial cells”
Neri T, Scalise V, Passalacqua I, Sanguinetti C, Lombardi S, Pergoli L, Bollati V, Pedrinelli R, Paggiaro P, Celi A.
Scientific Report, 2019, doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-48129-w
Tutoring activity
Tutoring the SCORE exchanging students, in collaboration with IFMSA and SISM with the following project: “The role of leukocyte derived microparticles in airway inflammation”.
Other activities
- IELTS certificate – score 6.5 (Upper intermediate, B2) achieved during the first 3 months of the visiting period in Edinburgh
- OSL certificate – score C1
- Voluntary activity - British Heart Foundation (BHF) Heart Factory” project at the Edinburgh
International Science Festival5-6/04/2018
