Ritratto di Giovanni.Bernardini@uniroma1.it

For the students of Bioinformatics course

 

Immunology and Molecular Pathology

 

The classroom for the course is located in:

 

Psicologia I, Fisiologia Generale e Antropologia Farmacia e Medicina (CU026, E01PSIL101)

 

Lessons will be provided on Tuesday and Thursday (2 pm) by Prof. Giovanni Bernardini and Prof Giuseppe Sciumè in presence.

 

 

 

Per gli studenti del corso di Biotecnologie Mediche I anno II semestre:

 

Immunologia e Immunopatologia


 

Le lezioni si svolgono in modalità frontale presso

 

Aula

Ubicazione

Giorni di utilizzo

Aula Carlo Conti

Policlinico Umberto I, V Clinica Medica, I piano

Lunedì mattina, martedì e venerdì

Auletta Didattica

Policlinico Umberto I, V Clinica Medica, II piano

Lunedì pomeriggio

 

Corso di laurea in “Infermieristica in lingua inglese (Nursing)”

 

BASIC PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS teaching (Immunology module)

 

 

Nome aula

Nome edificio/sede

Codice edificio

Indirizzo

AULA 15 (Piano 1)

FMP S. Andrea

RM154

Via di Grottarossa 1035-1039

 

on Friday (2 pm) during March and April 2023

 

 

 

Insegnamento Codice Anno Corso - Frequentare Bacheca
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2023/2024
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2023/2024
IMMUNOLOGIA ED IMMUNOPATOLOGIA - PATOLOGIA MOLECOLARE E CELLULARE 10596057 2023/2024
BASIC PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS 1051088 2023/2024
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2022/2023
BASIC PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS 1051088 2022/2023
IMMUNOLOGIA ED IMMUNOPATOLOGIA - PATOLOGIA MOLECOLARE E CELLULARE 10596057 2022/2023
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2022/2023
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2021/2022
BASIC PATHOPHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS 1051088 2021/2022
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2021/2022
IMMUNOLOGIA ED IMMUNOPATOLOGIA - PATOLOGIA MOLECOLARE E CELLULARE 10596057 2021/2022
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2020/2021
IMMUNOLOGIA ED IMMUNOPATOLOGIA - PATOLOGIA MOLECOLARE E CELLULARE 10596057 2020/2021
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2020/2021
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2019/2020
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2019/2020
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2018/2019
IMMUNOLOGIA 1051487 2018/2019
IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR PATHOLOGIES 1049260 2017/2018
IMMUNOLOGIA 1041755 2017/2018
IMMUNOLOGIA 1041755 2016/2017

Giovedì 14.00-16.00 o previo appuntamento

Date of birth: June, 16 1970
Position title: Associate Professor
E-mail: giovanni.bernardini@uniroma1.it
Work address: Department of Molecular Medicine, University
of Rome La Sapienza . V.le Regina Elena, 291 00161- Rome, Italy

Education:
1994 Graduated with honors in Biology. University of Rome La Sapienza .
1996 National Board for biologists.
1999 PhD in Immunological Science, University of Rome La Sapienza .

Personal Statement
Since 2008, I have had the opportunity to lead small research groups composed at first by undergraduate and PhD students, and more recently also by post-doctoral fellows. I have been awarded a grant as associated investigator in FIRB Futuro in Ricerca for years 2010-2014 from the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), Sapienza University funded grants in years 2014 and 2016-2017 and I participated to several projects funded by the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC). The project results and the collaboration undertaken with other research groups allowed the publication of several original articles in high impact factor journals including Blood, Cancer Research and Nature Communications and allowed the discovery of the chemokine role in the regulation of NK cell subset trafficking in bone marrow and how this affect diseases, i.e. multiple myeloma, osteoarthritis and WHIM syndrome.
My group is currently composed by one PhD student, and one research fellow, working on NK cell-based anti-tumor therapeutic approaches based on chemokine receptor targeting. A second ongoing field of investigation concerns the analysis of the role of CXCR4 in NK cell development using in vitro differentiation assays and analyzing the phenotype of NK cells in mice bearing a CXCR4 mutation that leads to CXCL12 hyperresponsiveness.
All team members have expertise in molecular biology, cell biology, and immunology techniques and have been trained for animal care.
Positions and Employment
1995-1998 Research Fellow at the Regina Elena Cancer Institute, CRS
1998-1999 Research Fellow, Laboratory of Vascular Pathology. Istituto
Dermopatico dell' Immacolata - IRCCS Roma, Italy
2000-2001 Post-doctoral fellow Lab of Immunology and Vascular Biology
Stanford University Medical School. Director: Prof. Eugene C. Butcher.
Jan-Nov 2002 Post-doctoral fellow in the Laboratory of Immunology, Department of
Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University of Rome La Sapienza .
2002-2017 Assistant Professor, at the Dept of Experimental Medicine and since 2010 at
the Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Rome La Sapienza
2015-2018 Consultant, IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli (IS), Italy
2018- Associate Professor, at the Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Rome La Sapienza
Honors
2000-2001 Winner of One-year Scholarship for research abroad of Italian Federation for
Cancer Research (FIRC)
2001 Winner of One-year Scholarship for research abroad of The Foundation
Blanceflor Boncompagni-Ludovisi of Sweden
Teaching Experience:
2003-present Teaching in Immunology in the Biotechnology Course (2CFU) at University of Rome La Sapienza
2004-present Lecturer in the immunology course at the Faculty of Medicine of University
of Rome La Sapienza .
2008-present Member of the teaching body for PhD students (PhD school
in Immunological, Hematological and Rheumatological Sciences 2008-2017; PhD school in innovation in immune-medited diseases and hematological disorders 2017-present)
2018-present Professor of Immunology and Molecular Pathology at the Bioinformatics Course (4CFU) at the University of Rome La Sapienza.2020-present
2020-present Teaching in Immunology in the Medical Biotechnology Course (2CFU) at University of Rome La Sapienza
2018-present Member of the teaching body for PhD school in Innovation in immunomediated and hematological diseases ).
2022-present Teaching in the Corso di laurea in Infermieristica in lingua inglese (Nursing) (1 CFU)

Memberships in Professional Societies
SIICA (Società Italiana di Immunologia, Immunologia Clinica e Allergologia)
Peer review activity
Blood Journal
Immunological letters
PlosOne
Cancer Research
Review Editor in Frontiers in Immunology

Oral communication in national and international Meetings and Workshops
Invited Speaker
-2° Workshop Chemokines and Chemokine receptors in the nervous system. CX3CL1/CX3CR1 axis in neural and immune cell functions. Rome, Italy. 2009
- XXX National Congress of Italian Society of Pathology. KLRG1+ NK cells include two distinct populations lined by CX3CR1 expression. Salerno, Italy. 2010
Workshop Immune cell interactions: a mechanism for immune system control. Different requirement of chemokine receptor for natural killer cell subset trafficking to the bone marrow June 8th, 2012. SOFIA, BULGARIA
10th International Veterinary Immunology Symposium 2013. Regulation of mouse NK cell trafficking in bone marrow by chemokine/chemokine receptor axes. Milan, Italy. 2013
Day of Immunology in Rome. Multiple myeloma impairs localization of effector NK cells in the
bone marrow. Rome, Italy. 2015

Selected oral comunication in 2019 for:
CXCR3 CONTROLS ANTI-MYELOMA EFFICACY OF NK CELLS ADOPTIVELY TRANSFERRED FOR IMMUNOTHERAPY
- 5th Conference on Translational Medicine on Pathogenesis and Therapy of Immune-mediated Diseases, May 16-18, 2019 in Milan
- European Chemokine and Cell Migration Conference 2019. Salamanca, Spain June 26-30
- II Joint meeting of German and Italian Society of Immunology. Munich, Germany 10-13 September 2019

Expert reviewer of the following agencies
MIUR: Referee PRIN 2010, 2011
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR:) referee years 2017, 2020
Internal Funds KU Leuven: Referee year 2020
Israel Science Foundtion: Referee year 2021

Contribution to Science:
Giovanni Bernardini s scientific interest, which overlaps with the proposed research, is to elucidate the factors that regulate NK cell trafficking into tissues underneath of human inflammatory and tumor pathologies using animal models and patient s samples, and to propose novel therapeutic strategies.
Scientific activities 1995-2000: Identification and functional characterization of new chemokine receptors: Involved in cloning of the human chemokine receptor CCR8 ORF and in the identification of its human and viral ligands (publ. 1-3). In addition, he contributed to the cloning of the ORF of other GPCRs and to their genetic and functional characterization. In collaboration with the laboratories of Prof. Ziche in Firenze e of Prof. Ribatti in Bari he demonstrated that I-309, a CCR8 ligand, stimulates chemotaxis and invasion of endothelial cells, enhances HUVEC differentiation and induces angiogenesis in vivo.
Scientific activity 2000-2004: Analysis of signalling events involved in LFA-1-dependent lymphocyte migration in response to chemotactic molecules: Visiting scholar in the Laboratory directed by Prof. Eugene C. Butcher at Stanford University. In that period and in a subsequent period in Rome he was interested in the analysis of signal transduction pathway activated by chemokines leading to integrin activation. The results of this activity have shown that chemoattractant-induced LFA-1 dependent migration is regulated by PI 3K activation and that a Fyn-PI 3K-LFA-1 molecular complex has to be formed to promote cell migration.
Scientific activity 2004-2009: Role of chemokines in the regulation of tumor cell invasive capacity. He was responsible of a project aimed at analyzing the role of chemokines in human glioma cell invasiveness. His results indicate that endogenous expression of CX3CL1 by glioma cells is controlled by TGF-beta1 and negatively regulates glioma cell invasion likely by promoting tumor cell aggregation.
Scientific activity 2006-present: Analysis of the mechanisms regulating NK cell migration and function in vivo in homeostasis, cancer, inflammation: He is mainly interested in the molecular mechanisms regulating mouse NK cell trafficking and differentiation in the bone marrow. Using in vivo mouse models, he previously analyzed changes in NK cell distribution following stimuli that affect chemokine receptor function. The results of his studies suggest that the combined action of chemokines selectively regulates localization of NK cell subsets in the BM and direct their maturation and migration to the periphery. He showed that the action of chemokines in BM is regulated by multiple myeloma, a hematological tumor growing in BM, to influence the BM retention capacity of NK cells and evade NK cell immune surveillance
Thanks to a collaboration with the group of P. Dimitrova (Stefan Angelov Institute of Microbiology, Sofia, Bulgaria) and P. van Lent (Radbound University Nijmegen, The Netherlands), he also characterized the role of inflammatory chemokines, in particular CXCL10, and how they interact with NK cells in the progression of osteoarthritis using mouse models.
He has ongoing projects on the immune response in colorectal and lung cancers for the analysis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of suppression of NK cell anti-tumor function, particularly focusing on those that are produced by myeloid suppressor cells.

Funding information: Associated investigator in FIRB Futuro in Ricerca 2010 (years 2010-2014) and recipient of several project funds (years 2004, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2020) from Sapienza University.
Associated investigator in PRIN 2017 (years 2019-2022)
Recipient of project funds from Institute Pasteur Italia Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti (years 2018-2020).
Participant in several projects funded by Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) and by Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR).

Published research peer-reviewed articles: 54; Articles in press: 2; Book chapter: 2
Total citations: 2200; H index: 26; source: SCOPUS

Selected Last 10-year publications:
1. Bernardini G, Gismondi A, Santoni A. Chemokines and NK cells: Regulators of Development, Trafficking and Functions. Immunology Letters. 2012; 145: 39 46
2. Bernardini G, Sciumè G, Santoni A. Differential chemotactic receptor requirements for NK cell subset trafficking into bone marrow. Front Immunol. 2013;4:12
3. Ponzetta A, Sciumè G, Benigni G, Antonangeli F, Morrone S, Santoni A, Bernardini G. CX3CR1 regulates the maintenance of KLRG1+ NK cells into the bone marrow by promoting their entry into circulation. J Immunol. 2013;191(11):5684-94.
4. Bernardini G, Benigni G, Antonangeli F, Ponzetta A, Santoni A. Multiple levels of chemokine receptor regulation in the control of mouse natural killer cell development. Frontiers in Immunol. 2014; 5: 44
5. Bernardini G. and Santoni, A. The Pathophysiological Role of Chemokines in the Regulation of NK Cell Tissue Homing Critical Reviews in Oncogenesis 2014;19: 77-90
6. Paolini R, Bernardini G, Molfetta R, Santoni A. NK cells and interferons Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2015; 26(2):113-20
7. Garofalo S, D Alessandro G, Chece G, Frederic Brau, Maggi L, Rosa A, Porzia A, Mainiero F, Esposito V, Lauro C, Benigni G, Bernardini G, Santoni A, Limatola C. Enriched environment reduces glioma growth through immune and non-immune mechanisms in mice. Nat Commun. 2015;6:6623.
8. Ponzetta A, Benigni G, Antonangeli F, Sciumè G, Sanseviero E, Zingoni A, Ricciardi MR, Petrucci MT, Santoni A, Bernardini G. Multiple Myeloma Impairs Bone Marrow Localization of Effector Natural Killer Cells by Altering the Chemokine Microenvironment. Cancer Res. 2015;75(22):4766-77.
9. Antonangeli F, Soriani A, Ricci B, Ponzetta A, Benigni G, Morrone S, Bernardini G, and Santoni A. Natural killer cell recognition of in vivo drug-induced senescent multiple myeloma cells. OncoImmunology . 2016; Vol. 5 (10). dx.doi.org/10.1080/2162402X.2016.1218105
10. Bernardini G, Antonangeli F, Bonanni V, Santoni A. Dysregulation of Chemokine/Chemokine Receptor Axes and NK Cell Tissue Localization during Diseases. Front Immunol. 2016; 7:402.
11. Nabissi M, Morelli MB, Cardinali C, Santoni M, Arcella A, Bernardini G, Santoni A, Santoni G, and Amantini C. Post-transcriptional regulation of 5'-untranslated regions of human Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid type-1 (TRPV-1) channels: role in the survival of glioma patients. Oncotarget 2016 Nov 5. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.13132.
12. Morelli MB, Amantini C, Nabissi M, Cardinali C, Santoni M, Bernardini G, Santoni A, Santoni G. Axitinib induces senescence-associated cell death and necrosis in glioma cell lines: The proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib, potentiates axitinib-induced cytotoxicity in a p21(Waf/Cip1) dependent manner. Oncotarget. Jan 10;8(2):3380-3395. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.13769.
13. Benigni G, Dimitrova P, Antonangeli F, Sanseviero E, Milanova V, Blom A, van Lent P, Morrone S, Santoni A, Bernardini G. CXCR3/CXCL10 Axis Regulates Neutrophil-NK Cell Cross-Talk Determining the Severity of Experimental Osteoarthritis. J Immunol. 2017 Mar 1;198(5):2115-2124.
14. Bernardini G, Vulpis E, Bonanni V, Stabile H, Ricciardi MR, Petrucci MT, Gismondi A, Santoni A, Zingoni A. High expression levels of IP10/CXCL10 are associated with modulation of the natural killer cell compartment in multiple myeloma. Leuk Lymphoma. 2017;58(10):2493-2496
15. Bernardini G, Benigni G, Scrivo R, Valesini G, Santoni A. The Multifunctional Role of the Chemokine System in Arthritogenic Processes. Curr Rheumatol Rep. 2017;19(3):11
16. Molgora M., Bonavita E, Ponzetta A, Riva F, Barbagallo M, Jaillon S, Popovi B, Bernardini G, Elena Magrini E, Gianni F, Zelenay S, Jonji S, Santoni A, Garlanda C and Mantovan A. IL-1R8 is a checkpoint in NK cells regulating anti-tumor and anti-viral activity. Nature 2017; 551(7678):110-114
17. Garofalo S, Porzia A, Mainiero F, Di Angelantonio S, Cortese B, Basilico B, Pagani F, Cignitti G, Chece G, Maggio R, Tremblay ME, Savage J, Bisht K, Esposito V, Bernardini G, Seyfried T, Mieczkowski J, Stepniak K, Kaminska B, Santoni A, Limatola C. Environmental stimuli shape microglial plasticity in glioma. Elife. 2017;6. pii: e33415. doi: 10.7554/eLife.33415.
18. Soriani A, Stabile H, Gismondi A, Santoni A, Bernardini G. Chemokine regulation of innate lymphoid cell tissue distribution and function. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev. 2018 Feb 14. pii: S1359-6101(18)30014-5. doi: 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2018.02.003. Review.
19. Giorgio Santoni, Consuelo Amantini, Maria Beatrice Morelli, Daniele Tomassoni, Matteo Santoni, Oliviero Marinelli, Massimo Nabissi, Claudio Cardinali, Vittorio Paolucci, Mariangela Torniai, Silvia Rinaldi, Francesca Morgese, Giovanni Bernardini and Rossana Berardi. High CTLA-4 expression correlates with poor prognosis in thymoma patients Oncotarget. 2018 https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.24645
20. Fionda C, Stabile H, Molfetta R, Soriani A, Bernardini G, Zingoni A, Gismondi A, Paolini R, Cippitelli M, Santoni A. Translating the anti-myeloma activity of Natural Killer cells into clinical application. Cancer Treat Rev. 2018 Nov;70:255-264. doi: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2018.10.005.
21. Ferrandino F, Bernardini G, Tsaouli G, Grazioli P, Campese AF, Noce C, Ciuffetta A, Vacca A, Besharat ZM, Bellavia D, Screpanti I, Felli MP. Intrathymic Notch3 and CXCR4 combinatorial interplay facilitates T-cell leukemia propagation. Oncogene. 2018 Dec;37(49):6285-6298. doi: 10.1038/s41388-018-0401-2.
22-Bonanni V, Antonangeli F, Santoni A, Bernardini G Targeting of CXCR3 improves anti-myeloma efficacy of adoptively transferred activated natural killer cells J IMMUNOTHER CANCER 2019 Nov; 7: 290
23- Del Prete A, Sozio F, Schioppa T, Ponzetta A, Vermi W, Calza S, Bugatti M, Salvi V, Bernardini G, Benvenuti F, Vecchi A, Bottazzi B, Mantovani A, Sozzani The Atypical Receptor CCRL2 Is Essential for Lung Cancer Immune Surveillance. S CANCER IMMUNOL RES 2019 Nov; 7: 1775-1788
24-Bernardini G, Zabel BA Editorial: The Role of Chemoattractants in the Tumor Microenvironment. Front Immunol 2019; 10: 2671
25-Bonanni V, Sciumè G, Santoni A, Bernardini G Bone Marrow NK Cells: Origin, Distinctive Features, and Requirements for Tissue Localization. Front Immunol 2019; 10: 1569
26-Garofalo S, Cocozza G, Porzia A, Inghilleri M, Raspa M, Scavizzi F, Aronica E, Bernardini G, Peng L, Ransohoff R, Santoni A, Limatola C. Natural killer cells modulate motor neuron-immune cell cross talk in models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS. - 1:11(2020), pp. 1773-1788.
27- Russo E, Santoni A, Bernardini G. Tumor inhibition or tumor promotion? The duplicity of CXCR3 in cancer. J Leukoc Biol. 2020 Aug;108(2):673-685. doi: 10.1002/JLB.5MR0320-205R. PMID: 32745326
28- Kve tak D, Jurani Lisni V, Lisni B, Tomac J, Golemac M, Brizi I, Indenbirken D, Cokari Brdov ak M, Bernardini G, Krstanovi F, Ro mani C, Grundhoff A, Krmpoti A, Britt WJ, Jonji S. NK/ILC1 cells mediate neuroinflammation and brain pathology following congenital CMV infection. J Exp Med. 2021 May 3;218(5):e20201503. doi: 10.1084/jem.20201503
29. Russo E, Laffranchi M, Tomaipitinca L, Del Prete A, Santoni A, Sozzani S, Bernardini G. NK Cell Anti-Tumor Surveillance in a Myeloid Cell-Shaped Environment. Front Immunol. 2021. 12:787116. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2021.787116. PMID: 34975880; PMCID: PMC8718597
30. Vulpis E, Loconte L, Peri A, Molfetta R, Caracciolo G, Masuelli L, Tomaipitinca L, Peruzzi G, Petillo S, Petrucci MT, Fazio F, Simonelli L, Fionda C, Soriani A, Cerboni C, Cippitelli M, Paolini R, Bernardini G, Palmieri G, Santoni A, Zingoni A. Impact on NK cell functions of acute versus chronic exposure to extracellular vesicle-associated MICA: Dual role in cancer immunosurveillance. J Extracell Vesicles. 2022 Jan;11(1):e12176. doi:10.1002/jev2.12176.