Cecilia Garlanda graduated in Veterinary Medicine in 1990 and specialized in Pharmacological Research at the "Mario Negri" Institute of Pharmacological Research in 1993. She began her professional career at the "Mario Negri" Institute for Pharmacological Research in 1990, where she worked until 2005. She worked for one year in the Unit 217-INSERM Centre d'Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble, France. Since 2004 she directed the Laboratory of Experimental Immunopathology, at the "Mario Negri" Institute of Pharmacological Research (2004-August 2005), and then at the Laboratory of Immunology Istituto Clinico Humanitas (since September 2005), consisting at the moment of two PhD students, two postdocs, two technicians .

 

Scientific activity

Scientific activity is documented by several congress attendances or courses as invited speaker, 80 scientific publications on international journals, 15 chapters on scientific books, several abstracts at congresses.

Her main lines of research have been:

 

A) Characterization of murine models of vascular tumor (Garlanda C, et al. Progressive growth in immunodeficient mice and host cell recruitment by mouse endothelial cells transformed by polyoma middle-sized T antigen: Implications for pathogenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1994; 91: 7291-7295).

B) Production of monoclonal antibodies against the murine vascular endothelium and purification by immunoaffinity of endothelial molecules. 1): Garlanda C, et al. Characterization of MEC 14.7, a new monoclonal antibody recognizing mouse CD34: A useful reagent for identifying and characterizing blood vessels and hematopoietic precursors. Eur J Cell Biol 1997; 73: 368-377. 2): Garlanda C. Purification through affinity chromatography and microsequencing. In: Adhesion protein protocols. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ; 1999 : 29-37. 3): Garlanda C, Dejana E. Heterogeneity of endothelial cells. Specific markers. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 1997; 17: 1193-1202).

C) Generation and phenotypic characterization of gene modified mice. 1): Hirsch E, et al.Central role for G protein-coupled phosphoinositide 3-kinase gamma in inflammation. Science 2000; 287: 1049-1053). 2): Garlanda C, et al. Non-redundant role of the long pentraxin PTX3 in anti-fungal innate immune response. Nature 2002; 420: 182-186. 3) Garlanda C, et al. Intestinal inflammation in mice deficient in Tir8, an inhibitory member of the IL-1 receptor family. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2004; 101: 3522-3526).

D) Identification of functional activities of novel innate immune molecules in innate resistance to infections, in inflammation and in inflammation associated cancer.  1): Garlanda C, Mantovani A. Cytokines and adhesion molecules in mesothelial cell pathophysiology. Sepsis 1999; 3: 271-283. 2): Garlanda C., Bottazzi B., Bastone A., Mantovani A. Pentraxins at the crossroads between innate immunity, inflammation, matrix deposition, and female fertility. Ann. Rev. Immunol. 2005, 23: 337-366. 3) Bottazzi B, Garlanda C, Salvatori G, Jeannin P, Manfredi A, Mantovani A. Pentraxins as a key component of innate immunity. Curr Opin Immunol. 2006 Feb;18(1):10-5. 4): Garlanda C, et al. Increased susceptibility to colitis-associated cancer of mice lacking TIR8, an inhibitory member of the interleukin-1 receptor family. Cancer Res. 2007 Jul 1;67(13):6017-21. 5) Garlanda C., et al. TIR8/SIGIRR: an IL-1R/TLR family member with regulatory functions on inflammation and T cell polarization. Trends in Immunology 2009 Sep;30(9):439-46. 6) Bottazzi B, Doni A, Garlanda C, Mantovani A. An Integrated View of Humoral Innate Immunity: Pentraxins as a Paradigm. Annu Rev Immunol. 2010 Apr 23;28:157-83. 7) Deban L.,et al. Binding to P-selectin and regulation of leukocyte recruitment by the long pentraxin PTX3. Nature Immunology. 2010 Apr;11(4):328-34. 8) Moalli F. et al. Role of complement and Fc g receptors in the protective activity of the long pentraxin PTX3 against Aspergillus fumigatus. Blood 2010. In press.

E) Functional role of inflammatory mediators in fertility (Garlanda C, et al. Inflammatory Reaction and Implantation: the New Entries PTX3 and D6. Placenta. 2008 Oct;29 Suppl B:129-34.)