Innovation proposal

• Vascular and lymphatic endothelium is the front-line type of cells for drugs and medical devices, once administered or implanted
• Drugs can suffer of post commercial endothelial related side effects or beneficial off-target properties
• Our proposal aims to evaluate the safety/toxicity of new drugs, medical devices and biomaterials, and to characterize their therapeutic efficacy.

 

 

 

 

 

R&D Team asset

• The research team has all the competences and technologies to design experiments to investigate the safety, toxicology and efficacy of drugs on different cell types
• A wide range of cellular, molecular and animal models is available for the study of endothelial responses and angiogenesis
• Maximum availability in planning studies to meet the specific objectives of the costumers

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HIGHLY QUALIFIED SERVICES OF ANGIOGENESIS SCREENING

In vitro and ex vivo assays

• In vitro cell survival/proliferation/DNA synthesis
• In vitro cell migration by scratch assay
• In vitro cell chemotaxis by Boyden chamber
• Permeability assay
• In vitro angiogenesis assay on Matrigel
 • Molecular Biology and Biochemistry assays (inflammatory signaling, prostanoids,gaseous transmitters)
…………………………….• Ex vivo pseudocapillary sprouting in 3D fibrin gels
…………………………….• Subcutaneous implant of cancer cells: syngeneic and xenotransplant
…………………………….• Rabbit corneal angiogenesis assay
…………………………….• Matrigel plug implantation
…………………………….• Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence of angiogenic and malignancy markers in histological sections of animal
…………………………….and human tumours
…………………………….• Molecular Biology and Biochemistry assays (inflammatory signalling, prostanoids, gaseous transmitters)

 

 

 

 

HIGHLY QUALIFIED SERVICES CARDIOVASCULAR PATHOLOGIES & DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

in vivo assays (*in collab. With Yale Univ.)

• Genetically modified animals (transgenics; knockouts) as models of heart and cardiovascular diseases (atherosclerosis; stroke; hypertenssive heart diseases etc..)
• Models of retinopathies
• Ischemia models by ligation of peripheral vessels (unilateral hindlimb ischemia assay)*
• Zebrafish models for neurovascular development
• Analysis of zebrafish vascular development in high throughput screenings for toxicology studies*

 

Opportunity

• Pharmaceutical, biomaterial and nutraceutical producing companies can gain complete information on the efficacy and safety/toxicology of drugs on vascular endothelium before the clinical administration to animals or humans.
• Specific information on the effects of synthetic molecules/materials or natural product in stimulating or inhibiting the angiogenesis process can be obtained.
• Maximum willingness to apply at national and international calls, to establish agreements and fellowships.

Ask me for info about these services: Lucia Morbidelli (lucia.morbidelli@unisi.it), Sandra Donnini (sandra.donnini@unisi.it), Erika Terzuoli (terzuoli8@unisi.it)