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Current lab members:

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Alessandro Fantin, PhD


Associate Professor in Physiology
Email: alessandro.fantin@unimi.it
Alex's interest in blood vessel biology started with an MSc project on brain ischemia in Dr De Simoni’s lab at Mario Negri Institute in Milan. Then, after graduating in Biotechnology at University of Milano-Bicocca in 2006, he moved to the UK for a PhD on angiogenesis in Prof Ruhrberg’s lab at University College London. During his PhD he demonstrated for the first time that macrophages promote vessel fusion during angiogenesis. Alex then stayed in Prof Ruhrberg’s lab for his postdoctoral experience but focused on VEGF signalling in models of both developmental and pathological angiogenesis. Before leaving the UK he unveiled that embryonic hematopoietic precursors called erythro-myeloid progenitors (EMPs) provide a hitherto unrecognised source of endothelial cells, which are the cells lining the blood vessel wall and necessary for blood vessel growth.
Alex joined University of Milan (Italy) in 2018 as assistant professor to start his own lab and study the molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate blood vessel growth in development and disease thanks to financial support from the Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione AIRC per la Ricerca sul Cancro. Pubmed 

Postdocs:

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Alison Domingues, PharmD,  PhD

Email: alison.domingues@unimi.it
Alison graduated at Paris Descartes University in 2016 and her PharmD thesis was the first step in her thorough commitment in studying vascular function, with particular interest in angiogenic processes and finding new targets for therapy, including biotherapies. During her PhD at Paris Diderot University under the supervision of Prof Gaussem and Prof Smadja, Alison studied novel mechanisms to induce angiogenesis during cardiovascular aging or metabolic stress and spent one year in Dr Ratajczak’s lab at University of Louisville, USA, working on stem cell therapy with vascular progenitors.
In january 2020, Alison joined Alessandro Fantin's lab where she focuses on setting up angiogenesis models using microfluidics.

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Carlotta Tacconi, PhD

Email: carlotta.tacconi@unimi.it
Carlotta’s research activities have been mainly centred on studying the contribution of blood and lymphatic vessels and macrophages to the pathogenesis of cancer and inflammatory diseases. During her PhD, Carlotta worked in the gastrointestinal immunology lab at Humanitas Research Hospital Rozzano (Italy) where, under the supervision of Dr. Silvia D’Alessio and Professor Silvio Danese, she studied the role of lymphatic vessels and macrophages in colorectal cancer and in inflammatory bowel diseases. After obtaining her PhD in immunology and immunopathology, in July 2016 she moved to Switzerland where she joined the lab of Professor Michael Detmar at ETH Zürich to investigate blood and lymphatic vessel transcriptional programs in health and disease as well as macrophages’ contribution to cancer metastasis.
In February 2020 she joined the FantinLab, where she characterises molecular and cellular mechanisms of (lymph-)angiogenesis occurring in different tumor types.

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Marco Spreafico, PhD

Email: marco.spreafico@unimi.it
Marco graduated in Medical Biotechnology and Molecular Medicine at University of Milan in 2017 and earned his PhD in Experimental Medicine and Medical Biotechnology in 2021 at University of Milan. During his PhD in the laboratory of Professor Pistocchi, he focused on dissecting a possible pathological role for HDAC8 and cohesin in zebrafish models of acute myeloid leukemia and Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
In December 2021 he joined the FantinLab to study the molecular mechanisms that drive angiogenesis in the zebrafish embryo.

Undergraduate students:

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Chiara Colletto

Undergraduate student, Master degree in Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (MBB). Chiara studies the contribution of myeloid progenitors to vascular patterning.

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Francesca Fanuele

Undergraduate student, Master degree in Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBC). Francesca studies the vascular functions of neuropilin 1 in zebrafish embryos.

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Sidorela Balla

Undergraduate student, Master degree in Molecular Biology of the Cell (MBC).

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Rabia Şevval Özben 

Undergraduate student, Master degree in Molecular Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (MBB).

ALUMNI:

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Matteo Ranucci

PhD student @ UZH, Zurich, CH.

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Emanuela Villa

postgraduate @ European Institute of Oncology (IEO), Milan, IT. 

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Benedetta Valeri

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Elena Guzzolino, PhD

postdoctoral fellow @ AZIENDA OSPEDALIERO-UNIVERSITARIA MEYER, Firenze, IT.