Annarosa Arcangeli

Biography

The Prof.Annarosa Archangelswas born in Pistoia on 20/7/1956; graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1981, specialist in Clinical and Laboratory Hematology in 1984; Researcher in Experimental Pathology in 1990; since 2012 Ordinary Professor of General Pathology at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Florence. Professor Arcangeli has a long experience in research on ion channels and their role in neoplastic transformation. That's why one of the world's hERG experts, and its role in cancer. Following several periods of work at the University of Cambridge, Professor Archangeli also gained considerable biotechnology experience for genetic manipulation of mammals in order to produce genetically modified animals, as well as for the production of monoclonal antibodies through the use of recombinant proteins in E. coli and yeasts. Since 2006 he has been responsible for the Laboratory of Genetics Engineering for the Production of Animal Models (LIGe.MA), a joint laboratory of the University of Florence and of the Toscano Tumori Institute. He is the founding partner of the university spin-off Dival Toscana Srl, set up in 2012. Professor Arcangeli is author of 92 publications in international journals, 15 chapters of books and 4 patents. She has been the speaker of over 300 graduate theses, and supervisor of 28 PhD students, including 2 international students.

Research Interest

Since almost thirty years, Dr. Arcangeli has been involved in studies aimed at defining the biofysical aspects of intracellular signaling by controlling cell growth and differentiation of tumor cells. She contributed to unravel the action mechanism of widely used inducers of tumor cell differentiation, such as the "hybrid polar compounds" (HPC). She also focused on the role of potassium channels, in particular the hERG1 channel, in the governance of the resting potential, cellular ionic homeostasis and cell signaling in normal and cancer cells. In this field, Dr. Arcangeli acquired most of the methodologies required to accomplish this proposal, in particular genom manipulation, biomolecular techniques and patch clamping. Meanwhile, in the last few years she exploited her skill in mouse transgenesis and in vivoexperiments in immunodeficient mice. These studies led to discovery that, in many human and experimental tumors, the resting potential is controlled by hERG1, an important family of recently discovered potassium channels. In addition, Dr. Arcangeli integrates biophysical, biomolecular and genetic approaches to the role of potassium channels and their encoding genes in embryonic development and tumor formation.