Dr. Pasquale Stano

Dipartimento di Biologia
Università degli Studi di Roma Tre
Viale Marconi 446
00146 Roma
ITALY

Tel.: +39.06.5733 6433; +39.06.5733 6363;
Fax: +39.06.5733 6321
e-mail : stano @ uniroma3.it

Pasquale Stano received his scientific education in chemistry at the University of Pisa, Italy. In his thesis he worked on the design and synthesis of heterotopic Shiff base ligands and relative nickel and copper supramolecular complexes, and studied the kinetics of transimmination on these substrates.

He joined Luisi's group in Zürich from February 2002, working on the liposomal drug delivery of camptothecin derivatives, in a collaboration with the Italian pharmaceutical company Sigma-Tau in Pomezia (Roma). Since 2003 he was working on the properties and reactivity of vesicles (effect of Trp-oligopeptides, turbidimetric analysis, positively charged vesicle formation), DNA condensation in reverse micelles, matrix effect and self-reproduction of vesicles, and on the AmB interaction with sterol containing vesicles. Together with Silvia Rasi, Simone Bufali, Trishool Namani, Chris Thomas, and Zhiliang Cheng, he was a member of the Luisi's laboratories for liposome research at the Department of Materials of the ETH.
In 2004 he moved to the Dept. of Biology of the University of RomaTre, where is involved in the Luisi's project dealing with the physico-chemical properties of vesicles and other compartments, and their use as cell models.

In particular, in the last three years he worked with lecithin organogel (in collaboration with the farmaceutical company Sigma-Tau), interaction between proteins and vesicles, fusion of vesicles, phosphatidic acid vesicles characterization, Cu-aminooxidase containing liposomes, pi-pi complex formation, spectroscopic characterization of random peptides and mutant proteins, preliminary studies on enzyme-mediated fatty acid vesicle formation, membrane protein reconstitution, effect of THz radiation on lipid vesicles, expression of protein in w/o emulsion, use of flow-cytometry to characterize vesicles. Currently he is involved in the Minimal Cell project (see CentroFermi) and on new approaches for understanding the origins of macromolecules in prebiotic conditions.

In 2007, he has co-edited a special issue of Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres on "Basic Questions about the Origins of Life (proceedings of the 4th Course of the International School on Complexity - Erice - 1-6 October 2006)". He is member of the International Liposome Society and of the Italian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics (SIBPA).

"A chemist following natural evolution" - interview with Pasquale on Science Careers.

Article Young Italian Scientists Take to the Streets, article on Science Careers featuring Pasquale's job perspectives

Courses at Uniroma3:
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Module I: enzymology; Module II: spectroscopy)

Publications:

1. Luisi, P. L.; Stano, P.; Rasi, S.; Mavelli, F.
A Possible Route to Prebiotic Vesicle Reproduction.
Artificial Life 2004, 10 (3), 297-308.

2. Stano, P.; Bufali, S.; Pisano, C.; Bucci, F.; Barbarino, M.; Santaniello, M.; Carminati, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Novel Camptothecin Analogue (Gimatecan)-containing Liposomes prepared by the Ethanol Injection Method.
J. Liposome Research 2004, 14 (1-2), 87-109.

3. Zumbuehl, A.; Jeannerat, D.; Martin, S. E.; Sohrmann, M.; Stano, P.; Vigassy, T.; Clark, D. D.; Hussey, S. L.; Peter, M.; Peterson, B. R.; Pretsch, E.; Walde, P.; Carreira, E. M.
An Amphotericin B-Fluorescein Conjugate as a Powerful Probe for Biochemical Studies of the Membrane.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 5181-5185.

4. Zumbuehl, A.; Stano, P.; Herr, D.; Walde, P.; Carreira, E. M.
Amphotericin B as a Potential Probe of the Physical State of Vesicle Membranes.
Org. Lett. 2004, 6 (21), 3683-3686.

5. Stano, P.; Bufali, S.; Domazou, A.; Luisi, P. L.
Effect of Trp oligopeptides on the size distribution of POPC liposomes. A dynamic light scattering and turbidimetric Study.
J. Lipos. Res. 2005, 15, 29-47

6. Osfouri, S.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Condensed DNA in Lipid Microcompartments
J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109, 19929-19935.

7. Luisi, P. L.; Ferri, F., Stano, P.
Approaches to a semi-synthetic minimal cell: a review.
Naturwissenschaften 2006, 93, 1-13.

8. Stano, P.; Wehrli, E.; Luisi, P. L.
Insights on the oleate vesicle self-reproduction.
J. Physics: Condensed Matter 2006, 18, S2231-S2238.

9. Ruiz-Mirazo, K.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Lysozyme effect on oleic acid/oleate vesicles.
J. Liposome Research 2006, 16, 143-154.

10. Sanna, C.; La Mesa, C.; Mannina, L.; Stano, P.; Viel, S.; Segre, A.
A new class of aggregates in aqueous solution: NMR, thermodynamic and light scattering study.
Langmuir 2006, 22, 6031-6041.

11. Chiarabelli, C.; Vrijbloed, J. W.; De Lucrezia, D.; Thomas, R. M.; Stano, P.; Polticelli, F.; Ottone, T.; Papa, E.; Luisi, P. L.
Investigation of de novo totally random biosequences. Part II. On the folding frequency in a totally random library of de novo proteins obtained by phage display.
Chemistry & Biodiversity 2006, 3, 840-859.

12. Luisi, P. L.; Chiarabelli, C.; Stano, P.
From the never born proteins to the minimal living cells: Two projects in synthetic biology.
Origin of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 2006, 36, 605-616.

13. Stano, P.; Ferri, F.; Luisi, P. L.
From the minimal genome to the minimal cell: theoretical and experimental investigations.
In "Life as we know it (Series: Cellular Origin, Life in Extreme Habitats and Astrobiology; vol. 10)", ed. J. Seckbach, Springer, Berlin, 2006, pp. 181-198.

15. Zumbuehl, A.; Stano, P.; Sohrmann, M.; Peter, M.; Walde, P.; Carreira, E. M.,
A novel strategy for bioconjugation: Synthesis and preliminary evaluation with amphotericin B.
Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry 2007, 5, 1339-1342.

16. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Basic Questions About the Origins of Life: Proceedings of the Erice International School of Complexity (Fourth Course).
Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 2007, 37, 303-307.

17. Stano, P. Question 7:
New Aspects of Interactions Among Vesicles.
Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres 2007, 37, 439-444.

18. Luisi, P. L.; Stano, P.; Murtas, G.; Kuruma, Y.; Ueda, T.
En route to semi-synthetic minimal cells.
In: "Proceedings of the Bordeaux Spring School on Modelling Complex Biological Systems in the Context of Genomics. April 3rd - 7th 2006". P. Amar; F. Képès; V. Norris; M. Beurton-Aimar; J.-P. Mazat. EDP Sciences, 2007, Les Ulis (Paris), pp. 19-30.

19. Fiordemondo, D.; Stano, P.
Lecithin-based water-in-oil compartments as dividing bioreactors.
ChemBioChem 2007, 8, 1965-1973.

20. Ramundo-Orlando, A; Gallerano, G. P.; Stano, P.; Doria, A.; Giovenale, E.; Messina, G.; Cappelli, M.; D'Arienzo, M.; Spassovsky, I.
Permeability changes induced by 130 GHz pulsed radiation on cationic liposomes loaded with carbonic anhydrase.
Bioelectromagnetics 2007, 28, 587-598.

21. Marcocci, L.; Casadei, M.; Faso, C.; Antoccia, A.; Stano, P.; Leone, S.; Mondovì, B.; Federico, R.; Tavladoraki, P.
Inducible expression of maize polyamine oxidase in the nucleus of MCF7 human breast cancer cells confers sensitivity to etoposide.
Amino Acids 2007, DOI 10.1007/s00726-007-0558-4.

22. Stano, P.; Murtas, G.; Luisi, P. L.
Semi-Synthetic Minimal Cells: New Advancements and Perspectives.
In "Protocells: Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter", ed. S. Rasmussen and M. Bedau. The MIT Press.
In press.

23. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Self-reproduction of micelles, reverse micelles and vesicles. Compartments disclose a general transformation pattern.
In: Advances on Planar Lipid Bilayers and Liposomes, A. Leitmannova Liu (Ed.). In press.

24. Stano, P., Luisi, P. L.
Precellular Evolution: Vesicles and Protocells.
In: Prebiotic Evolution and Astrobiology. A. Lazcano and J.T. Wong (eds.), In press.

25. Stano P.,
Self-reproduction of vesicles and other compartments: a review.
In CRC Handbook of Surface and Colloid Chemistry - Third Edition - K. S. Birdi (ed.) CRC PRESS, Jill, Boca Raton, USA. In press