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)

Courses at Università of Venice
Ca' Foscari Physical Chemistry of Colloids (Module II: lipid vesicles: preparation, properties and applications)

Master in Nanotechnology 2008 (ICN Venice 2009)
Liposomes in Basic and applied Science

Publications:

1. Stano, P.
Sintesi di leganti bis-bidentati eterotopici contenenti una unità salicilaldimminica ed una fenolo-piridinica, e relativi complessi con nichel(II) e rame (II)
Tesi di Laurea, Università di Pisa, 2001.

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

3. 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.
Journal of Liposome Research 2004, 14 (1-2), 87-109.

4. 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.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2004, 43, 5181-5185.

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

6. 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.
Journal of Liposome Research 2005, 15, 29-47.

7. Osfouri, S.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Condensed DNA in lipid microcompartments.
Journal of Physical Chemistry B 2005, 109, 19929-19935.

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

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

10. Stano, P.; Wehrli, E.; Luisi, P. L.
Insights on the self-reproduction of oleate vesicles.
Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 2006, 18, S2231-S2238.

11. 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.

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

13. 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.

14. Luisi, P. L.; Chiarabelli, C.; Stano, P.
From the Never Born Proteins to the Minimal Living Cell: Two Projects in Synthetic Biology.
Origins of Life and Evolution of the Biosphere 2006, 36, 605-616.

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 2008, 34, 403-412.

22. Spedaletti V.; Polticelli, F.; Capodaglio, V.; Schininà, M. E.; Stano, P.; Federico, R.; Tavladoraki, P.
Characterization of a lysine-specific histone demethylase from Arabidopsis thaliana.
Biochemistry 2008, 47, 4936-4947.

23. Norris, V.; Zemirline, A.; Amar, P.; Ballet, P.; Ben-Jacob, E.; Bernot G.; Beslon, G.; Danos, V.; Giavitto, J.-L.; Greussay, P.; Hutzler, G.; Kepes, F.; Michel, O.; Misevic, G.; Molina, F.; Signorini, J.; Stano, P.; Thierry, A.
Bactoputing Perspective: Computing with bacteria.
In: "Proceedings of the Lille Spring School on Modelling Complex Biological Systems in the Context of Genomics. Lille, France". Poudret M.; Comet J.-P.; Le Gall P.; Képès F.; Arnould A.; Meseure P.; Verbavatz J.-M.; Rambourg A. (eds.). EDP Sciences, 2008, Les Ulis (Paris), pp. 133-160.

24. 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.). 2008, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 221-263.

25. Stano, P.;
Approaches to the Construction of the Minimal Cell.
In: Proceedings of the Third International Conference "Smart Material Structures Systems" (CIMTEC 2008) Acireale 8-13/06/2008; P. Vincenzini and S. Graziani (Eds.). Advances in Science and Technology 2008, 58, 10-19.

26. Luisi, P. L.; Souza, T.; Stano, P
Vesicle behaviour: In search of explanations.
J. Phys. Chem. B 2008, 112, 14655-14664.

27. Gorlero, M.; Wieczorek, R.; Adamala, K.; Giorgi, A.; Schininà, M. E.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Ser-His catalyses the formation of peptides and PNAs. FEBS Letters 2008, 583, 153-156.

28. Kuruma, Y.; Stano, P.; Ueda, T.; Luisi, P. L.,
A synthetic biology approach to the construction of membrane proteins in semi-synthetic minimal cells.
Biochim. Biophys. Acta 2009, 1788, 567-574.

29. Stano P.,
Self-reproduction of vesicles and other compartments: a review.
In CRC Handbook of Surface and Colloid Chemistry – Third Edition – 2009, K. S. Birdi (ed.), CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, LLC, Boca Raton, USA; pp. 681-702.

30. Stano, P.; Murtas, G.; Luisi, P. L.
Semi-Synthetic Minimal Cells: New Advancements and Perspectives.
In: "Protocells. Bridging Nonliving and Living Matter". S. Ransmussen, M. A. Bedau, L. Chen, D. Deamer, D. C. Krakauer, N. H. Packard and P. F. Stadler (eds.); MIT Press, 2009, Cambridge, Massachusetts; pp. 39-70.

31. Souza, T.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
The minimal size of liposome-based model cells brings about a remarkably enhanced entrapment and protein synthesis.
ChemBioChem, 2009, 10, 1056-1063.

32. Stano, P., Luisi, P. L.
Precellular Evolution: Vesicles and Protocells.
In: Prebiotic Evolution and Astrobiology. A. Lazcano and J. T. Wong (eds.), 2009, Landes Bioscience, Austin, Texas US; pp. 94-105.

33. Zumbuehl, A.; Stano, P.; Sohrmann, M.; Dietiker, R.; Peter, M.; Carreira, E. M.
Synthesis and Investigation of Tryptophan–Amphotericin B Conjugates.
ChemBioChem. 2009, 10, 1617-1620.

34. Stano, P.;
Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology. Edited by Pengcheng Fu and Sven Panke.
ChemBioChem 2009, 10, 2672-2673.

35. Chiarabelli, C.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Chemical Approaches to Synthetic Biology.
Curr. Opin. Biotech. 2009, 20, 492-497.

36. Stano, P.; Ruiz-Mirazo, K.
I quesiti di San Sebastián.
Sapere 2009, 5, 14-16.

37. Stano, P.
Prove di vita minima.
Sapere 2009, 5, 20-27.

38. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Semi-synthetic minimal cells.
In: Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation: Proceedings of Wivace 2008; R. Serra, M. Villani, I. Poli (eds);
World Scientific Publishing Co Pte Ltd., 2009, #24.

39. Stano, P.
Cellule artificiali: dall'attuale quadro teorico-sperimentale al loro uso come robot molecolari.
In: Modelli, sistemi e applicazioni di Vita Artificiale e Computazione Evolutiva – Atti del Convegno WIVACE 2009. O. Miglino, M. Ponticorvo, A. Rega, F. Rubinacci (eds.); Fridericiana Editrice Universitaria, Napoli, 2009. Pp. 193-198.

40. Stano, P.; Kuruma, Y.; Souza, T. P., Luisi, P. L.
Biosynthesis of proteins inside liposomes.
Methods in Molecular Biology 2010, 606, 127-145.

41. Mavelli, F.; Stano, P.
Kinetic models for autopoietic chemical systems: role of fluctuations in homeostatic regime,
Physical Biology 2010, 7, 016010.

42. Walde, P.; Cosentino, K.; Hengel, H.; Stano, P.
Giant Vesicles: Preparations and Applications.
ChemBioChem 2010, 11, 848-865.

43. Caschera, F.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Reactivity and fusion between cationic vesicles and fatty acid anionic vesicles.
Journal Colloid Interface Science 2010, 345, 561-565.

44. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Achievements and open questions in the self-reproduction of vesicles and synthetic minimal cells.
ChemComm 2010, 46, 3639-3653.

45. Stano, P.
Synthetic biology of minimal living cells: protocells models and semi-synthetic cells.
Systems and synthetic biology 2010, 4, 149-156.

46. Bersini, H.; Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.; Bedau, M. (eds.)
Philosophical and scientific perspectives on emergence.
Synthese 2010, DOI: 10.1007/s11229-010-9718-2.

47. Stano, P.
Minimal and primitive cells in origins of life, systems chemistry and synthetic biology.
Orig. Life Evol. Biosphere 2010, 40, 452-457.

48. Luisi, P. L., Ferri, F.; Stano, P.
Approaches to semi-synthetic minimal cells: a review. (Reprinted).
In: The Nature of Life: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives, M. Bedau and C. Cleland (eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010. Pp. 272-288.

49. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Reactions in Liposomes.
In "Molecular Encapsulation: Organic Reactions in Constrained Systems" U. H. Brinker and J.-L. Mieusset (eds.) Wiley, 2010. Pp. 455-492.

50. Stano, P.; Luisi, P. L.
Chemical approaches to synthetic biology: From vesicles self-reproduction to semi-synthetic minimal cells.
Artificial Life XII. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems. MIT press, Cambridge (MA), 2010. Pp. 147-153.

51. Luisi, P. L.; Allegretti, M.; Souza, T.; Steineger, F.; Fahr, A.; Stano, P.
Spontaneous protein crowding in liposomes: A new vista for the origin of cellular metabolism.
ChemBiochem 2010, 11, 1989-1992.

52. Stano, P. ; Luisi, P. L.
Costruire une cellule de toutes pièces.
La Recherche 2010, 445, 48-51.

53. Fabrini, F.; Bocedi, A.; Pallottini, V.; Canuti, L.; De Canio, M.; Urbani, A.; Marzano, V.; Cornetta, T.; Stano, P.; Giovanetti, A.; Stella, L.; Canini, A.; Federici, G.; Ricci, G.
Nuclear shield: A multi-enzyme task-force for nucleus protection.
Plos ONE 2010, 5, e14125.

54. Tavladoraki, P.; Cervelli, M.; Antonangeli, F.; Minervini, G.; Stano, P.; Federico, R.; Mariottini, P.; Polticelli, F.
Probing mammalian spermine oxidase enzyme-substrate complex through molecular modeling, site-directed mutagenesis and biochemical characterization.
Amino Acids 2011, 40, 1115-1126.

55. Luisi, P. L. and Stano, P. (Eds.)
The Minimal Cell.
Springer, 2011. Springer, Dordrecht.

56. Stano, P.; Souza, T. P.; Allegretti, M.; Kuruma, Y.; Luisi, P. L.
New and unexpected insights on the formation of protocells from a synthetic biology approach: The case of entrapment of biomacromolecules and protein synthesis inside vesicles.
In: "Minimal Cells", P. Stano, P. L. Luisi (Eds.) 2011, Springer, Dordrecht. Pp. 195-216.

57. Norris, V.; Zemirline, A.; Amar, P.; Audinot, J. N.; Ballet, P.; Ben-Jacob, E.; Bernot, G.; Beslon, G.; Cabin, a.; Fanchon, E.; Giavitto, J.-L.; Glade, N.; Greussay, P.; Grondin, Y.; Foster, J. A.; Hutzler, G.; Jost, J.; Kepes, F.; Michel, O.; Molina, F.; Signorini, J.; Stano, P.; Thierry, A. R.
Computing with bacterial constituents, cells and populations: From bioputing to bactoputing.
Theory in Biosciences 2011, 130, 211-228.

58. Stano, P.; Ferri, F.; Luisi, P. L.
Semi-synthetic minimal living cells.
In: "Chemical Synthetic Biology", P. L. Luisi, C. Chiarabelli (Eds.) Wiley, Chichester, 2011. Pp. 247-286.

59. Stano, P., Luisi, P. L
On the construction of minimal cell models in synthetic biology and origins of life studies.
In: "Design and Analysis of Biomolecular Circuits: Engineering Approaches to Systems and Synthetic Biology", H. Koeppl; G. Setti; M. Di Bernardo; D. Densmore (Eds.), Springer, Dordrecht, 2011; pp. 337-368.

60. Stano, P.;
Minimal cells: Relevance and interplay of physical and biochemical factors.
Biotechnology Journal 2011, 6, 850-859.

61. Stano, P.; Carrara, P.; Souza, T., Luisi, P. L.
An update on the minimal cell project: From the physics of solute encapsulation to the experimental modeling of cell communities.
In: "Advances in Artificial Life, ECAL 2011: Proceedings of the Eleventh European Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems", T. Lenaerts, M. Giacobini, H. Bersini, P. Bourgine, M. Dorigo and R. Doursat (Eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge (MA), 2011. Pp. 779-780.

62. Stano, P.;
Advances in minimal cell models: A new approach to synthetic biology and origin of life.
In "Progress in Molecular and Environmental Bioengineering - From Analysis and Modeling to Technology Applications" A. Carpi (Ed.), Intech - Open Access Publisher, Rijeka, Croatia, 2011. Pp. 23-44.

63. Luisi, P. L.; Stano, P.
Minimal cell mimicry.
Nature Chem. 2011, 3, 755-756.

64. Souza, T.; Steiniger, F.; Stano, P.; Fahr, A., Luisi, P. L.
Spontaneous crowding of ribosomes and proteins inside vesicles: A possible mechanism for the origin of cell metabolism.
ChemBioChem 2011, 12, 2325-2330.

65. Stano, P.; Carrara, P.; Kuruma, Y.; Souza, T.; Luisi, P. L.
Compartmentalized reactions as a case of soft-matter biotechnology: Synthesis of proteins and nucleic acids inside lipid vesicles.
Journal of Material Chemistry, 2011, 21, 18887-18902.