Carla Montesano    

Curriculum Vitae
Full-degree in “Biological Sciences”, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
Post-degree specialisation in “Biotechnology” University of Rome “Tor Vergata”
PhD in Immunology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Employment and Research activity
1997-1998Research Fellow at Oncology Division of St George’s Hospital Medical School, University of London, London – UK.
1998-2000 Fellowship for researches on AIDS (Italian National Institute of Health)
March 2000-September 2004 and October 2006-2007: Permanent position at National Institute for Infectious Diseases, I.R.C.C.S. “LazzaroSpallanzani”, Rome, Italy.
2004-2006Research Fellowship for Research and educational projects (CIFAPPS and Department of Biology University of Rome “Tor Vergata”); Project L.212/92 Cooperation Italy-Morocco (Ministery of Foreign Affairs -University of Rome “Tor Vergata”).
2005-2006 European Union Consultant for “Benghazi Action Plan” for organization and re-qualification of Benghazi Centre for Infection Diseases and Immunology and healthy workers training in Libya.
2007-Assistant Professor(MED/04), Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Teaching and tutoring activity
1999- :coordinatorand teacher fortraining courseson immunologyof infectious diseasesand innovative technologies appliedto the diagnosisand monitoring ofinfections and transfer technology in Developing countries (University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and IsIAO).
2007- : General Pathology, Molecular basis of cellular response to infection and Immunologycourses for Degree(II level) in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Human Biology and in Biology and Human Evolution, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”

Research topics
The research activity is mainly aimed to the study of host-pathogen in infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B and C and leishmaniasis and their implications for the development of therapeutic strategies, vaccine and diagnostics.
Characterization of immune response of HIV-infected paediatric patients under antiretroviral therapy and anti-HIV therapeutic vaccination. Analysis of immunogeneticfactors (HLA, KIR and LIR) associated to HIV disease progression.

Selected Publications (2007-2014)
1. Montesano C, Bonanno CT, Grifoni A, Di Sano C, Palma P, Castelli-Gattinara G, Mattei M, Mancino G, Salerno A, Colizzi V and Amicosante M.Impact of Human Leukocyte Antigen Polymorphisms in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Progression in a Paediatric Cohort Infected With a Mono-Phyletic Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1 Strain Journal of AIDS & Clinical Research (in press)
2. Palma P, Romiti ML, Montesano C, Santilli V, Mora N, Aquilani A, Dispinseri S, Tchidjou HK., Montano M, Eriksson LE., Baldassari S, Bernardi S, Scarlatti G, Rossi P, Wahren B. Therapeutic DNA vaccination of vertically HIV-infected children: report of the first pediatric randomised trial (PEDVAC). PLOSOne 2013 Nov 28.
3. Grifoni A, Montesano C, Patronov A, Colizzi V, Amicosante M. Immunoinformatic Docking Approach for the Analysis of KIR3DL1/HLA-B Interaction. Biomed Res Int. 2013;2013:283805. doi: 10.1155/2013/283805. Epub 2013 Aug 1.
4. ElDaker S, Sacchi A, Montesano C, Altieri AM, Galluccio G, Colizzi V, Martini F, Martino A.
An abnormal phenotype of lung Vγ9Vδ2 T cells impairs their responsiveness in tuberculosis patients.
Cell Immunol. 2013 Apr;282(2):106-12. doi: 10.1016/j.cellimm.2013.05.001. Epub 2013 May 15
5. Grifoni A, Montesano C, Palma P, Salerno A, Colizzi V, Amicosante M. Role of HLA-B α-3 domain amino acid position 194 in HIV diseaseprogression. MolImmunol. 2013 Apr;53(4):410-3.
6. Galgani A, Mancino G, Martínez-Labarga C, Cicconi R, Mattei M, Amicosante M, Bonanno CT, Di Sano C, Gimil GS, Salerno A, Colizzi V, Montesano C. HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 allele frequencies in Cyrenaicapopulation (Libya) and geneticrelationships with otherpopulations. Hum Immunol. 2013 74(1):52-9
7. Tabolacci C, Oliverio S, Lentini A, Rossi S, Galbiati A, Montesano C, Mattioli P, Provenzano B, Facchiano F, Beninati S. Aloe-emodin as antiproliferative and differentiating agent on human U937 monoblasticleukemia cells. Life Sci. 2011 Nov 21;89(21-22):812-20.
8. Palma P, Romiti ML, Li Pira G, Montesano C, Mora N, Aquilani A, Santilli V, Tchidjou HK, Ivaldi F, Giovannelli L, Pontrelli G, Borra G, Blomberg P, Gudmundsdotter L, Bråve A, Montano M, Bernardi S, Manca F, Wahren B, Rossi P. The PEDVAC trial: Preliminary data from the first therapeutic DNA vaccination in HIV-infected children. Vaccine2011 Sep 9;29(39):6810-6
9. Montesano C, Anselmi A, Palma P, Bernardi S, Cicconi R, Mattei M, Castelli-Gattinara G, Ciccozzi M, Colizzi. HIV replication leads to skewed maturation of CD8-positive T-cell responses in infected children. V, Amicosante M. New Microbiol. 2010 Oct;33(4):303-9.
10. P. Palma, ML Romiti, C. Cancrini, S. Pensieroso, C. Montesano, MB Santucci, Bernardi, M. Amicosante, S. Di Cesare, B. Wahren, P. Rossi & G. Castelli-Gattinara. Delayed early antiretroviral treatment is associated with an HIV- specific long-term cellular response in HIV-1 vertically infected infants. Vaccine 2008 Sep 19;26(40):5196-201. Epub 2008 Apr 15
11. D Alesiani, R Cicconi, M Mattei, C Montesano, R Bei and A Canini. Cell cycle arrest and differentiation induction by 5,7-dimethoxycoumarin in melanoma cell lines. Int J Oncol. 2008 Feb;32(2):425-34
12. Palma P, Romiti ML, Cancrini C, Pensieroso S, Montesano C, Santucci MB, Bernardi S, Martino AM, Rossi P &Castelli-Gattinara G. Successful simplification of protease inhibitor-based HAART with triple nucleoside regimens in HIV-1 vertically infected children. AIDS 2007 30;21(18): 2465-2472