Andrea Maione

Research

I am a PhD graduate driven by the interest in understanding the mechanisms underlying the onset of immune disorders. I am honoured to have joined the Staal’s group as postdoctoral scientist and to contribute to the advancement of the cell therapy to treat autoimmune disorders. Here, I aim to investigate the development of T cells and to induce the differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells into antigen-specific regulatory T cells within an organ culture setting. I will employ a mouse model for Type-1 diabetes, in which endogenous insulin is targeted as foreign antigen, as proof-of concept to assess whether such a system can ultimately restore the immune tolerance in vivo.

Curriculum Vitae

Following my degrees in Molecular Biology at the Federico II University of Naples, Italy, I have attained a Joint-PhD degree in Immunology at the University of Bonn, Germany and the University of Melbourne, Australia. During my work as PhD candidate, I investigated the use of fusion proteins to induce immune tolerance towards coagulation FVIII in a mouse model for haemophilia A disease. Mice and patients with the condition are prone to prolonged bleeding and to neutralise the exogenous administered FVIII by a robust anti-factor immune response. The treatment under investigation seemed a promising therapeutic tool to induce immune tolerance within the experimental settings.