ViroStatics

The Laboratory Senior team


Denis V. Baev, PhD Flow Cytometry Unit, Director D.Baev@virostatics.com		Denis V. Baev, PhD joined ViroStatics as our Flow Cytometry Unit head in 2008 and is currently developing new analytical patterns for anti-HIV drug testing and managing all the flow cytometry related projects. Denis obtained his PhD degree in biophysics from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (Moscow, Russia). Prtior to joining Virostsatics, Dr. Baev was employed as a postdoctoral researcher in The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles (Los Angeles, USA) and in San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) dealing with rare T cell subsets and multicolor flow cytometry.



Maria G. Camboni, PhD Immunology Unit, Senior Researcher MG.Camboni@virostatics.com		Maria Gavina Camboni, PhD, is a biologist who gained experience in the HIV field in the Laboratory of Virology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla (USA), where she studied the mechanism of HIV infection by engenering of viral genome and, subsequently, in the Ematology Department of AMGEN (Thousand Oaks, USA). She obtained a post-doc position at the Sassari University where she evaluated new protocols to engineering endothelial progenitor cells by Lentiviral Vectors. Maria Gavina joined Virostatics in 2009 as Senior Researcher of Immunology Unit and she is now focused on the PHPC assay (Precursor with hight proliferative capacities assay) used in both drug therapy and vaccine clinical trials.



Giulia Cugia, PhD Drug Development Unit, Senior Researcher g.cugia@virostatics.com		Giulia Cugia has recently completed her PhD course in Mechanisms of Cell Regulation at the University "Carlo Bo" of Urbino (Italy) where she studied the effects of ionizing radiation on cryopreserved cells by flow cytometric methods focusing on DNA content evaluation, cell proliferation studies and analysis of phenotypic markers for mutation tests. She joined ViroStatics in 2011 and works in the Drug Development Laboratory with Dr De Forni.



Davide De Forni, MSc Drug Development Unit, Director D.Deforni@virostatics.com		Davide De Forni, is a biologist who gained experience in the HIV field in the laboratories of the Department of Oncology and Surgical Sciences, Reference Centre for AIDS (University of Padua), where he studied immune reconstitution in HIV-1-infected children on antiretroviral therapy. Dr. De Forni was employed by the Biotechnology Research Institute of Altavilla Vicentina (Vicenza, Italy) in the biochemistry laboratory dealing with purification of recombinant proteins from cell cultures. Davide's expertise includes biochemistry and both molecular and cellular biology. Davide joined ViroStatics in 2006 as New Products Unit Director and he is now actively screening new drug candidates in the Company's Drug Development Laboratory.



Claudia Pisano, PhD Immunology Unit, Senior Researcher c.pisano@virostatics.com		Claudia Pisano is a biologist who has studied lipid membrane rearrangement as a co-receptor in macrophage recognition of apoptotic cells. She is specialized in Microbiology and Virology, with experience in molecular diagnosis of agents causing zoonosis. Dr Pisano joined ViroStatics in 2011 and works in the Drug Development Laboratory with Dr De Forni.



Barbara Poddesu, MSc Drug Development Unit, Senior Researcher B.Poddesu@virostatics.com		Barbara Poddesu is a biologist specialised in Microbiology and Virology who has joined ViroStatics in 2009. She has a good experience in the virology field, specially HIV and Flavivirus, gained working at the University of Cagliari, at Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven (Belgium) and recently at Idenix. During her worling experience, she was involved in drug discovery projects and Identification of cofactor of HIV-1 replication. At present, she works in the Drug Development Laboratory with dr. De Forni.



Antonio Solinas, PhD Chemical Unit, Senior Researcher A.Solinas@virostatics.com		After a degree in Chemistry from the University of Sassari, Antonio Solinas received his PhD from the University of Southampton, UK in 2002. In Southampton, he worked in the group of Professor Tom Brown, developing an interest in modified oligonucleotides and fluorescence-based single nucleotide polymorphysm detection assays. After a post-doctoral position at the University of Southampton, funded by the Ministry of Defence of England (where he studied the possibilit of new fluorescence-based PCR assays), in 2004 he joined Professor Maurizio Taddei at the University of Siena, focusing his interest in the fields of polymer-supported reagents and novel Hedgehog Signalling Pathway inhibitors. In 2009, Antonio Solinas joined Virostatics as a Senior Researcher in the Chemistry Unit.