Associate Professor
Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences
Via Ottorino Rossi, n.9
21100 Varese
Tel: +39 0332 217 212
Fax: +39 0332 217.219
E-mail: douglas.noonan@uninsubria.it

Born in Washington, DC (USA) in 1957, Prof. Noonan is married with two children. Prof. Noonan obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in biology at the College of Wooster, (Ohio) in 1979 and his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio in 1985.

While a postdoc at the National Institute for Dental Research at NIH he published landmark papers on the sequence of perlecan the major heparan sulfate proteoglycan of basement membranes and other extracellular matrice, and is a recognized expert in basement membrane structure and function.

After moving to Italy in 1988 he worked on alterations in basement membrane proteoglycans in the pathogenesis of diabetes, and also became interested in mechanisms of tumor invasion and angiogenesis. He works extensively on AIDS associated Kaposi’s sarcoma, a highly angiogenic neoplasm, and on the HIV Tat protein.

Professor Noonan received a Graduate degree in Biology , in 1992 and a Specializzazione in Patologia Clinica, indirizzo tecnico, in 1998, both from the University of Geneva. Professor Noonan has over 100 publications in recognized international scientific journals, and several patents.

Prof. Noonan has held the following positions: from 1985-1988 Postdoctoral Fellow, Lab. of Developmental Biology and Anomalies, NIDR, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA; from 1988-1993 he was a “Contrattista” in the Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro (IST), and an adjunct Professor, in the University of Genova, Genova, Italy.

In 1993 he became a Dirigente I° Livello, (research scientist, tenured) at the IST, and in 1999 he became Chief of the Tumor Progression section at the same Institute. In December of 2004 he moved to become Associate Professor at the University of Insubria in Varese.

He is a member of the Società Italiana di Cancerologia, the Società Italiana di Patologia, and the American Association for Cancer Research. He was a member of the Conseil Scientifique et D'orientation, Centre Antoine-Lacassagne – Nice, from 2000-2004. Dr Noonan participates in numerous scientific meetings each year, often as an invited speaker or lecturer.

The studies of Professor Noonan focus on the molecular mechanisms leading to tumor cell invasion and metastasis as well as tumor angiogenesis, and on the discovery of inhibitors of these processes and their mechanisms. Using his molecular biology expertise he studied the retina specific gene IRBP in retinoblastoma and the onco-suppressor gene RB axis in cancer and its potential pharmacological regulation.

Prof Noonan has worked extensively on AIDS associated Kaposi’s sarcoma (KS), a highly angiogenic neoplasm and on the HIV-Tat protein, a co-factor for KS. He described several novel functions of this HIV-Tat protein, including identification of its heparin binding, VEGF and chemokine mimicry activities that may underlie KS pathogenesis in AIDS patients. He also studied the potential therapeutic effect of various drugs aimed at curbing tumor cell invasion and/or angiogenesis, most recently on chemoprevention molecules targeting angiogenesis. He has an active program on cancer gene therapy and has pursued the concepts of inhibition of tumor growth and spread through anti-angiogenic and immuno-modulatory approaches, a prelude to tumor vaccination. Dr. Noonan also has a strong interest in the role of leukocytes in regulating tumor angiogenesis and their validity as a target in the therapy and prevention of cancer.

1. Noonan, D. M., Severino, A., Morini, M., Tritarelli, A., Manente, L., D'Agnano, I., Starace, G., Baldi, A., Lombardi, D., Albini, A., Felsani, A., and Paggi, M. G. (2005) In vitro and in vivo tumor growth inhibition by a p16-mimicking peptide in p16(INK4A)-defective, pRb-positive human melanoma cells. J Cell Physiol 202, 922-928

2. Benelli, R., Lorusso, G., Albini, A., and Noonan, D. M. (2005) Cytokines and Chemokines as regulators of angiogenesis in health and disease. Curr Pharm Des. in press

3. Albini, A., Tosetti, F., Benelli, R., and Noonan, D. M. (2005) Tumor Inflammatory Angiogenesis and its Chemoprevention. Cancer Res. in press

4. Albini, A., and Noonan, D. M. (2005) Rescuing COX-2 Inhibitors From the Waste Bin [Letter]. JNCI 97, 859-860

5. Morini, M., Albini, A., Lorusso, G., Moelling, K., Lu, B., Cilli, M., Ferrini, S., and Noonan, D. M. (2004) Prevention of angiogenesis by naked DNA IL-12 gene transfer: angioprevention by immunogene therapy. Gene Ther 11, 284-291

6. Noonan, D. M., Gringeri, A., Meazza, R., Rosso, O., Mazza, S., Muca-Perja, M., Le Buanec, H., Accolla, R. S., Albini, A., and Ferrini, S. (2003) Identification of immunodominant epitopes in inactivated Tat-vaccinated healthy and HIV-1-infected volunteers. J Acquir Immune Defic Syndr 33, 47-55.

7. Benelli, R., Albini, A., and Noonan, D. (2003) Neutrophils and angiogenesis: potential initiators of the angiogenic cascade. In The neutrophil: An emerging regulator of inflammatory and immune response (Cassatella, M. A., ed) Vol. 83 pp. 167-181., Karger, Basel

8. Indraccolo, S., Gola, E., Rosato, A., Minuzzo, S., Habeler, W., Tisato, V., Roni, V., Esposito, G., Morini, M., Albini, A., Noonan, D. M., Ferrantini, M., Amadori, A., and Chieco-Bianchi, L. (2002) Differential effects of angiostatin, endostatin and interferon-alpha(1) gene transfer on in vivo growth of human breast cancer cells. Gene Ther 9, 867-878.

9. Benelli, R., Morini, M., Carrozzino, F., Ferrari, N., Minghelli, S., Santi, L., Cassatella, M., Noonan, D. M., and Albini, A. (2002) Neutrophils as a key cellular target for angiostatin: implications for regulation of angiogenesis and inflammation. Faseb J 16, 267-269; 210.1096/fj.1001-0651fje

10. Brigati, C., Noonan, D. M., Albini, A., and Benelli, R. (2002) Tumors and inflammatory infiltrates: friends or foes? Clin Exp Metastasis 19, 247-258

11. Indraccolo, S., Morini, M., Gola, E., Carrozzino, F., Habeler, W., Minghelli, S., Santi, L., Chieco-Bianchi, L., Cao, Y., Albini, A., and Noonan, D. M. (2001) Effects of angiostatin gene transfer on functional properties and in vivo growth of kaposi's sarcoma cells. Cancer Res 61, 5441-5446.

12. Albini, A., Morini, M., D'Agostini, F., Ferrari, N., Campelli, F., Arena, G., Noonan, D. M., Pesce, C., and De Flora, S. (2001) Inhibition of angiogenesis-driven Kaposi's sarcoma tumor growth in nude mice by oral N-acetylcysteine. Cancer Res 61, 8171-8178.

13. Barbero, A., Benelli, R., Minghelli, S., Tosetti, F., Dorcaratto, A., Ponzetto, C., Wernig, A., Cullen, M. J., Albini, A., and Noonan, D. M. (2001) Growth factor supplemented matrigel improves ectopic skeletal muscle formation--a cell therapy approach. J Cell Physiol 186, 183-192.

14. Noonan, D. M., and Albini, A. (2000) From the outside in: extracellular activities of HIV Tat. In HIV: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications (Jeang, K. T., ed) Vol. 48 pp. 229-250, Academic Press, San Diego, CA

15. Albini, A., Benelli, R., Giunciuglio, D., Cai, T., Mariani, G., Ferrini, S., and Noonan, D. M. (1998) Identification of a novel domain of HIV tat involved in monocyte chemotaxis. J Biol Chem 273, 15895-15900

16. Albini, A., Ferrini, S., Benelli, R., Sforzini, S., Giunciuglio, D., Aluigi, M. G., Proudfoot, A. E., Alouani, S., Wells, T. N., Mariani, G., Rabin, R. L., Farber, J. M., and Noonan, D. M. (1998) HIV-1 Tat protein mimicry of chemokines. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 95, 13153-13158

17. Cai, T., Fassina, G., Morini, M., Aluigi, M. G., Masiello, L., Fontanini, G., D'Agostini, F., De Flora, S., Noonan, D. M., and Albini, A. (1999) N-acetylcysteine inhibits endothelial cell invasion and angiogenesis. Lab Invest 79, 1151-1159

18. Albini, A., Marchisone, C., Del Grosso, F., Benelli, R., Masiello, L., Tacchetti, C., Bono, M., Ferrantini, M., Rozera, C., Truini, M., Belardelli, F., Santi, L., and Noonan, D. M. (2000) Inhibition of Angiogenesis and Vascular Tumor Growth by Interferon- Producing Cells : A Gene Therapy Approach. Am J Pathol 156, 1381-1393

19. Aviezer, D., Iozzo, R. V., Noonan, D. M., and Yayon, A. (1997) Suppression of autocrine and paracrine functions of basic fibroblast growth factor by stable expression of perlecan antisense cDNA. Mol Cell Biol 17, 1938-1946

20. Adatia, R., Albini, A., Carlone, S., Giunciuglio, D., Benelli, R., Santi, L., and Noonan, D. M. (1997) Suppression of invasive behavior of melanoma cells by stable expression of anti-sense perlecan cDNA. Ann Oncol 8, 1257-1261

21. Valente, P., Melchiori, A., Paggi, M. G., Masiello, L., Ribatti, D., Santi, L., Takahashi, R., Albini, A., and Noonan, D. M. (1996) RB1 oncosuppressor gene over-expression inhibits tumor progression and induces melanogenesis in metastatic melanoma cells. Oncogene 13, 1169-1178

22. Albini, A., Benelli, R., Presta, M., Rusnati, M., Ziche, M., Rubartelli, A., Paglialunga, G., Bussolino, F., and Noonan, D. (1996) HIV-tat protein is a heparin-binding angiogenic growth factor. Oncogene 12, 289-297

23. Albini, A., Soldi, R., Giunciuglio, D., Giraudo, E., Benelli, R., Primo, L., Noonan, D., Salio, M., Camussi, G., Rockl, W., and Bussolino, F. (1996) The angiogenesis induced by HIV-1 tat protein is mediated by the Flk- 1/KDR receptor on vascular endothelial cells. Nat Med 2, 1371-1375

24. Gambaro, G., Venturini, A. P., Noonan, D. M., Fries, W., Re, G., Garbisa, S., Milanesi, C., Pesarini, A., Borsatti, A., Marchi, E., and Baggio, B. (1994) Treatment with a glycosaminoglycan formulation ameliorates experimental diabetic nephropathy. Kidney Int 46, 797-806

25. Kofoed-Enevoldsen, A., Noonan, D., and Deckert, T. (1993) Diabetes mellitus induced inhibition of glucosaminyl N-deacetylase: effect of short-term blood glucose control in diabetic rats. Diabetologia 36, 310-315

26. Noonan, D. M., and Hassell, J. R. (1993) Perlecan, the large low-density proteoglycan of basement membranes: structure and variant forms. Kidney Int 43, 53-60

27. Noonan, D. M., Fulle, A., Valente, P., Cai, S., Horigan, E., Sasaki, M., Yamada, Y., and Hassell, J. R. (1991) The complete sequence of perlecan, a basement membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, reveals extensive similarity with laminin A chain, low density lipoprotein-receptor, and the neural cell adhesion molecule. J Biol Chem 266, 22939-22947

28. Noonan, D. M., Horigan, E. A., Ledbetter, S. R., Vogeli, G., Sasaki, M., Yamada, Y., and Hassell, J. R. (1988) Identification of cDNA clones encoding different domains of the basement membrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan. J Biol Chem 263, 16379-16387

29. Albini, A., Toffenetti, J., Zhu, Z., Chader, G. J., and Noonan, D. M. (1990) Hypomethylation of the interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) promotor and first exon is linked to expression of the gene. Nucleic Acids Res 18, 5181-5187

30. Noonan, D. M., Malemud, D. J., and Przybylski, R. J. (1986) Biosynthesis of heparan sulfate proteoglycans of developing chick breast skeletal muscle in vitro. Exp Cell Res 166, 327-339