Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Department of Experimental and Clinical Biomedical Sciences
via Dunant 5 21100 VARESE
Tel: 39-0332-217142
Fax: 39-0332-217119
E-mail: alberto.passi@uninsubria.it

Education
1995 Specialization Specialization in Clinical Chemistry cum laude, University of Pavia.

1992 Doctoral Degree Doctoral Degree in Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry, University of Pavia and Genova, Italy.

1987 Degree Degree in Medicine and Surgery cum laude, University of Pavia, Italy.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATION
Graduate student, Medical School University of Munich (Germany)
Research Fellow, Chemical Morphology University of Manchester (UK)

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
(2001-present) Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical Experimental and Clinical Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese, School of Medicine

(1998-2001) Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Experimental and Clinical Sciences, University of Insubria, Varese, School of Medicine.

(1992-1998) Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Pavia, School of Medicine.

(1990-1998) Instructor of Biochemistry and Applied Biochemistry, University of Pavia School of Medicine.

EXPERIENCE
Research Scholar Cleveland Clinic Foundation (2000-01)
Postdoctoral fellow Department of Biochemistry University of Pavia (1991-1992)

Ph.D. student Department of Biochemistry University of Pavia and Genova (1988-1991)

Military Service Military Service in Italian Air Force.

CLINICAL APPOINTMENTS
Hospital emergency service (1989-1992)

1.     Albertini R., Rindi S., Passi A., Bardoni A., Salvini R., Pallavicini G., De Luca G. “The effect of cornea proteoglycans on liposome peroxidation” (1996) Arch.Biochem.Biophys. 327, 209-214.

2.     Albertini R., Rindi S., Passi A, Pallavicini G., De Luca G. “Heparin protectionagainst Fe2+ and Cu2+ mediated oxidation of liposomes” (1996) FEBS Letters 383, 155-158.

3.     Negrini, D.; Passi, A.; De Luca, G.; Miserocchi, G. “Pulmonary interstitial pressure and proteoglycans during development of pulmonary edema” (1996) Am. J. Physiol. 270 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 39), H2000-2007.

4.     Albertini, R.; Ramos, P.; Giessauf, A.; Passi, A.; De Luca, G.; Hesterbauer, H. “Chondroitin-4-sulphate exhibits inhibitory effect during Cu²⁺-mediated LDL oxidation”. (1997) FEBS Letters  403, 154-158.

5.     Passi, A.; Albertini, R.; Campagnari, F.and De Luca G. “Modifications of proteoglycans secreted into the growth medium by young and senescent human skin fibroblasts”. (1997) FEBS Letters 402, 286-290.

6.     Passi, A.; Albertini, R.; Campagnari, F.and De Luca G. “Modifications of proteoglycans extracted from monolayer cultures of young and senescent fibroblasts”. (1997) FEBS Letters 420, 175-178.

7.     Negrini, D.; Passi, A.; De Luca, G.; Miserocchi, G. “Proteoglycan involvement during development of lesional pulmonary edema” (1998) Am. J. Physiol. vol. 274 (2 Pt 1), L203-211.

8.     Passi, A., Negrini, D.; Albertini, R.; De Luca, G.; Miserocchi, G.:” Involvement of lung interstitial proteoglycans in development of hydraulic- and elastase-induced edema.” (1998) Am J Physiol. Vol.275 (3Pt.1):L631-L635.

9.     Passi, A., Negrini, D.; Albertini, R.; De Luca, G.; Miserocchi, G.:” The sensitivity of versican from rabbit lung to gelatinase A (MMP-2) and B (MMP-9) and its involvement in the development of hydraulic lung edema. “ (1999) FEBS Lett. 30; 456 (1) :93-6.

10.   Miserocchi, G., Passi, A., Albertini, R., Negrini, D., De Luca, G. “ Interstitial pressure and proteoglycan degradation in hydraulic- and elastase-induced lung edema.” (1999) Chest.;116:31.      

11.    Albertini, R., De Luca, G., Passi, A., Moratti, R., Abuja, P.” Chondroitin-4-sulfate protects high-density lipoprotein against copper-dependent oxidation. “ (1999) Arch Biochem Biophys. 1;365(1):143-9.

12.   Albertini R, De Luca G, Palladini G, Passi A, Melzi d'Eril GV, Abuja PM “ Mechanistic aspects of the relationship between low-level chemiluminescence and lipid peroxides in oxidation of low-density lipoprotein. “ (1999) FEBS Lett.;459(1):47-50.

13.   Albertini R. Passi A. Abuja PM. De Luca G. The effect of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans on lipid peroxidation. (2000) International Journal of Molecular Medicine. 6(2):129-136.

14.   Negrini D., Passi A., Bertin K., Bosi F., Wiig H. “ Isolation of pulmonary interstitial fluid in rabbits by a modified wick technique”. (2001) Am J Physiol. Lung Cellular & Molecular Physiology. 280(5):L1057-65.

15.   Miserocchi G., Negrini D., Passi A. De Luca G “ Development of lung edema: interstitial fluid dynamics and molecular structure” (2001) News Physiol Sci. 16:66-71.

16.   Miserocchi G., Passi A.,Negrini D., Del Fabbro M., De Luca G. “Pulmonary interstitial pressure and tissue matrix structure in acute hypoxia” (2001) Am J Physiol. Lung Cellular & Molecular Physiology. 280(5):L881-7.

17.   Leoni V., Albertini R., Passi A., Abuja PM., Borroni P., Melzi d’Eril G., De Luca G. “ Glucose accelerates copper-and ceruplasmin-induced oxidation of low density lipoprotein and whole serum”. (2002) Free Rad. Res; 36(5); pp.521-529.

18.   Sciannamblo MT, Chigorno V, Passi A, Valaperta R, Zucchi I and Sandro Sonnino “Changes of the gangliosides pattern and content in human fibroblasts by high density population subculture progression” (2003) Glycoconjugate Journal, 19, 181-186.

19.   Vigetti D., Viola M., Gornati R., Ori M., Nardi I., Passi A., De Luca G., Bernardini G. “Molecular cloning, genomic organization and developmental expression of the Xenopus laevis hyaluronan synthase 3”. (2003) In Matrix biology, 22, pagg 511-517.

20.   Karousou E., Porta G., De Luca G. and Passi A. Analysis of fluorophore-labelled hyaluronan and chondroitin sulfate disaccharides in biological samples (2003) Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis vol 34/4, 791-795.

21.   Raio L., Ghezzi F., Cromi A., Cereda E., Passi A. Sonographic Morphology and Hyaluronan Content of Umbilical Cords of Healthy and Down Syndrome Fetuses (2004) Early Gestation Earl Human Dev. vol.77, 1-12

22.   Passi A., Sadeghi P., Kawamura H., Anand S., Sato N., White L.E., Hascall V.C., Maytin E.V. hyaluronan suppresses late markers of epidermal differentiation in organotypic cultures of rat keratinocytes (2004) Experimental Cell Research 296/2, 123-134

23.   Karousou E.G., Militsopoulou M., Porta G., De Luca G., Hascall VC, Passi A. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of fluorophore-labeled hyaluronan and chondroitin sulfate disaccharides. Application to the analysis in cells and tissues. (2004) Electrophoresis vol. Volume 25, Issue 17 , Pages 2919 - 2925

24.   Daniela Quaglino; Luigi Sartor; Spiridione Garbisa; Federica Boraldi; Antonietta Croce; Alberto Passi; Giancarlo De Luca; Roberta Tiozzo; Ivonne Pasquali Ronchetti. Dermal fibroblasts from Pseudoxanthoma elasticum patients have raised MMP-2 degradative potential. (2005) Biochim. Biophys. Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease, 1741 (1-2): 42-47.

25.   Luigi Raio, Antonella Cromi, Fabio Ghezzi,  Alberto Passi, Eugenia Karousou, Manuela Viola, Davide Vigetti , Giancarlo De Luca and Pierfrancesco Bolis. Hyaluronan content of Wharton¥s jelly in healthy and Down syndrome fetuses. (2005) Matrix biology,  vol 24 (2) : 166-74.

26.   Evgenia G. Karousou, Manuela Viola, Anna Genasetti, Davide Vigetti, Giancarlo De Luca, Nikos K. Karamanos, Alberto Passi. Application of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of fluorophore labeled-saccharides for analysis of hyaluronan and chondroitin sulfate in human and animal tissues and cell cultures. (2005) Biomedical Chromatography vol 19 in press

27.   Antoine Malek, N.E Bersinger, S. Di Santo, M.D. Mueller, R. Sanger, H. Schneider, F. Grezzi, E. Karousou, A. Passi, G. De Luca, L. Raio. C-Reactive Protein production in term human placental tissue. (2005) Placenta in press.

28.   Negrini D, Tenstad O, Passi A, Wiig H. Differentiale degradation of matrix proteoglycans  and edema development in rabbit. (2005)  Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. 2005 Oct 7; [Epub ahead of print]

29.   Mattarucchi E, Marsoni M, Binelli G, Passi A, Lo Curto F, Pasquali F, Porta G. Different real time PCR approaches for the fine quantification of SNP's alleles in DNA pools: assays development, characterization and pre-validation. (2005) J Biochem Mol Biol. 2005 Sep 30;38(5):555-62.

30.   Viola M,Karousou EG, Vigetti D, Genasetti A, Pallotti F,Guidetti GF, TiraE, De Luca G, Passi A Decorin from different bovine tissues: study of glycosaminoglycan chain by PAGEFS. (2005) Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis in press.