Christian Cassarino
Email: christian.cassarino@unimi.it
Cicle: XL A.Y. 2024 - 2025
Supervisor: Elena Cattaneo
Title: Evaluation of the identity, functionality, and immunogenicity of grafts of neurons or organoids derived from stem cells transplanted into an animal model of Huntington's Disease in association with neuroprotective treatments … read more

PhD Seminars:

Date	Title	Speakers
21/11/2024	Know Your Enemy: Unraveling the Gene Regulatory Networks of Tumor infiltrating CD4+ regulatory T cells	Prof. Massimiliano Pagani
27/11/2024	40 years of research on cell therapy for Parkinson's disease	Dr. Anders Bjorklund
27/11/2024	First and second-generation strategies in developing a cell-based therapy for Parkinson's disease	Dr. Lorenz Studer
22/01/2025	Loss of proteostasis in neurodegenerative diseases and molecular mechanisms of protection	Prof.ssa Elena Ziviani
24/01/2025	Targeting hyperpolarisation-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels in the treatment of neurological disorders	Dr. Kevin Cunninghan
31/01/2025	Sialoconjugates as new players in Huntington's disease: insights into molecular mechanisms and potential therapies	Dr. Vittorio Maglione
21/03/2025	Recent Progress in IPS Cell Research and Application	Nobel Prize Shinya Yamanaka
08/04/2025	Studying the lifecycle of pathogenic huntingtin mRNA species through a flexible embryonic stem cell platform	Dr. Camilla Maffezzini
20/05/2025	How the human brain builds itself	Prof. Sergiu P. Pasca
18/07/2025	Shared Roots & Divergent Branches: studying in vivo lineage decisions in the developing spinal cord with genomic barcoding	Dr Giulia Boezio
04/11/2025	Dysfunctional chromatin remodeling in Progeria Syndrome	Marinicla Pascale
13/11/2025	Genome organisation and function around nucleoli	Dott.ssa Raffaella Santoro
18/11/2025	Decoding ADAM10-driven synaptic dysfunction in Huntington's disease using cortico-striatal circuitries on-a-chip	Dott. Andrea Scolz
27/01/2026	Endolysin B as a new archetype in M. tuberculosis treatment	Dott.ssa Marta Zaccaria
10/02/2026	Autosomal dominant Hyper-IgE Syndrome patients (STAT3 deficient) retain IL-10 producing preTh17-cells that are activated by opportunistic pathogens and support IgE production	Dott.ssa Chiara Vasco
05/05/2026	Shaping neuronal fate to enhance hESC-derived medium spiny neuron differentiation for Huntington’s disease cell therapy	Dott.ssa Linda Scaramuzza
14/05/2026	Dissecting Cell Autonomous Innate Immunity in CNS-targeted Diseases and Gene Therapy	Dr. Anna Kajaste
09/06/2026	PhDone: What's next?	Dott.ssa Ludovica Carbone, Dott.ssa Emma Sofia Lunghi, Dott. Nicola Dengo, Dott. Chiara Veneziani
12/06/2026	Temporal regulation of human neurodevelopment in human pluripotent stem cells-based models	Dr. Gabriele Ciceri
18/09/2026	Modeling the Human Brain in a Dish: iPSC-Derived Platforms to Study Neurodegeneration	Dott. Valentina Fossati

PhD Courses:

Starting Date	Ending Date	Title	Place
08/10/2024	20/10/2024	INTRODUZIONE AL MACHINE LEARNING E AL DEEP LEARNING PER LA BIOLOGIA	University of Milan
13/01/2025	03/02/2025	BIOSTATISTICS FOR MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY	University of Milan
04/02/2026	09/02/2026	Molecular and Cellular Biology: Methods and communication of results	University of Milan

Conferences / Workshops:

Starting Date	Ending Date	Title	Place
27/11/2024	27/11/2024	Stem cell revolutions for neurodegenerative diseases	University of Milan
04/02/2025	05/02/2025	FISV PER I GIOVANI RICERCATORI. Advanced Technologies in Single Cell Omics	Università degli Studi di Milano
21/03/2025	21/03/2025	MILAN LONGEVITY SUMMIT	University of Milan
02/02/2026	03/02/2026	INGM retreat	Brescia, Italy
23/03/2026	26/03/2026	21st Annual HD Therapeutics Conference	Palm Springs, California

Posters:

Date	Title	Place	File
13/09/2024	Assessing therapeutic performance of hESC-Derived MSNs in Huntington's Disease Through In-Vivo and Transcriptomic Studies	European Summer School on Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine
14/04/2025	Optimized hESC-based approaches for restoring striatal function in Huntington’s Disease: insights into in-vivo cellular identity and functionality	Neurogenomics Conference at Human Technopole
10/09/2025	Forced OCT6 Expression Enhances Medium Spiny Neurons Specification	21st NATIONAL CONGRESS OF THE ITALIAN SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE
24/03/2026	Barcoding and conditional reporter strategies for in vivo lineage tracing of anatomically connected hESC-derived striatal progenitors in a lesioned HD rat model	21st Annual HD Therapeutics Conference, Palm Springs, California

Publications:

 Transplanted human striatal progenitors exhibit functional integration and modulate host circuitry in a Huntington's disease animal model
Linda Scaramuzza, Marta Ribodino, Christian Cassarino, Marta Morrocchi, Gabriela B Gomez Gonzalez , Roberta Parolisi, Edoardo Sozzi, Giacomo Turrini, Valentina Cerrato, Paola Conforti, Eriola Hoxha, Riccardo Tognato, Greta Galeotti, Chiara Cordiglieri, Maria Cristina Crosti, Stefano Zucca, Martina Lorenzati, Serena Bovetti, Paolo Spaiardi, Claudio de'Sperati, Gerardo Biella, Linda Ottoboni, Malin Parmar, Simone Maestri, Dario Besusso, Elena Cattaneo , Annalisa Buffo.
Pharmacological research

 Cholesterol restores corticostriatal synaptic connectivity in Huntington's disease through BDNF/TrkB signalling, supporting a role for cholesterol pathways implicated by human genetic modifier studies
Allegra Lenci, Michela Villa, Andrea Scolz, Giulia Birolini, Paola Conforti, Giuseppe Pepe, Antonio Nicolas Castagno, Christian Cassarino, Laura Colombo, Monica Favagrossa, Antonino Polimeno, Linda Ottoboni, Stefania Corti, Alba Di Pardo, Mario Salmona, Vittorio Maglione, Chiara Zuccato, Elena Cattaneo
Pharmacological Research