Università degli Studi di Parma

Dr. Michele Miragoli is a tenured-track assistant professor at the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Parma and group leader of the Cardiac Nanophysiology Lab at the Humanitas Research Center in Milan. Currently, he holds the position of honorary research associate at Imperial College London and at the Institute of Genetic and Biomedical Research at the National Research Council (CNR).
He graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Parma, Italy, and completed a PhD program in Pathophysiology at the Institute of General Physiology, Parma. After his PhD, he spent five years at the Institute of Physiology, University of Bern, Switzerland, learning the technique of optical recording of impulse propagation with a focus on the cellular bases of cardiac arrhythmias and the role of fibroblasts in their pathogenesis. In March 2008 he joined the group of Prof. Julia Gorelik at Imperial College London with the aim to combine a new promising technique, hopping probe scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), with the optical recording of impulse propagation (OMIP), in order to study functional and structural cellular remodelling. This unique non-invasive system was operative at the beginning of 2009 and permits to investigated cardiac excitability at the nanoscale, opening a new avenue for the cardiac nanomedicine. In 2011, Dr. Miragoli achieved the young research grant from the Ministry of Health, which has permitted to re-entry in Italy at CERT, Center of Excellence for Toxicological Research, University of Parma and establishing his research group. In the meantime, he was appointed as junior group leader at Humanitas Research Center in Milan.

PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS: one patent, three Chapter books, and > 40 peer-reviewed articles including Science, Science Translational Medicine, PNAS, Cell Reports, Circulation, Circulation Research, Hepatology, Nanoletters, Particle and Fibers Tox., Nanomedicine, Royal Society of Interface, etc.
H index: 20 (Google Scholar)
Citations: > 2200
Average I.F.: 7.82

AWARDS
2009: Winner of the Italian Young Investigator Research Prize, from the Italian Society of Cardiovascular Research
2008: Winner of the Swiss Cardiovascular Biology Prize, young investigation award, of the Swiss Society of Cardiology
2007: 1st place for Best Poster Competition, Tissue Level, Gordon Research Conference, Cardiac Arrhythmia Mechanisms, Ventura, California (USA).
2004: Winner of Asher-Hess Prize, young investigator award, Annual Meeting of the Swiss Physiological Society, Fribourg, Switzerland.

INVITED SEMINAR AND SESSIONS CHAIRED: I was invited to give more than 30 talks and chaired international meetings. I participated in several international meeting throughout the world (American Heart Association, Biophysical Society, European Society of Cardiology, Gordon Research Conference, etc.).

MEMBERSHIPS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
1) British Heart Foundation Center of Research Excellence, UK. 2) Swiss Physiological Society. 3) Italian Society of Cardiovascular Research. 4) European Society of Cardiology, WG in Cardiac Cellular Electrophysiology. 5) European Society of Cardiology, WG in Myocardial Function. 6) Italian Society of Experimental Biology.

PEER REVIEWED ACTIVITIES
2014-present: Review board at the ETH Grant Reviewers Committee – Zurich, CH.
2014: Guest editor activity: Biomed Research International Journal
2013-present: Editorial board in Frontiers of Cardiovascular Physiology Journals
2011-present: Reviewer for Nano Letters, Cell Death and Disease (NPG), Bioinspired, Biomimetic and Nanobiomaterials, PLoS One, Journal of Chronobiology International, Cardiovascular Research (ESC), Circulation Research, American Journal of Physiology, Scientific Reports

GRANTS: Horizon 2020, FP7, Ministero della Salute, Wellcome Trusts, British Heart Foundation, PRIN, Flagship Projects CNR Nanomax

Research Topics

Our main interests focuses to cardiac arrhythmia mechanisms and therapy investigation as the main condition leading to sudden death in the failing heart. Those modifications start at nanoscale levels, by altering, locally, the physiology of the subcellular compartment, inducing electrophysiological modifications, which inevitably lead to cardiac arrhythmias. Ongoing efforts aim to define the full range of subcellular modification and the functional consequences thereof. We think that a submicrometer pathophysiological phenomena need to be addressed with a nano-scaled approach,
The laboratory is equipped with the state-or art-technologies for cardiac electrophysiology, focussing in in-vivo and in-vitro arrhythmia mechanisms with a particular attention related to the prevention and specific non-pharmacological therapies (4D bioprinting, SICM, non-linear imaging, FACS, high-resolution epicardial array, computer vision technology, optogenetics.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Interaction between pollution-derived nanoparticles and cardiac tissue: implication for cardiovascular diseases and arrhythmogenesis

Ultrafine particles are of current concern because of their association with several health effects. We are studying the mechanisms by which electrically charged nanoparticles present in the air pollution may lead to arrhythmias. Now we are focusing on the cross-relation with others cardiac pathologies by investigating in-vivo and in-vitro the nanoparticles diffusion processes.

Nanoparticles and cardiac drug delivery: targeting the disease heart via respiratory pathway.

This is indeed, the other side of the coin, i.e. developing a nanoparticle able to carry and deliver specific drugs to the failing heart (such as microRNAs or aptamers). This is possible with manipulation of the physical nanoparticles characteristics. The goal of this subproject, conducted in collaboration with the Department of Life Science University of Parma, IRGB-CNR and ISTEC-CNR, is to obtain a deeper understating of the possibility to use electrically charged nanoparticles (promising results are obtained with calcium phosphate nanoparticles) for carrying drugs specifically to the failing heart. www.cupidoproject.eu

Interaction between infarcted cardiac tissue and nano materials as anti-arrhythmic therapy

The aim is to reduce post-myocardial infarction arrhythmias by applying onto the area, a biocompatible patch containing functionalized nano materials. This project encompasses a whole range of knowledge such as nanomaterial, biophysical and computational sciences, nanotoxicology, electrophysiology and cardiology.

New method for assessing cardiac contraction parameters for the in-vivo beating cardiac tissue

We are developing, in collaboration with the Bioengineer Department and Mathematical Department at University of Pavia, a new method for studying kinematic evaluation of cardiac contraction force (ViKiE) at high spatial and temporal resolution. The ViKiE computer vision technology system works in different way compared to the commercial ones: briefly, we recording the cardiac beating from a syncytium (single sarcomere of the cardiomyocyte or the entire cells, iPS clusters, monolayer and/or in-vivo beating heart) with a high-speed bright-field camera for 1-5 sec. From the video file, an algorithm developed in Matlab is able to follow the trajectories and returns Hamiltonian mechanical equations such as force, contraction velocity, and kinetic energy

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MIRAGOLI MICHELE

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