Antonio Inforzato graduated in Chemistry (Biological Chemistry Curriculum) at the University of Naples “Federico II” (2001) and obtained his PhD in Immunology at the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (2006). He then completed his training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester (Manchester, UK), under the supervision of Prof. Anthony J Day (2006-2009). During his doctoral and post-doctoral studies, he carried out research and study activities at the Leiden University Medical Center (Leiden, The Netherlands; 2005) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Immunochemistry Unit, University of Oxford (Oxford, UK; 2006). He has been the recipient of fellowships from FIRC (Italian Foundation for Cancer Research; 2006-2007), FHR (Humanitas Foundation for Research; 2007), MRC (2008-2009), SEMM (European School of Molecular Medicine; 2009-2011) and INNOCHEM (Innovative Chemokine-based Therapeutic Strategies for Autoimmunity and Chronic Inflammation; 2010). Recently, he participated in the Postgraduate Course in “Epidemiology for Clinical Research” at Humanitas University (2018). Since 2009 he has been a Research Scientist in the Laboratory of Immunopharmacology of the Humanitas Clinical Institute, headed by Dr. Barbara Bottazzi. He was Assistant Professor of Healthcare Professions and Medical Technologies (MED/46) at the University of Milan. Dr. Inforzato is the author of 29 publications in extenso indexed in Pubmed, 2 encyclopedic entries and 1 book chapter, with an average impact factor greater than 7.5 and h-index of 20 (Scopus) and 22 (Google Scholar). He is co-inventor of 2 patents.
The scientific interests of Dr. Inforzato primarily focus on structure/function of soluble components of the innate immune system in infectious and degenerative diseases, and in tissue homeostasis. Particular attention is paid to the long pentraxin PTX3, as a paradigm of the innate humoral response, for which Dr. Inforzato implements and coordinates the following lines of research:
- characterization of the structure of PTX3 and its complexes with complement and matrix proteins;
- study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the functional cooperation between pentraxins and the complement system in the immune response to fungal infections (e.g., invasive aspergillosis) and in immunodegenerative diseases (e.g., age-related macular degeneration);
- definition of the role/s of PTX3 and other matrix molecules (TSG-6, IaI, FGF2) in the remodeling of the hyaluronic acid extracellular matrix in inflammatory (e.g., angiogenesis) and inflammatory-like (e.g., ovulation) processes;
- identification of new functional spaces for the soluble effectors of innate immunity in bone physiology (e.g., bone turn-over) and pathology (e.g., osteomyelitis).
- Grčević D, Sironi M, Valentino S, Deban L, Cvija H, Inforzato A, Kovačić N, Katavić V, Kelava T, Kalajzić I, Mantovani A, Bottazzi B. (2018) The long pentraxin PTX3 plays a role in bone turnover and repair. Front Immunol. 9:417 IF: 5.511
- Swinkels M, Zhang JH, Tilakaratna V, Black G, Perveen R, McHarg S, Inforzato A, Day AJ, Clark SJ (2018) C-reactive protein and pentraxin-3 binding of factor H-like protein 1 differs from complement factor H: implications for retinal inflammation. Sci Rep. 8(1): 1643 IF: 4.609
- Cunha C, Aversa F, Lacerda JF, Busca A, Kurzai O, Grube M, Löffler J, Maertens JA, Bell AS, Inforzato A, Barbati E, Almeida B, Santos e Sousa P, Barbui A, Potenza L, Caira M, Rodrigues F, Salvatori G, Pagano L, Luppi M, Mantovani A, Velardi A, Romani L, Carvalho A (2014) Genetic deficiency of PTX3 and aspergillosis in stem cell transplantation. N Engl J Med. 370(5):421-32 IF: 55.873
- Inforzato A, Baldock C, Jowitt TA, Holmes DF, Lindstedt R, Marcellini M, Rivieccio V, Briggs DC, Kadler KE, Verdoliva A, Bottazzi B, Mantovani A, Salvatori G, Day AJ (2010) The angiogenic inhibitor long pentraxin PTX3 forms an asymmetric octamer with two binding sites for FGF2. Biol. Chem. 285(23):17681-92 IF: 5.328
- Inforzato A, Rivieccio V, Morreale AP, Bastone A, Salustri A, Scarchilli L, Verdoliva A, Vincenti S, Gallo G, Chiapparino C, Pacello L, Nucera E, Serlupi-Crescenzi O, Day AJ, Bottazzi B, Mantovani A, De Santis R, Salvatori G (2008) Structural characterization of PTX3 disulfide bond network and its multimeric status in cumulus matrix organization. Biol. Chem. 283(15):10147-61 IF: 5.520