Serena Ciolfi

My research focused on the characterization of innate and adaptive immune systems in response to cytokines and bacteria treatment.

• My experimental activity is based on human primary immune cells, which are isolated from fresh blood of healthy donors and Multiple Sclerosis patients by Ficoll. The single population of specific immune cells is purified from Ficoll-derived PBMC by magnetic enrichment or by sorting or by Flow Cytometry analysis.
• My research activity is based on different types of primary human cells: macrophages, monocytes, dendritic cells, natural killer cells, B cells, CD8+ cells, CD4+ cells, Th2, Th1, Th17, Th1-17 and Treg.
• The research work is based on Flow Cytometry analysis of activation markers, ELISA and Luminex analysis of secreted cytokines, Western Blot analysis of activation pathways, and imaging techniques.

Main studies:

• Study of immune response of primary human monocytes and macrophages to Acinetobacter baumannii by analysing immune cells - bacteria interaction, immune activation markers and cytokines' secretion.
• Study of cytokines' role in innate and adaptive immune systems by analysing the activation pathway.

Study of the role of elg1 gene in Drosophila melanogaster by using mutated and iRNA Drosophila melanogaster strains. My experimental activity focused on cytogenetic and immunohistochemistry analysis.