Ricerca Gruppi di ricerca e contributi alla ricercaThe Section of Clinical PathophysiologyGruppo Danza

Gruppo Danza

Coordinator of Research Team

Name :    GIOVANNA  DANZA

Position: RESEARCHER  (RU)

Name of Research Team/Laboratory: Clinical and biomedical application of mass spectrometry

Acronym: MSLAB

e-mail  giovanna.danza@unifi.it

  

Brief biographical sketch of the Coordinator 

 

Giovanna Danza was born in Florence  21 April 1961. She received her Master Degree in Chemistry in 1988 at the University of Florence (Italy). She is married and mother of two children.

She has worked at the Clinical Physiopathology Department of University of Florence since 1990, first as technician and from 2005 as researcher. She is actually working as a researcher in the Department of Experimental Clinical Biomedical Science “Mario Serio”.

Teaching activity at the University of Florence, School of Human Healt Science. She is  the Coordinator  of the Master “Clinical Application of Mass Spectrometry” were she also teaches in the module “Mass spectrometry in endocrinology”.

Since 1990 she has carried out clinical activity in the Laboratory of the Endocrine Unit, Careggi Hospital. From 2012 she is working to the development of new methods for quantitative determination of hormones and recently she has started a new diagnostic service based on mass spectrometry for steroid hormones. 

She is a member of the School of Human Healt Science and is part of the Florence Unversity Board for quality assurance of didactics and research activity.

 

 Member of the following Scientific Societies

1. Società Chimica Italiana – Divisione di Spettrometria di Massa - DMS
2. Società Italiana di Biochimica Clinica - SiBioC

 

Research Team

1. GIANLUCA BARTOLUCCI, born in Florence 11-03-1967, Pharmacist, associate professor, NEUROFARBA  University of Florence
2. FABIO VILLANELLI, born in Florence 04-03-1971, biologist
3. VERONICA FIORINI born in Pescia 14-09-1988 chemistry student

 

Current research interests  

development of isotopic dilution quantitative mass spectrometry methods for the determination of hormones, drugs and biomarkers of clinical interest. Actually involved in the following research fields:

1. Targeted metabolomics in gut microbiome alterations related diseases
2. Steroidogenesis in the ovulatory cycle and role of follicular steroids in IVF
3. Steroids and gender related medicine
4. Steroids and cancer: breast cancer risk, mammographic breast density and hormonal biomarkers
5. Steroids and cancer: role of steroid hormones in lung cancer
6. Application of quantitative LC-MS/MS methods to the routine clinical lab analysis

 

Current / recent sources of funding

1. 2019- 2023 AIRC- “Mammographic breast density and breast cancer risk: lifestyle and hormonal biomarkers in alongitudinal study”.  Coordinator Dr. G. Masala (ISPRO)
2. 2020-2021 Department of Experimental and clinical biomedical science “Mario Serio”-  “A gender medicine perspective in lung cancer: a role for sex steroids” Coordinator Prof. F. Lotti

                 

10 best publications of the last 5 years

 

1. Piccinni MP, Vicenti R, Logiodice F, Fabbri R, Kullolli O, Pallecchi M, Paradisi R, Danza G, Macciocca M, Lombardelli L, Seracchioli R “Description of the follicular fluid cytokine and hormone profiles in human physiological natural cycles”. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2020 Nov. Online ahead of print. 
2. Cellai I, Di Stasi V, Comeglio P, Maseroli E, Todisco T, Corno C, Filippi S, Cipriani S, Sorbi F, Fambrini M, Petraglia F, Scavello I, Rastrelli G, Acciai G, Villanelli F, Danza G, Sarchielli E, Guarnieri G, Morelli A, Maggi M, Vignozzi L “Insight on the intracrinology of menopause: androgen production within the human vagina”..Endocrinology. 2020 Nov. Online ahead of print.
3. Lotti F, Frizza F, Balercia G, Barbonetti A, Behre HM, Calogero AE, Cremers JF, Francavilla F, Isidori AM, Kliesch S, La Vignera S, Lenzi A, Marcou M, Pilatz A, Poolamets O, Punab M, Peraza Godoy MF, Rajmil O, Salvio G, Shaeer O, Weidner W, Maseroli E, Cipriani S, Baldi E, Degl'Innocenti S, Danza G, Lucia Caldini A, Terreni A, Boni L, Krausz C, Maggi M “The European Academy of Andrology (EAA) ultrasound study on healthy, fertile men: scrotal ultrasound reference ranges and associations with clinical, seminal and biochemical characteristics”.Andrology. 2020 Nov Online ahead of print.
4. Pagliai G, Colombini B, Dinu M, Whittaker A, Masoni A, Danza G, Amedei A, Ballerini G, Benedettelli S, Sofi F. “Effectiveness of a Khorasan Wheat-Based Replacement on Pain Symptoms and Quality of Life in Patients with Fibromyalgia”. Pain Med. 2020;21(10):2366-2372.
5. Marchiani S, Tamburrino L, Benini F, Pallecchi M, Bignozzi C, Conforti A, Alviggi C, Vignozzi L, Danza G, Pellegrini S, Baldi E  “LH supplementation of ovarian stimulation protocols influences follicular fluid steroid composition contributing to the improvement of ovarian response in poor responder women”. Sci Rep. 2020;10(1):12907 
6. Lotti F, Frizza F, Balercia G, Barbonetti A, Behre HM, Calogero AE, Cremers JF, Francavilla F, Isidori AM, Kliesch S, La Vignera S, Lenzi A, Marcou M, Pilatz A, Poolamets O, Punab M, Peraza Godoy MF, Rajmil O, Salvio G, Shaeer O, Weidner W, Maseroli E, Cipriani S, Baldi E, Degl'Innocenti S, Danza G, Caldini AL, Terreni A, Boni L, Krausz C, Maggi M. “The European Academy of Andrology (EAA) ultrasound study on healthy, fertile men: clinical, seminal and biochemical characteristics”. Andrology. 2020;8(5):1005-1020. 
7. Morelli A, Filippi S, Comeglio P, Sarchielli E, Cellai I, Pallecchi M, Bartolucci G, Danza G, Rastrelli G, Corno C, Guarnieri G, Fuochi E, Vignozzi L, Maggi M. “Physical activity counteracts metabolic syndrome-induced hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction in the rabbit”. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2019;316(3):E519-E535.
8. Flamini R, Menicatti M, De Rosso M, Gardiman M, Mayr C, Pallecchi M, Danza G, Bartolucci G. “Combining liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry approaches to the study of monoterpene glycosides (aroma precursors) in wine grape”. J Mass Spectrom. 2018; 53(9):792-800.
9. Ambrosio MR, Di Serio C, Danza G, Rocca BJ, Ginori A, Prudovsky I, Marchionni N, Del Vecchio MT, Tarantini F  “Carbonic anhydrase IX is a marker of hypoxia and correlates with higher Gleason scores and ISUP grading in prostate cancer”. Diagn Pathol. 2016;11(1):45.

 

Previous research experiences

1. 5 alpha reductase inhibitors in prostate and skin diseases. Development of new selective isozyme 1 inhibitor and preclinical studies to assess their efficacy.
2. Seladin 1/DHCR24 in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, the role of cholesterol synthesis in lipid rafts dynamics and related cell signaling

 

Main scientific contributions

- Synthesis and preclinical development of new classes of dual 5 alpha reducatse inhibitors and selective 5 alpha reductase I inhibitors

- characterization of similarities between plant and human 5 alpha reductase activities (DET2 and 5aR respectively) and identification of two different 5 alpha reducing isozymes in solanum malacoxylon.

- Cloning and functional characterization of the Lycopersicon esculentum omolog of DET2: LeDET2.

-  Seladin 1/DHCR24 and cholesterol biosynthesis.

- Development and validation of several mass spectrometry quantitative methods.