Our team

Alberto Salvadori (associate professor in Mechanics of Solids at the University of Brescia) was formerly Research Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame, USA. He is the author of over 55 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and over 200 conference communications. He founded the Multiscale Mechanics and Multiphysics of Materials Lab at the University of Brescia, where he coordinates a research group of 12 young scientists.
He directs the Research Center in Applied Seismology and Structural Dynamics and founded the Mechanobiology Research Center, UNIBS of which he is deputy director. Following a conceptual and didactic review of his own discipline, he has chosen to deal with multidisciplinary problems in which mechanics is a fundamental part. Among these, mechanobiology, the mechanics for the green economy (mechanics in lithium and sodium ion batteries, mechanics for fuel cells, mechanics and sequestration of CO2) and other interdisciplinary fields.

Prof. Stefania Mitola has wide experience in research of endothelial cell and tumor cell biology as well as in the development of innovative approaches to target pathogenetic alterations of angiogenesis in human diseases. She is particularly expert in the biochemical and molecular characterization of the interaction between soluble molecules and cell surface receptors that drive physio-pathological angiogenesis and tumor progression. Recently she has addressed the role of angiogenesis in metabolic diseases and in the regeneration of brown adipose tissue. During her career, she has received funding from AIRC foundation and the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme. Currently, she is funded by a AIRC Foundation Investigator Grant to study how targeting “inactivating” hotspot mutations of the kinase domain of tyrosine kinase receptors could help to fight tumor progression. Stefania Mitola has co-authored more than 100 scientific peer-reviewed articles. She has established research collaborations with numerous academic and non-academic partners (University of Milan, University of Naples, University of Campania, Italy; University of Thessaly, Greece; Yale School of Medicine, USA; Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland; Histocell, Spain; Discovery Foundation, Greece) who significantly contributed to her research achievements.

Academic activities

Full Professor in Biochemistry, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Responsible of the Mechanobiology Research Center, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Director of the Master Degree in Medical Biotechnology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Member of the Board of Doctorate in Precision Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Student laboratory training for experimental theses, usually 2 students per year

Mattia_Serpelloni

Mattia achieved his bachelor’s and Master’s degree at the University of Brescia in Civil Engineering in 2013 and 2017, respectively. At the end of 2017, he started his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Brescia. During his Ph.D program, supervised by Professor Alberto Salvadori ( Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia) and Professor Stefania Mitola (Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia), he focused on studying and modeling the angiogenic stimulus at the cellular level. From January to March 2020 he was abroad at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Professor Vikram Deshpande where he studied the competition between haptotaxis and durotaxis on further kinds of cells called a fibroblast. Such an experience, prematurely interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic, has been financed by means of a scholarship provided by the Guido Berlucchi Foundation (Young Researchers Mobility Programme) that he won in June of 2019. He got his Ph.D in June 2021 with a dissertation entitled “The response of endothelial cells to angiogenic stimuli: experiments, modeling, and simulations”. This work of thesis received the 2022 award for the best PhD Thesis in Biomechanics from the GBMA Group of AIMETA. During 2021 he achieved a fellowship on the project “Mechano-biology of cell motility during tumor metastasis” ( Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia) and then he got a postdoctoral researcher position on the project “Effect of R1032Q substitution on biological activity and membrane dynamics of VEGFR2” (Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia). Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher on a project entitled “Meccanobiologia della metastasi tumorale” ( Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia).

Dr. Michela Corsini is a Biotechnologist, graduated at University of Brescia in 2019. Her research is focused on understanding the role of tumor-derived extracellular matrix in tumor angiogenesis and progression. In 2022 she has been awarded with a three-year AIRC foundation Fellowship with a project entitled “Mechanical role of ECM in modulation of tumor angiogenesis in Melanoma”.

Dr Elisabetta Grillo, Ph.D., is a Post-Doctoral Fellow whose research is focused on understanding the role of soluble molecules/growth factors (i.e. Gremlin-1, VEGFs, FGFs, Irisin) and their receptors in human diseases, including cancer and metabolic disorders. Since 2020, Elisabetta’s research is funded by Umberto Veronesi Foundation with a project entitled: “VEGFR2 in the metastatic dissemination of high-grade serous ovarian cancer” .

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Luca Grezzi obtained his Magistral degree in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2023. His master’s thesis, entitled “Design and validation of a new perfused in vitro model of vascularized tissue”, focused on the design and experimental validation of a three-dimensional perfused in vitro model of vascularized tissues.

He is currently a PhD student (40th cycle) and his research focuses on the development of multiphysics mathematical models to describe bacterial biofilm growth and detachment, in collaboration with COPAN S.p.A. In particular, his work investigates biofilm growth and structural reorganization, the interaction between the extracellular matrix, bacterial cells, and the surrounding fluid, as well as fracture initiation and propagation within the polymeric network, with the aim of developing predictive models for the mechanical characterization of biofilms on industrial, cosmetic, and biomedical surfaces.

Aurora Bodei obtained her Master degree in Mathematics from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, with a thesis entitled “Mathematical models and simulation of Hemolysis”, supervised by Prof.ssa Giulia Giantesio and co-supervised by Dr. Alberto Girelli and Prof. Francesco Ballarin. Her thesis focused on the development and analysis of mathematical models describing hemolysis, including the implementation of a computational model, its discretization, numerical simulation, and validation through comparison with analytical solutions.

She is currently a PhD student (41st cycle) in the Technology for Health doctoral program at the University of Brescia, within the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Her research project aims at developing multiscale and multiphysics mathematical and computational models to describe the mechanical and fluid-dynamic phenomena governing the early stages of embryogenesis, with particular emphasis on the interplay between tissue mechanics, cellular forces, and fluid transport during morphogenetic processes.