Ciao !!!
I am working in Denise Kirschner's Lab since July the 16th 2001 but it seems like I've always been here !!
I was born in Rome (Italy), June the 1st 1970, and I spent most of my life there: family, friends, loves, studies, scientific research and more....
I got both a MS in Statistics (May 1997) and a PhD in Operations Research (Dec 2001) at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", Dept. of Statistic, Probability and Applied Statistic).
I actually developed my PhD research at the
Biomathematics Laboratory of the National Research Council, in Rome: it is located in the "Gemelli" area, which comprises the hospital (it's the hospital of the Pope !! ;-) ), the university and many research facilities and institutions.
My PhD dissertation was based on parameter estimation of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) systems by Least Squares (LS) approach and nonlinear programming algorithms. It merges both statistics and operations research, as well as biomathematics: in fact the mathematical models implemented in my PhD are related to glucose-insulin and lipids dynamics, including many simulations of growth and decay curves (Gompertz, Logistic, ....).
I would love to apply all these techniques to the study of metabolic pathway networks, as well as gene regulation systems: I am interested now in S-Systems approach, power-law formalism and biochemical system theory (see Michael A. Savageau, Eberhard O. Voit, William S. Hlavacek papers for references)
Denise opened my mind to the wonderful world of immune system: it looked, and still looks, like sci fi for me!! I hardly realize how all these complex interactions take place in our body: it's really amazing !!
My research activity here is mainly devoted to the understanding of the T cells activation, proliferation and differentiation after priming by Antigen Presnting Cells (APCs): Th1 (cell-mediated immunity, extracellular bacteria) and Th2 response (humoral immunity, intracellular bacteria).
As I realized that there is a discrimination against the Dendritic Cells (DCs) in this Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology (everybody loves Macrophages !!!!), I started to study DCs: I always agree with the minorities..... DCs are considered to be the most potent APCs and play a crucial role in the initiation of an adaptive (specific) immune response.
Denise pubblished a paper on Mycobacteria Tuberculosis-Mtb (Janes Wigginton and Denise E. Kirschner, A model of cellular immune
regulation in infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
Journal of Immunology, Feb 2001): the next step will be to include DCs dynamics in the model.
It is believed that the development of a new generation of vaccine against tuberculosis has to elicit a strong activation of DCs to stimulate the maximal antigen presentation, the production of key cytokines (IFN-alfa and IL-12) and consequently a protective T cell response.
I am still updating my web page.
Here is my updated CV and my pubblications:
Bartolozzi F., De Gaetano A., Di Lena E. ,Marino S. , Nieddu L., Patrizi G.,
Operational Research Techniques in Medical Treatment and Diagnosis: a Review, European Journal of Operations Research, 121, 2000: pp. 435-466
Mingrone G., Marino S., De Gaetano A. et al.,
Different Limit to the Body's Ability of Increasing Fat-Free Mass, , Metabolism, 50 (9), Sept 2001: pp. 1004-1007
Marino Simeone, De Gaetano Andrea et al.,
Computing DIT from energy expenditure measures in a respiratory chamber: a direct modeling method, Computers in Biology and Medicine, 32 (4), May 2002
Simeone Marino, Suman Ganguli, Ian M. P. Joseph, Denise E. Kirschner,
Comparison of ordinary and delay differential equation models for human gastic acid secretion, to be published in Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 2003
Simeone Marino and Denise E. Kirschner,
The Human Immune Response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Lung and Lymph Node, submitted to Journal of Theoretical Biology in July 2003
Simeone Marino, JoAnne L. Flynn and Denise E. Kirschner,
The Role of Trafficking and Antigen Presentation in the Human Immune Response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, submitted to Journal of Immunology in Aug 2003
Simeone Marino, Edoardo Beretta and Denise E. Kirschner, A two-delay differetial equation system for innate and adaptive immunity, to be submitted to SIAM Journal of Applied Mathematics
