Diego Ulisse Pizzagalli

Postdoctoral researcher in Computational Medicine at the Euler institute and at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB).

#immunology #microscopy #graphs #network theory #machine learning #trajectory analysis #electronics

Field. I study the complexity of the immune system by combining intravital microscopy and network theory. More precisely, we observe the movements of white blood cells inside organs, under a variety of conditions including homeostasis, inflammation, infection, and cancer. Then, we apply AI methods based on network theory to analyze the complex migration and interaction patterns of immune cells to unravel the defense strategies of the immune system.

Currently, I am co-directing the IMMUNEMAP project (www.immunemap.org), an international and multi-center initiative that aims at enabling large-scale and data-driven immunological research.

Other activities. I develop and apply custom artificial intelligence methods in healthcare, such as for the monitoring of patients with chronic disease (ongoing EOC collaboration). Past projects involved monitoring of sleep, posture, breathing using passively acquired data from low-cost sensors, AI methods for the analysis of complex electrocardiographic records, detection of influenza viral outbreaks from real-time tweet analysis.

Teaching. I give lectures to students at USI, IRB, Liceo Lugano 2 (LaM project in conjunction with USI) on fields related to bioimage analysis, machine learning, and electronics. I supervise BSc and MSc students willing at pursuing interdisciplinary internships / thesis (projects available). Moreover, I co-founded the USIMakers initiative.

Publications on peer reviewed journals

Characterization of the Dynamic Behavior of Neutrophils Following Influenza Vaccination
Pizzagalli, D.U., Latino, I., Pulfer, A., Palomino-Segura, M., Virgilio, T., Farsakoglu, Y., Krause, R., Gonzalez, S.F.
Frontiers in Immunology (2019)

A trainable clustering algorithm based on shortest paths from density peaks
Pizzagalli, D.U., Gonzalez, S.F. and Krause, R. 
Science advances. (2019)

Protection against influenza infection requires early recognition by inflammatory dendritic cells through C-type lectin receptor SIGN-R1
Palomino-Segura, M., Perez, L., Farsakoglu, Y., Virgilio, T., Latino, I., D’Antuono, R., Chatziandreou, N., Pizzagalli, D.U., Wang, G., García-Sastre, A., et al., and Gonzalez, S.F.
Nature Microbiology. (2019)

A dataset and a semi-supervised clustering algorithm for segmentation and tracking of immune cells in two-photon microscopy
Pizzagalli, D.U., Pulfer, A., Gonzalez,  S.F. and Krause, R.
IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (2019)

Influenza Vaccination Induces NK-Cell-Mediated Type-II IFN Response that Regulates Humoral Immunity in an IL-6-Dependent Manner.
Farsakoglu, Y., Palomino-Segura M., Latino I., Zanaga S., Chatziandreou N., Pizzagalli D.U., Rinaldi A., Bolis M., Sallusto F., Stein J.V., et al. and Gonzalez, S.F.
Cell reports. (2019)

Leukocyte Tracking Database, a collection of immune cell tracks from intravital 2-photon microscopy videos
Pizzagalli, D.U., Farsakoglu, Y., Palomino-Segura, M., Palladino, E., Sintes, J., Marangoni, F., Mempel, T., Koh, W.H., Murooka, T.T., Thelen, F., Stein, J.V., Pozzi, G., Krause, R. and Gonzalez, S.F.
Scientific data. (2018)

Imaging Cell Interaction in Tracheal Mucosa During Influenza Virus Infection Using Two-Photon Intravital Microscopy
Palomino-Segura, M., Virgilio, T., Morone, D., Pizzagalli, D.U. and Gonzalez, S.F.
Journal of visualized experiments: JoVE (2018)

Macrophage Death following Influenza Vaccination Initiates the Inflammatory Response that Promotes Dendritic Cell Function in the Draining Lymph Node
Chatziandreou, N., Farsakoglu, Y., Palomino-Segura, M., D’Antuono, R., Pizzagalli, D.U., Sallusto, F., Lukacs-Kornek, V., Uguccioni, M., Corti, D., Turley, S.J. and Gonzalez, S.F.
Cell reports. (2017)