Stefania Nicoli
| Stefania Nicoli | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| 🎓 Alma mater | University of Milan (BS) University of Brescia (PhD) |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | non-coding RNA functions in vascular biology; miRNA; mechanobiology; zebrafish |
| 🏅 Awards | Fellow of the American Heart Association |
Stefania Nicoli is an Italian-born biologist, who works in cell and developmental biology. She is an associate professor at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
Education and career
Nicoli earned her Bachelor's degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the University of Milan in 2002 and her PhD in Biomedical Biotechnology from the University of Brescia in 2007.[1] During this time she implanted human cancer cells with high VEGF expression into zebrafish larvae with GFP-labeled blood vessels, enabling real-time visualization of vessel remodeling and angiogenesis. The process was blocked by adding VEGF inhibitors to the larvae’s water. Similar methods have since been used by other labs to engraft human cancer cells from a range of tumor types into zebrafish embryos.[2]
She completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2011, focusing on microRNAs and vascular development, and spent a year on the faculty at the same university.[1] In 2012, Nicoli joined Yale School of Medicine.[1] She was promoted to associate professor, and holds joint appointments in the departments of internal medicine (cardiovascular medicine) and genetics. She also serves as the director of the Yale Zebrafish Phenotyping Core for Precision Medicine and co-director of the Yale Cardiovascular Research Center Yale Medicine.[3]
Nicoli's research centers on decoding the in vivo functions of microRNAs cell biology and development. Her lab utilizes zebrafish models to investigate how non-coding RNAs regulate gene expression, influencing blood vessel formation and function.[3] By manipulating zebrafish genetics, she and colleagues have studied how sugars on the surface of entothelial cells affect signaling that turns them into blood cells.[4] They have also shown that hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) heterogeneity may be determined prior to endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition (EHT) by factors intrinsic to the entothelial cells of the AGM, such as microRNA-128.[5] Studying zebrafish embryos lacking these microRNAs, they observed increased hemogenic endothelial cells, nascent HSPCs, and expanded erythroid and lymphoid (but not myeloid) progenitor cells, revealing an early regulatory mechanism whereby microRNA-128 shapes HSPC heterogeneity before hemogenic specification, providing insights into variability in HSPC transplantation outcomes.[5]
Awards and honors
- American Heart Association Established Investigator Award (2022).[1]
- Fellow of the American Heart Association (2025).[6]
Selected publications
- Nicoli, Stefania; Ribatti, Domenico; Cotelli, Franco; Presta, Marco (2007). "Mammalian Tumor Xenografts Induce Neovascularization in Zebrafish Embryos". Cancer Research. 67 (7): 2927–2931. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-06-4268.[2]
- Nicoli, Stefania; Presta, Marco (2007). "The zebrafish/tumor xenograft angiogenesis assay". Nature Protocols. 2 (11): 2918–2923. doi:10.1038/nprot.2007.412. ISSN 1754-2189.
- Nicoli, Stefania; Standley, Clive; Walker, Paul; Hurlstone, Adam; Fogarty, Kevin E.; Lawson, Nathan D. (2010). "MicroRNA-mediated integration of haemodynamics and Vegf signalling during angiogenesis". Nature. 464 (7292): 1196–1200. doi:10.1038/nature08889. PMC 2914488. PMID 20364122.
- Kasper, Dionna M.; Hintzen, Jared; Wu, Yinyu; Ghersi, Joey J.; Mandl, Hanna K.; Salinas, Kevin E.; Armero, William; He, Zhiheng; Sheng, Ying; Xie, Yixuan; Heindel, Daniel W.; Park, Eon Joo; Sessa, William C.; Mahal, Lara K.; Lebrilla, Carlito; Hirschi, Karen K.; Nicoli, Stefania (2020). "The N-glycome regulates the endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition". Science. 370 (6521): 1186–1191. doi:10.1126/science.aaz2121. ISSN 0036-8075. PMC 8312266 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 33273096 Check|pmid=value (help).[4] - Ghersi, Joey J.; Baldissera, Gabriel; Hintzen, Jared; Luff, Stephanie A.; Cheng, Siyuan; Xia, Ivan Fan; Sturgeon, Christopher M.; Nicoli, Stefania (2023). "Haematopoietic stem and progenitor cell heterogeneity is inherited from the embryonic endothelium". Nature Cell Biology. 25 (8): 1135–1145. doi:10.1038/s41556-023-01187-9. ISSN 1465-7392. PMC 10415179 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 37460694 Check|pmid=value (help).[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Reitman, Elisabeth (2022-10-14). "Nicoli receives 2022 AHA Established Investigator Award". Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Heath, Joan K.; Langenau, David; Sadler, Kirsten C.; White, Richard (April 2013). "Models of Transparency". The Scientist. 27 (4): 36–41. ProQuest 1319461038.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Stefania Nicoli, PhD, FAHA". Yale School of Medicine. Archived from the original on 2025-05-21. Retrieved 2025-07-28. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 "A sugary coating tells cells it's time to make blood". Nature. 588 (7837): 199. 2020-12-10. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-03431-w. ProQuest 2473447312.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Papatriantafyllou, Maria (2023-09-04). "Endothelial miR-128 regulates HSPC heterogeneity". Nature Cardiovascular Research. doi:10.1038/s44161-023-00333-8. ProQuest 3225970035.
- ↑ Lee, Cecilia Jiye (2025-07-07). "Dr. Stefania Nicoli Elected Fellow of the American Heart Association". Yale School of Medicine. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
External links
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