Lorenzo Cangiano, PhD

Associate Professor of Physiology

Dept. of Translational Research, University of Pisa

E-mail: lorenzo.cangiano@unipi.it; Office: +39 0502213498; Cell: +39 3889253865

Mailing address: Istituto di Fisiologia, Via San Zeno 31, 56123 Pisa, Italy

Our research focuses on two independent areas of neuroscience: (i) photoreceptor neurophysiology and therapeutic approaches to inherited retinal disesases; (ii) the organization and function of the central pattern generator for ejaculation in the lumbar spinal cord.

My lab has pioneered patch clamp electrophysiological recordings from rod and cone photoreceptors in the mouse retina, techniques now complemented by long duration in vitro electroretinography. We are available for scientific collaboration with research laboratories, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, who are interested in obtaining a functional assessment of the outer retina in (i) mouse models of retinal disease (ii) following pharmacological treatment, gene therapy or cell transplantation (iii) acute delivery of candidate drugs or new molecules under development.

Recent and selected publications

Beelen CJ,  Asteriti S, Cangiano L, Koch K-W, Dell’Orco D (2021)
A hybrid stochastic/deterministic model of single photon response and light adaptation in mouse rods. Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal (in press) link

Cangiano L, Asteriti S (2021). Interphotoreceptor coupling: an evolutionary perspective. Pflugers Arch (in press) link

Asteriti S, Ricci V, Cangiano L (2020). Two simple criteria to estimate an objective’s performance when imaging in non design tissue clearing solutions. J Neurosci Methods 332: 108564. link

Federighi G, Asteriti S, Cangiano L (2019). Lumbar spinal cord neurons putatively involved in ejaculation are sexually dimorphic in early postnatal mice J Comp Neurol 528: 624-36. link

Asteriti S, Gargini C, Cangiano L (2017). Connexin 36 expression is required for electrical coupling between mouse rods and cones. Visual Neurosci 34: e006. by Prof. Gordon Fain   link

Asteriti S, Grillner S, Cangiano L (2015). A Cambrian origin for vertebrate rods. eLife 4: e07166: 1–16. link

Asteriti S, Gargini C, Cangiano L (2014). Mouse rods signal through gap junctions with cones. eLife 3: e01386: 1–21. link

Cangiano L, Asteriti S, Cervetto L, Gargini M (2012). The photovoltage of rods and cones in the dark-adapted mouse retina. J Physiol 590: 3841–55. 

Mentel T, Cangiano L, Grillner S, Büschges A (2008). Neuronal substrates for state-dependent changes in coordination between motoneuron pools during fictive locomotion in the lamprey spinal cord. J Neurosci 28: 868–79.

Cangiano L, Grillner S (2005). Mechanisms of rhythm generation in a spinal locomotor network deprived of crossed connections: the lamprey hemicord. J Neurosci 25: 923–35. by Prof. Ole Kiehn

Cangiano L, Grillner S (2003). Fast and slow locomotor burst generation in the hemi-spinal cord of the lamprey. J Neurophysiol 89: 2931–42.

Buffelli M, Busetto G, Cangiano L, Cangiano A (2002). Perinatal switch from synchronous to asynchronous activity of motoneurons: link with synapse elimination. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99: 13200–5.

Ongoing collaborations

Daniele Dell’Orco, Dept. of Life and Reproduction Sciences, University of Verona, Italy