Technician
Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department

Tel. +39 081 5833 228
e-mail: andrea.sommella(at)szn.it

Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

Graduated in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Naples Federico II in 2006. In 2007 he carried out a Leonardo Da Vinci post-graduate research internship at the agricultural research institute INRA in Nantes, France, where he devoted himself to molecular cloning for the expression in bacteria of genes isolated from plants, atg4 and atg8, involved in the autophagy processes.
From 2008 to 2014 he carried out, as a scholarship/contract holder at TIGEM in Naples, activity of experimental support in preclinical research on mouse models for replacement gene therapy approaches. During this work phase he gained experience in organ manipulation and harvesting from laboratory animals (mice), molecular biology techniques for cloning and protein expression analysis, histological techniques and analysis techniques on viral preparations.
From 2014 to 2023 he worked as a research operator at the pharmaceutical company Okairos/Reithera, engaged in the pre-clinical and clinical development of new generation vaccines based on adenoviral vectors for the prophylaxis and/or treatment of infectious diseases. During this period, he gained experience in techniques aimed at characterizing both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses induced by vaccines designed by the company.

Since July 2023 he has been working as a technical collaborator in the Department of Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms (BEOM) at institute Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples.

Selected Publications

Colella, P., Sommella, A., Marrocco, E., Di Vicino, U., Polishchuk, E., Garcia Garrido, M., Seeliger, M. W., Polishchuk, R., & Auricchio, A. (2013). Myosin7a deficiency results in reduced retinal activity which is improved by gene therapy. PloS one, 8(8), e72027. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0072027

Manfredi, A., Marrocco, E., Puppo, A., Cesi, G., Sommella, A., Della Corte, M., Rossi, S., Giunti, M., Craft, C. M., Bacci, M. L., Simonelli, F., Surace, E. M., & Auricchio, A. (2013). Combined rod and cone transduction by adeno-associated virus 2/8. Human gene therapy, 24(12), 982–992. https://doi.org/10.1089/hum.2013.154

Trapani, I., Toriello, E., de Simone, S., Colella, P., Iodice, C., Polishchuk, E. V., Sommella, A., Colecchi, L., Rossi, S., Simonelli, F., Giunti, M., Bacci, M. L., Polishchuk, R. S., & Auricchio, A. (2015). Improved dual AAV vectors with reduced expression of truncated proteins are safe and effective in the retina of a mouse model of Stargardt disease. Human molecular genetics, 24(23), 6811–6825. https://doi.org/10.1093/hmg/ddv386

Napolitano, F., Merone, R., Abbate, A., Ammendola, V., Horncastle, E., Lanzaro, F., Esposito, M., Contino, A. M., Sbrocchi, R., Sommella, A., Duncan, J. D., Hinds, J., Urbanowicz, R. A., Lahm, A., Colloca, S., Folgori, A., Ball, J. K., Nicosia, A., Wizel, B., Capone, S., … Vitelli, A. (2020). A next generation vaccine against human rabies based on a single dose of a chimpanzee adenovirus vector serotype C. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 14(7), e0008459. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008459

Napolitano, F., Merone, R., Abbate, A., Ammendola, V., Horncastle, E., Lanzaro, F., Esposito, M., Contino, A. M., Sbrocchi, R., Sommella, A., Duncan, J. D., Hinds, J., Urbanowicz, R. A., Lahm, A., Colloca, S., Folgori, A., Ball, J. K., Nicosia, A., Wizel, B., Capone, S., … Vitelli, A. (2021). Correction: A next generation vaccine against human rabies based on a single dose of a chimpanzee adenovirus vector serotype C. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 15(4), e0009348. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0009348

Capone, S., Raggioli, A., Gentile, M., Battella, S., Lahm, A., Sommella, A., Contino, A. M., Urbanowicz, R. A., Scala, R., Barra, F., Leuzzi, A., Lilli, E., Miselli, G., Noto, A., Ferraiuolo, M., Talotta, F., Tsoleridis, T., Castilletti, C., Matusali, G., Colavita, F., … Vitelli, A. (2021). Immunogenicity of a new gorilla adenovirus vaccine candidate for COVID-19. Molecular therapy : the journal of the American Society of Gene Therapy, 29(8), 2412–2423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymthe.2021.04.022

Lanini, S., Capone, S., Antinori, A., Milleri, S., Nicastri, E., Camerini, R., Agrati, C., Castilletti, C., Mori, F., Sacchi, A., Matusali, G., Gagliardini, R., Ammendola, V., Cimini, E., Grazioli, F., Scorzolini, L., Napolitano, F., Plazzi, M. M., Soriani, M., De Luca, A., … Ippolito, G. (2022). GRAd-COV2, a gorilla adenovirus-based candidate vaccine against COVID-19, is safe and immunogenic in younger and older adults. Science translational medicine, 14(627), eabj1996. https://doi.org/10.1126/scitranslmed.abj1996

Agrati, C., Castilletti, C., Battella, S., Cimini, E., Matusali, G., Sommella, A., Sacchi, A., Colavita, F., Contino, A. M., Bordoni, V., Meschi, S., Gramigna, G., Barra, F., Grassi, G., Bordi, L., Lapa, D., Notari, S., Casetti, R., Bettini, A., Francalancia, M., … Capone, S. (2022). Safety and immune response kinetics of GRAd-COV2 vaccine: phase 1 clinical trial results. NPJ vaccines, 7(1), 111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-022-00531-8