Senior Researcher
Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms Department
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
Villa Comunale
80121 Naples - Italy
Tel.: +39 081 5833238
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Contatto Skype: hhhenryyy
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AuhkTPMAAAAJ&hl=it
ERC sectors - Epigenetics and gene regulation (LS2_8), Development, developmental genetics, pattern formation and embryology in animals (LS3_9)
Settori scientifico-disciplinari - Biologia molecolare (BIO/11), Anatomia comparata e citologia (BIO/06)
Lab Members
La Vecchia Claudia
Carrannante Arianna
Salatiello Federica
Morgillo Antonio
Research Interests
Trained as a developmental biologist, I built a foundation in evolutionary developmental biology during my PhD at the Open University of London, conducted at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, and in my early postdoctoral work. My research focused on conserved gene regulatory networks in neural tissue using the sea squirt Ciona robusta. I then moved to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital (USA) for a second postdoc, where I studied Retinoic Acid signaling in cardiomyocyte specification in zebrafish. During a third postdoc at the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (CNR, Napoli, Italy), I investigated the activation of nuclear receptors involved in lipid metabolism by natural compounds—specifically marine-derived Caulerpin, Muqubilin, and phytocannabinoids—using cell culture models. Since 2017, I have been a researcher at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, where I introduced Mytilus galloprovincialis as a model organism for developmental studies and resumed work on Ciona robusta. My lab investigates DNA methylation during Mytilus development, the impact of emerging contaminants, and the evolutionary role of Retinoic Acid in both Ciona and Mytilus. We also study the role of biogenic amines and explore the antifouling properties of secondary metabolites isolated from the marine aquatic plant Halophila stipulacea, using Mytilus and Ciona as test species.
Most recently, I have also begun investigating the mechanisms underlying sex determination in bivalves with doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mitochondria.
Selected Publications
Salatiello F, Miglioli A, Tarallo V, Benvenuto G, Vitale RM, Greco S,. Carvalho JE, Pallavicini A, Dumollard R, Schubert M, Gerdol M and D’Aniello E (2025) Unraveling the Evolution and Function of the Retinoic Acid Signaling in the Mollusk Mytilus galloprovincialis. In submission
La Vecchia C, Gerdol C, Greco S, Gionechetti F, Gorbi S, Pallavicini A, Regoli F, and D’Aniello E (2025) The first high-resolution map of DNA methylation in the genome of the mollusk Mytilus galloprovincialis and its role during embryogenesis. In submission
M Iannello, G Piccinini, F Salatiello, G Forni, F Nicolini, U Valdrè, M Martini, J Martelossi, F Ghiselli*, E D’Aniello*, L Milani* (2025). New insights into mitochondrial segregation mechanisms in animals from the Doubly Uniparental Inheritance of bivalves. BMC Biology https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7120697/v1
P Paganos, C La Vecchia, G Annona, F Caccavale, MD Molina, A Ferrandez-Roldan, RD Donnellan, F Salatiello, AN Johnstone, MC Eliso, A Spagnuolo, C Canestro, R Albalat, JM Martin-Duran, EA Williams, E D'Aniello, MI Arnone (2024). Developmental toxicity of pre-production plastic pellets affects a large swathe of invertebrate taxa. Chremosphere, doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141887
Gafranek JT, D’Aniello E, Ravisankar P, Thakkar K, Vagnozzi RJ, Lim HW, Salomonis N and Waxman JS (2023). Sinus venosus adaptation models prolonged cardiovascular disease and reveals insights into evolutionary transitions of the vertebrate heart. Nature Communications. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-41184-y
D’Aniello, E., Amodeo, P., and Vitale, R.M. (2023). Marine Natural and Nature-Inspired Compounds Targeting Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptors (PPARs). Marine Drugs. doi:10.3390/md21020089.
D’Aniello, E., Amodeo, P., and Vitale, R.M. (2023). Marine Natural and Nature-Inspired Compounds Targeting Peroxisome Proliferator Activated Receptors (PPARs). Marine Drugs. doi:10.3390/md21020089.
Gerdol M, La Vecchia C, Strazzullo M, De Luca P, Gorbi S, Regoli F, Pallavicini A and D’Aniello E (2021) Evolutionary History of DNA Methylation Related Genes in Bivalvia: New Insights From Mytilus galloprovincialis. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.698561
