Diego Ulisse Pizzagalli

Group Prof. Dr. Rolf Krause
High Performance Methods for Numerical Simulation in Science, Medicine and Engineering
Institute of Computational Science (ICS), Faculty of Informatics
Via Giuseppe Buffi 13, 6900 Lugano, Switzerland
Group Dr. Santiago F. Gonzalez
Infection and Immunity
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB)
Via Vincenzo Vela 6, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
Group Prof. Dr. Marcus Thelen
Signal Transduction
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB)
Via Vincenzo Vela 6, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland
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 (main). I study 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, 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 projects. I develop and apply custom artificial intelligence methods in healthcare. Recently we started a collaboration for the monitoring of patients with chronic disease with prof. dr. Andrea De Gottardi - EOC.
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.
Other activities. Volunteering @ Italian Red Cross, EMS | Instructor of ambulance service and first aid | Hospital clown | Hiking | Chickens.
OPEN thesis/internship possibilities. Students are invited to contact me or prof. Krause.
Education
2014 - 2020 interdisciplinary PhD in Systems Biology
Project: "A hierarchy of graph-based methods for image-based systems immunology"
The PhD was supported by Systemsx.ch - The Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology and carried jointly at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Grpup Dr. Santiago Fernandez Gonzalez, and at the Institute of Computational Science (ICS), group Prof. Dr. Rolf Krause
2013 - M.Sc Computer Engineering - T2D Data Engineering, Politecnico di Milano - Como, Italy.
Master thesis: "zECG acquisizione, memorizzazione e trasmissione del segnale ECG".
2011 - B.Sc Computer Engineering, Politecnico di Milano - Como, Italy.
Bachelor thesis: "Algoritmi per il riconoscimento di eventi aritmici ed ischemici in tracciati ECG".
2007 - Perito informatico, I.T.I.S Magistri Cumacini - Como, Italy.
PhD Courses
2015 - High Performance Computing, Universita' della Svizzera Italiana - Lugano, Switzerland
2015 - Research Policy and Grant Proposal Writing, Universita della Svizzera Italiana - Lugano, Switzerland.
2015 - Microscopy Applications for Immunological Research, Institute for Research in Biomedicine / University of Bern - Bellinzona, Switzerland.
2015 - Computational Medicine, Universita della Svizzera Italiana - Lugano, Switzerland.
2014 - Systems Medicine and its applications, Systemsx.ch/SIB Joint summer school - Kandersteg, Switzerland.
2014 - Cellular and Molecular Immunology, IRB - Bellinzona, Switzerland.