ProfessorSimone Di Giovanni
James W Harnett Chair in Restorative Neuroscience
Department of Brain Sciences - Faculty of Medicine
Orcid identifier0000-0003-3154-5399 (opens in a new tab)
- James W Harnett Chair in Restorative NeuroscienceDepartment of Brain Sciences - Faculty of Medicine
- 020 7594 3178 (Work)
- E505, Burlington Danes, Hammersmith Campus, United Kingdom
RESEARCH
SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS DI GIOVANNI LAB
METABOLIC and IMMUNE-NERVOUS SYSTEM INTERACTIONS
A glycolytic shunt via the pentose phosphate pathway is a metabolic checkpoint for nervous system sensory homeostasis and axonal regeneration.
The gut metabolite indole-3 propionate promotes nerve regeneration and repair.
Serger E, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Chadwick JS, Kong G, Zhou L, Crawford G, Danzi MC, Myridakis A, Brandis A, Bello AT, Müller F, Sanchez-Vassopoulos A, De Virgiliis F, Liddell P, Dumas ME, Strid J, Mani S, Dodd D, Di Giovanni S. Nature. 2022 Jul;607(7919):585-592. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04884-x. Epub 2022 Jun 22. PMID: 35732737
Reversible CD8 T cell-neuron cross-talk causes aging-dependent neuronal regenerative decline.
Zhou L, Kong G, Palmisano I, Cencioni MT, Danzi M, De Virgiliis F, Chadwick JS, Crawford G, Yu Z, De Winter F, Lemmon V, Bixby J, Puttagunta R, Verhaagen J, Pospori C, Lo Celso C, Strid J, Botto M, Di Giovanni S. Science. 2022 May 13;376(6594):eabd5926. doi: 10.1126/science.abd5926. Epub 2022 May 13.
AMPK controls the axonal regenerative ability of dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons after spinal cord injury.
Kong G, Zhou L, Serger E, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Mclachlan E, Freiwald A, La Montanara P, Shkura K, Puttagunta R, Di Giovanni S. Nat Metab. 2020 Sep;2(9):918-933. doi: 10.1038/s42255-020-0252-3. Epub 2020 Aug 10.
EPIGENETICS-GENE REGULATION in NERVOUS SYSTEM REGENERATION and REPAIR
Three-dimensional chromatin mapping of sensory neurons reveals that promoter-enhancer looping is required for axonal regeneration.
Palmisano I, Liu T, Gao W, Zhou L, Merkenschlager M, Mueller F, Chadwick J, Toscano Rivalta R, Kong G, King JWD, Al-Jibury E, Yan Y, Carlino A, Collison B, De Vitis E, Gongala S, De Virgiliis F, Wang Z, Di Giovanni S. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Sep 17;121(38):e2402518121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2402518121. Epub 2024 Sep 10. PMID: 39254997
The circadian clock time tunes axonal regeneration.
De Virgiliis F, Mueller F, Palmisano I, Chadwick JS, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Giarrizzo A, Yan Y, Danzi MC, Picon-Muñoz C, Zhou L, Kong G, Serger E, Hutson TH, Maldonado-Lasuncion I, Song Y, Scheiermann C, Brancaccio M, Di Giovanni S. Cell Metab. 2023 Dec 5;35(12):2153-2164.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.10.012. Epub 2023 Nov 10. PMID: 37951214
CBP/p300 activation promotes axon growth, sprouting, and synaptic plasticity in chronic experimental spinal cord injury with severe disability.
Müller F, De Virgiliis F, Kong G, Zhou L, Serger E, Chadwick J, Sanchez-Vassopoulos A, Singh AK, Eswaramoorthy M, Kundu TK, Di Giovanni S. PLoS Biol. 2022 Sep 20;20(9):e3001310. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001310. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Enriched conditioning expands the regenerative ability of sensory neurons after spinal cord injury via neuronal intrinsic redox signaling.
De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, Amachree S, Miao J, Zhou L, Todorova R, Thompson R, Danzi MC, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Wittig I, Shah AM, Di Giovanni S. Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 21;11(1):6425. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20179-z.
Cyclin-dependent-like kinase 5 is required for pain signaling in human sensory neurons and mouse models.
La Montanara P, Hervera A, Baltussen LL, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Kong G, Chadwick J, Gao Y, Bartus K, Majid QA, Gorgoraptis N, Wong K, Downs J, Pizzorusso T, Ultanir SK, Leonard H, Yu H, Millar DS, Istvan N, Mazarakis ND, Di Giovanni S. Sci Transl Med. 2020 Jul 8;12(551):eaax4846. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aax4846.
The translational landscape in spinal cord injury: focus on neuroplasticity and regeneration.
Hutson TH, Di Giovanni S. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019 Dec;15(12):732-745. doi: 10.1038/s41582-019-0280-3. Epub 2019 Nov 14. PMID: 31728042 Review.
Epigenomic signatures underpin the axonal regenerative ability of dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons.
Palmisano I, Danzi MC, Hutson TH, Zhou L, McLachlan E, Serger E, Shkura K, Srivastava PK, Hervera A, Neill NO, Liu T, Dhrif H, Wang Z, Kubat M, Wuchty S, Merkenschlager M, Levi L, Elliott E, Bixby JL, Lemmon VP, Di Giovanni S. Nat Neurosci. 2019 Nov;22(11):1913-1924. doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0490-4. Epub 2019 Oct 7. PMID: 31591560 Free article.
PP4-dependent HDAC3 dephosphorylation discriminates between axonal regeneration and regenerative failure.
Hervera A, Zhou L, Palmisano I, McLachlan E, Kong G, Hutson TH, Danzi MC, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Matamoros-Angles A, Forsberg K, De Virgiliis F, Matheos DP, Kwapis J, Wood MA, Puttagunta R, Del Río JA, Di Giovanni S. EMBO J. 2019 Jul 1;38(13):e101032. doi: 10.15252/embj.2018101032. Epub 2019 May 22. PMID: 31268609 Free PMC article.
Cbp-dependent histone acetylation mediates axon regeneration induced by environmental enrichment in rodent spinal cord injury models.
Hutson TH, Kathe C, Palmisano I, Bartholdi K, Hervera A, De Virgiliis F, McLachlan E, Zhou L, Kong G, Barraud Q, Danzi MC, Medrano-Fernandez A, Lopez-Atalaya JP, Boutillier AL, Sinha SH, Singh AK, Chaturbedy P, Moon LDF, Kundu TK, Bixby JL, Lemmon VP, Barco A, Courtine G, Di Giovanni S. Sci Transl Med. 2019 Apr 10;11(487):eaaw2064. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaw2064. PMID: 30971452 Free PMC article.
Song Y, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Sagi-Kiss V, Kong G, Huang H, Steinruecke M, Zhou L, Yuan Z, De Virgiliis F, Pap I, Decourt C, Yan Y, Park HH, Zhang H, Wei J, Want E, Tong X, Takats Z, Di Giovanni S. Cell. 2026 Feb 19;189(4):1211-1227.e25. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.12.003. Epub 2026 Jan 5. PMID: 41494529 Free article.
Dietary-dependent sensitization of neuronal leptin signaling promotes neural repair after injury via cAMP and gene transcription. Chadwick JS, Decourt C, Müller F, Maldonado-Lasuncion I, Serger E, Kong G, Zhou L, Song Y, Yan Y, Yuan Z, Falconieri A, Liddell P, Chu L, Chan WQ, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Palmisano I, Di Giovanni S. Neuron. 2025 Sep 3;113(17):2839-2855.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.016. Epub 2025 Aug 13. PMID: 40812302
The neuronal-like behaviour of macrophages. Di Giovanni S. Trends Cell Biol. 2025 May 6:S0962-8924(25)00091-1. doi: 10.1016/j.tcb.2025.04.003. Online ahead of print. PMID: 40335360
Clonally expanded, targetable, natural killer-like NKG7 T cells seed the aged spinal cord to disrupt myeloid-dependent wound healing. Kong G, Song Y, Yan Y, Calderazzo SM, Saddala MS, De Labastida Rivera F, Cherry JD, Eckman N, Appel EA, Velenosi A, Swarup V, Kawaguchi R, Ng SS, Kwon BK, Gate D, Engwerda CR, Zhou L, Di Giovanni S. Neuron. 2025 Mar 5;113(5):684-700.e8. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2024.12.012. Epub 2025 Jan 13. PMID: 39809279
Macrophages excite muscle spindles with glutamate to bolster locomotion. Yan Y, Antolin N, Zhou L, Xu L, Vargas IL, Gomez CD, Kong G, Palmisano I, Yang Y, Chadwick J, Müller F, Bull AMJ, Lo Celso C, Primiano G, Servidei S, Perrier JF, Bellardita C, Di Giovanni S. Nature. 2025 Jan;637(8046):698-707. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08272-5. Epub 2024 Dec 4. PMID: 39633045
The gut metabolite indole-3 propionate promotes nerve regeneration and repair.
Serger E, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Chadwick JS, Kong G, Zhou L, Crawford G, Danzi MC, Myridakis A, Brandis A, Bello AT, Müller F, Sanchez-Vassopoulos A, De Virgiliis F, Liddell P, Dumas ME, Strid J, Mani S, Dodd D, Di Giovanni S. Nature. 2022 Jul;607(7919):585-592. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04884-x. Epub 2022 Jun 22. PMID: 35732737
Reversible CD8 T cell-neuron cross-talk causes aging-dependent neuronal regenerative decline.
Zhou L, Kong G, Palmisano I, Cencioni MT, Danzi M, De Virgiliis F, Chadwick JS, Crawford G, Yu Z, De Winter F, Lemmon V, Bixby J, Puttagunta R, Verhaagen J, Pospori C, Lo Celso C, Strid J, Botto M, Di Giovanni S. Science. 2022 May 13;376(6594):eabd5926. doi: 10.1126/science.abd5926. Epub 2022 May 13.
AMPK controls the axonal regenerative ability of dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons after spinal cord injury.
Kong G, Zhou L, Serger E, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Mclachlan E, Freiwald A, La Montanara P, Shkura K, Puttagunta R, Di Giovanni S. Nat Metab. 2020 Sep;2(9):918-933. doi: 10.1038/s42255-020-0252-3. Epub 2020 Aug 10.
EPIGENETICS-GENE REGULATION in NERVOUS SYSTEM REGENERATION and REPAIR
CITED2 is a druggable epigenetic switch coupling neuronal maturation to regenerative decline. Müller F, McLachlan E, Costa AC, Qu J, Shrestha B, Wang Z, De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Zhou L, Kong G, Chadwick JS, La Montanara P, Yuan Z, Habermann N, Sousa MM, Palmisano I, Di Giovanni S. EMBO Mol Med. 2026 Feb 23. doi: 10.1038/s44321-026-00385-w. Online ahead of print. PMID: 41731079
Three-dimensional chromatin mapping of sensory neurons reveals that promoter-enhancer looping is required for axonal regeneration.
Palmisano I, Liu T, Gao W, Zhou L, Merkenschlager M, Mueller F, Chadwick J, Toscano Rivalta R, Kong G, King JWD, Al-Jibury E, Yan Y, Carlino A, Collison B, De Vitis E, Gongala S, De Virgiliis F, Wang Z, Di Giovanni S. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Sep 17;121(38):e2402518121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2402518121. Epub 2024 Sep 10. PMID: 39254997
The circadian clock time tunes axonal regeneration.
De Virgiliis F, Mueller F, Palmisano I, Chadwick JS, Luengo-Gutierrez L, Giarrizzo A, Yan Y, Danzi MC, Picon-Muñoz C, Zhou L, Kong G, Serger E, Hutson TH, Maldonado-Lasuncion I, Song Y, Scheiermann C, Brancaccio M, Di Giovanni S. Cell Metab. 2023 Dec 5;35(12):2153-2164.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.10.012. Epub 2023 Nov 10. PMID: 37951214
CBP/p300 activation promotes axon growth, sprouting, and synaptic plasticity in chronic experimental spinal cord injury with severe disability.
Müller F, De Virgiliis F, Kong G, Zhou L, Serger E, Chadwick J, Sanchez-Vassopoulos A, Singh AK, Eswaramoorthy M, Kundu TK, Di Giovanni S. PLoS Biol. 2022 Sep 20;20(9):e3001310. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001310. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Enriched conditioning expands the regenerative ability of sensory neurons after spinal cord injury via neuronal intrinsic redox signaling.
De Virgiliis F, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, Amachree S, Miao J, Zhou L, Todorova R, Thompson R, Danzi MC, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Wittig I, Shah AM, Di Giovanni S. Nat Commun. 2020 Dec 21;11(1):6425. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20179-z.
Cyclin-dependent-like kinase 5 is required for pain signaling in human sensory neurons and mouse models.
La Montanara P, Hervera A, Baltussen LL, Hutson TH, Palmisano I, De Virgiliis F, Kong G, Chadwick J, Gao Y, Bartus K, Majid QA, Gorgoraptis N, Wong K, Downs J, Pizzorusso T, Ultanir SK, Leonard H, Yu H, Millar DS, Istvan N, Mazarakis ND, Di Giovanni S. Sci Transl Med. 2020 Jul 8;12(551):eaax4846. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aax4846.
The translational landscape in spinal cord injury: focus on neuroplasticity and regeneration.
Hutson TH, Di Giovanni S. Nat Rev Neurol. 2019 Dec;15(12):732-745. doi: 10.1038/s41582-019-0280-3. Epub 2019 Nov 14. PMID: 31728042 Review.
Epigenomic signatures underpin the axonal regenerative ability of dorsal root ganglia sensory neurons.
Palmisano I, Danzi MC, Hutson TH, Zhou L, McLachlan E, Serger E, Shkura K, Srivastava PK, Hervera A, Neill NO, Liu T, Dhrif H, Wang Z, Kubat M, Wuchty S, Merkenschlager M, Levi L, Elliott E, Bixby JL, Lemmon VP, Di Giovanni S. Nat Neurosci. 2019 Nov;22(11):1913-1924. doi: 10.1038/s41593-019-0490-4. Epub 2019 Oct 7. PMID: 31591560 Free article.
PP4-dependent HDAC3 dephosphorylation discriminates between axonal regeneration and regenerative failure.
Hervera A, Zhou L, Palmisano I, McLachlan E, Kong G, Hutson TH, Danzi MC, Lemmon VP, Bixby JL, Matamoros-Angles A, Forsberg K, De Virgiliis F, Matheos DP, Kwapis J, Wood MA, Puttagunta R, Del Río JA, Di Giovanni S. EMBO J. 2019 Jul 1;38(13):e101032. doi: 10.15252/embj.2018101032. Epub 2019 May 22. PMID: 31268609 Free PMC article.
Cbp-dependent histone acetylation mediates axon regeneration induced by environmental enrichment in rodent spinal cord injury models.
Hutson TH, Kathe C, Palmisano I, Bartholdi K, Hervera A, De Virgiliis F, McLachlan E, Zhou L, Kong G, Barraud Q, Danzi MC, Medrano-Fernandez A, Lopez-Atalaya JP, Boutillier AL, Sinha SH, Singh AK, Chaturbedy P, Moon LDF, Kundu TK, Bixby JL, Lemmon VP, Barco A, Courtine G, Di Giovanni S. Sci Transl Med. 2019 Apr 10;11(487):eaaw2064. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaw2064. PMID: 30971452 Free PMC article.
GRANTS
- GRANTImperial CoA MRCMedical Research Council (MRC)1 Sep 2020 - 1 Dec 2023