Elisabetta Dejana

Elisabetta Dejana (born 1951) is an Italian cell biologist and an expert on regulation of vascular system development. She has published widely and is frequently cited for her work. She has received several important awards. Dejana is a full professor at the University of Milan and has also been appointed full professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Training Elisabetta Dejana was born on 21 November 1951 in Bologna, Italy. She obtained a doctorate (summa cum laude) from the University of Bologna in biological sciences.

Career Between 1977 and 1979, Dejana was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dept. of Pathology, McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. From 1979 to 1983 she was a researcher at the cardiovascular pharmacology laboratory of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan. In 1983 she became chief of the vascular physiopathology unit of the same institute, leaving in 1988 to be a visiting scientist at the Department of Pathology of Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA. In 1989, she was a visiting scientist, at the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. Returning to Milan, she set up the vascular biology laboratory, which she headed until 1993.

As regards teaching, Dejana has given courses in vascular biology at several European Universities. In 1998, she became Associate Professor of General Pathology at the University of Insubria in Varese, Italy. Since 2002, she has held the position of full professor at the University of Milan. She has also been appointed full professor at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology at Uppsala University, Sweden. 2010. Honorary degree in medicine from the University of Helsinki, Finland 2013. Award from the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Birmingham, UK 2014. Premio Ippocrate per la Divulgazione della Scienza, Italy 2014. Feltrinelli Prize for Excellence in Science, Accademia dei Lincei, Rome 2014. Honorary degree in medicine from the University of Frankfurt, Germany 2016. North American Vascular Biology Organization - Earl P. Benditt Award, Boston, USA 2018. Prix International de l’INSERM, Paris, France 2019. European Vascular Biology Organisation (EVBO) Medal Award Winner, Maastricht

In addition, Dejana has been invited to serve on many scientific advisory boards.

Publications

Elisabetta Dejana has authored over 400 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed international journals. Her report of the discovery of VE-cadherin as a key protein component of cell-to-cell adherence junctions has led to the appearance of more than 2100 publications related to VE-cadherin in peer-reviewed journals. Journal articles where she has been the sole author or a leading author include: 1991. MG Lampugnani, M Resnati, E Dejana, PC Marchisio. The role of integrins in the maintenance of endothelial monolayer integrity. The Journal of cell biology 112 (3), 479-490 (323 citations) 1995. E Dejana, M Corada, MG Lampugnani. Endothelial cell‐to‐cell junctions. The FASEB Journal 9 (10), 910-918 (609 citations) C Garlanda, E Dejana 1997. Heterogeneity of endothelial cells: specific markers. Arteriosclerosis, thrombosis, and vascular biology 17 (7), 1193-1202 (599 citations) 1996. E Dejana. Endothelial adherens junctions: implications in the control of vascular permeability and angiogenesis. The Journal of clinical investigation 98 (9), 1949-1953 (374 citations) 1999. E Dejana, G Bazzoni, MG Lampugnani. Vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin: only an intercellular glue? Experimental cell research 252 (1), 13-19 (320 citations) 2004. E Dejana. Endothelial cell–cell junctions: happy together. Nature reviews Molecular cell biology 5 (4), 261-270 (1284 citations) 2008. E Dejana, F Orsenigo, MG Lampugnani. The role of adherens junctions and VE-cadherin in the control of vascular permeability. Journal of cell science 121 (13), 2115-2122 (976 citations) 2009. E Dejana, E Tournier-Lasserve, BM Weinstein. The control of vascular integrity by endothelial cell junctions: molecular basis and pathological implications. Developmental cell 16 (2), 209-221 (758 citations)