Frederick Lanni
Professor Emeritus
Address:
289 Mellon Institute
Department of Biological Sciences
Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë
4400 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Phone: 412-268-3460
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University
Postdoctoral Appointment, Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë
Research
Our overall interest is in understanding the biophysical principles by which cells self-organize and carry out essential mechanical functions, and in working out measurement methods to test the relevant hypotheses. Current projects include (1) measurement of hyphal growth in fungal cells, and how this is related to invasion and virulence in Candida albicans, and (2) development of high-resolution imaging methods for large-scale objects such as biofilms, microbial colonies, embryos, organoids, and thick tissue sections. Most of my work is done with C. albicans in collaboration with Aaron P. Mitchell (Univ. Georgia) and Joel McManus (Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë). We have developed refractive index matching methods for fast, high-quality clarification of fixed C. albicans colonies and biofilms. Recently, we extended our clarification methods to living biofilms by use of iodixanol, a non-ionic, water-soluble, organo-iodine compound with moderately high specific refractivity that is used medically as an X-ray contrast agent. In 2024, our optical innovations resulted in a US patent on a microscope objective design that provides a basis for development of a low-cost instrument for fast 3D imaging of clarified specimens.
Publications
Lanni, Frederick. United States Patent 12,001,003 B2. Immersion Front-End Lens System. Issued: 4 June 2024. Assignee: Ò»±¾µÀÎÞÂë.
Liping Xiong, Nivea Pereira De Sa, Robert Zarnowski, Manning Y. Huang, Caroline Mota Fernandes, Frederick Lanni, David Andes, Maurizio Del Poeta, and Aaron P. Mitchell (2024). Biofilm-associated metabolism via ERG251 in Candida albicans. PLoS Pathogens 20: .
Anupam Sharma, Norma V. Solis, Manning Y. Huang, Frederick Lanni, Scott G. Filler, and Aaron P. Mitchell (2023). Hgc1-independence of biofilm hyphae in Candida albicans. mBio 14 (ASM): e0349822 doi: .
Lanni F, Lagree K, Huang MY, Yan L, Woolford CA, Mitchell AP. Clarifying and Imaging Candida albicans Biofilms. J Vis Exp. 2020 Mar 6;(157). doi: 10.3791/60718. PMID: .
Lawless MJ, Pettersson JR, Rule GS, Lanni F, Saxena S. ESR Resolves the C Terminus Structure of the Ligand-free Human Glutathione S-Transferase A1-1. Biophys J. 2018 Feb 6;114(3):592-601. doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2017.12.016. PMID: .
Lagree K, Desai JV, Finkel JS, Lanni F. Microscopy of fungal biofilms. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2018 Jun;43:100-107. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2017.12.008. Epub 2018 Feb 4. PMID: .
Pettersson JR, Lanni F, Rule GS. Dual Lifetimes for Complexes between Glutathione-S-transferase (hGSTA1-1) and Product-like Ligands Detected by Single-Molecule Fluorescence Imaging. Biochemistry. 2017 Aug 8;56(31):4073-4083. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.7b00030. Epub 2017 Jul 27. PMID: .
Woolford CA, Lagree K, Xu W, Aleynikov T, Adhikari H, Sanchez H, Cullen PJ, Lanni F, Andes DR, Mitchell AP. Bypass of Candida albicans Filamentation/Biofilm Regulators through Diminished Expression of Protein Kinase Cak1. PLoS Genet. 2016 Dec 9;12(12):e1006487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1006487. PMID: .
Desai JV, Cheng S, Ying T, Nguyen MH, Clancy CJ, Lanni F, Mitchell AP. Coordination of Candida albicans Invasion and Infection Functions by Phosphoglycerol Phosphatase Rhr2.
Van PT, Bass V, Shiwarski D, Lanni F, Minden J. High dynamic range proteome imaging with the Structured Illumination Gel Imager.
Youker RT, Bruns JR, Costa SA, Rbaibi Y, Lanni F, Kashlan OB, Teng H, Weisz OA. Multiple motifs regulate apical sorting of p75 via a mechanism that involves dimerization and higher-order oligomerization.
Desai JV, Bruno VM, Ganguly S, Stamper RJ, Mitchell KF, Solis N, Hill EM, Xu W, Filler SG, Andes DR, Fanning S, Lanni F, Mitchell AP. Regulatory Role of Glycerol in Candida albicans Biofilm Formation.
Subramanian S, Woolford CA, Desai JV, Lanni F, Mitchell AP. Cis- and trans-acting localization determinants of pH-response regulator Rim13 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. [Epub ahead of print]
Lim JK, Tan DX, Lanni F, Tilton RD and Majetich SA. Optical imaging and magnetophoresis of nanorods. J. Magnetism Mag. Mater. 321: 1557-1562, 2009.
Lim JK, Eggeman A, Lanni F, Tilton RD and Majetich SA. Synthesis and single-particle optical detection of low-polydispersity plasmonic-superparamagnetic nanoparticles. Adv. Mater. 20: 1721-1726, 2008.
Levitan ES, Lanni F and Shakiryanova D. In vivo imaging of vesicle motion and release at the Drosophila neuromuscular junction. .
Nauman JV, Campbell PG, Lanni F and Anderson JL. Diffusion of insulin-like growth factor-I and ribonuclease through fibrin gels. .
Lanni F, Pane DA, Weinstein SJ and Waggoner AS. Compact flashlamp-based fluorescence imager for use under ambient-light conditions. .
Lanni F. Fluorescence grating imager systems for optical-sectioning microscopy. In: Imaging in Neuroscience and Development. R.M. Yuste and A. Konnerth, eds. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2005. pp805-813 (Chapter 101), 2005.
Vanni S, Lagerholm BC, Otey C, Taylor DL and Lanni F. Internet-based image analysis quantifies contractile behavior of individual fibroblasts inside model tissue. .
Lagerholm, B.C., S. Vanni, D.L. Taylor and F. Lanni. Cytomechanics applications of optical sectioning microscopy. .