Dear Friends and Colleagues, I deeply regret to inform you that January the 19th Marcello Spanò passed away due to a cardiac arrest.
The community of flow cytometry pioneers lost one of the first enthusiasts of this scientific breakthrough in cellular analysis. Marcello did belong to the scientific group around Dr. Francesco Mauro in ENEA, Rome which did introduce automated cytology in Italy already in the 70ties and 80ties last century. We worked together as young scientists sharing the passion and the enchantment, impressed about the great potential of this technology in various fields, in basic science and medicine. In the last 20 years of his life Marcello devoted his research interests towards the application of flow cytometric methods to the assessment of sperm DNA integrity. He optimized and standardized methods as the sperm chromatin structure assay (SCSA) and the immunodetection of 5-methylcytosine in sperm, and, more recently, adapted the pyrosequencing approach to the quantitation of 5-methylcytosine in specific sperm DNA sequences. He was a rigorous scientist spending much effort in standardization and inter-laboratory calibration trials, convinced that only in this way the methods could gain international credibility. He was driven by scientific curiosity about the causes and types of DNA damage that human sperm often carry and that can endanger fertility and offspring health. But he was also convinced that improving the assessment of quantity and quality of sperm DNA damage could unravel an impact of occupational, dietary, and lifestyle factors on human reproductive health, thereby promoting a prevention approach. Indeed, over the years, he joined several European funded projects investigating the relationship between sperm quality and contaminant serum concentrations, contributing to demonstrate significant associations. He trained and supervised several doctoral and post-doctoral fellows, not only from Italy, but also from Swedish, Danish, and South Africans laboratories, with which he established good, long-lasting collaborations.
We lost with Marcello one of the first enthusiast of automated cytology who spent his full scientific carrier for the improvement of this science.
He was a very enjoyable and communicative person and a close friend. We all miss him very much.
Laura Teodori, ENEA, Rome, Italy
