Dr. D'Agostino is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida College Of Medicine, Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology where he develops and tests metabolic therapies, including alternative energy substrates and ketogenic agents for neurological disorders, cancer and wound healing. While studying the effects of gasses on the brains of Navy Seal divers, he developed an approach for me
tabolically starving cancer cells through diet and compressed oxygen, replacing chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fM9o72ykww
Our laboratory at USF Morsani College of Medicine is growing in space, personnel and research interests. Our Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology has a faculty base with a broad range of expertise and backgrounds. The main focus of our laboratory is to further expand on the development and application of metabolic therapies for the treatment of seizure disorders, metabolic disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, wound healing and cancer. We now have four full time PhD students, a laboratory manager, a postdoctoral fellow and several highly motivated undergraduate and pre-medical students working in the laboratory. Each member has a primary project, but they all work as a Team to support the efforts of others by collecting data, discussing the results and presenting the information to the public. Our laboratory is equipped with a variety of equipment to assess the efficacy of metabolic therapies on neurological function, motor function and metabolism, which are all linked to clinical assessment in patients. Collaboration is a very important and necessary part of forming a team of expertise to optimize the use of resources for scientific discovery. We maintain collaborations with a number of institutions including Boston College, Case Western University, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University on Tampa to name a few. Recent publications
Brownlow, ML.Benner, L.D'Agostino, D.Gordon, MN.Morgan, D. Ketogenic diet improves motor performance but not cognition in two mouse models of Alzheimer's pathology. PloS one. 8(9) : e75713, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24069439
Seyfried, TN.Flores, R.Poff, AM.D'Agostino, DP. Cancer as a Metabolic Disease: Implications for Novel Therapeutics. Carcinogenesis. , 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24343361
D'Agostino, DP.Pilla, R.Held, HE.Landon, CS.Puchowicz, M.Brunengraber, H.Ari, C.Arnold, P.Dean, JB. Therapeutic ketosis with ketone ester delays central nervous system oxygen toxicity seizures in rats. American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology. 304(10) : R829-36, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23552496
Poff, AM.Ari, C.Seyfried, TN.D'Agostino, DP. The ketogenic diet and hyperbaric oxygen therapy prolong survival in mice with systemic metastatic cancer. PloS one. 8(6) : e65522, 2013. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23755243
D'Agostino, DP.McNally, HA.Dean, JB. Development and testing of hyperbaric atomic force microscopy (AFM) and fluorescence microscopy for biological applications. Journal of microscopy. 246(2) : 129-42, 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22455392
Paoli, A.Grimaldi, K.D'Agostino, D.Cenci, L.Moro, T.Bianco, A.Palma, A. Ketogenic diet does not affect strength performance in elite artistic gymnasts. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. 9(1) : 34, 2012. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22835211
McNally H; D'Agostino DP Hyperbaric Atomic Force Microscopy System Performance and Applications Imaging and Microscopy. 13(1) : 41-43, 2011. D'Agostino, DP.Olson, JE.Dean, JB. Acute hyperoxia increases lipid peroxidation and induces plasma membrane blebbing in human U87 glioblastoma cells. Neuroscience. 159(3) : 1011-22, 2009. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19356685
D'Agostino, DP.Colomb, DG.Dean, JB. Effects of hyperbaric gases on membrane nanostructure and function in neurons. Journal of applied physiology. 106(3) : 996-1003, 2009. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18818382
D'Agostino, D.Mazza, E.Neubauer, JA. Heme oxygenase is necessary for the excitatory response of cultured neonatal rat rostral ventrolateral medulla neurons to hypoxia. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology. 296(1) : R102-18, 2009. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18971354
D'Agostino, DP.Putnam, RW.Dean, JB. Superoxide (*O2- ) production in CA1 neurons of rat hippocampal slices exposed to graded levels of oxygen. Journal of neurophysiology. 98(2) : 1030-41, 2007. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17553943