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Giuseppe Cassano graduated (cum laude) in Biology in 1979. In 1983 obtained a position of Researcher in "General Physiology" at the University of Lecce, where he became Associated Professor in 1987. Since 1991 he is at the University of Bari.

He has been a visiting researcher at the Physiologisches Institüt der Universität - Zürich (CH) and at the Department of Zoology - University of Hawaii (USA).

Up to 1991, in the group of the University of Lecce, he investigated ion and metabolite transport by brush border membrane of intestinal and renal cells.

Since 1991, he has studied the dependence of cell proliferation on potential growth factors (PGE2, PGF2alfa, GRP, SP).

Actually he investigates the effect of synthetic sigma receptor ligands (PB28, F281, PB212), on the cellular homeastasis of the calcium ion, a very important second messenger.

Sigma receptors are classified into the subtypes sigma-1 and sigma-2, with different molecular weight (25 and 18-21.5 kDa respectively), different patterns of tissue distribution, and subcellular localizations.

The sigma-1 receptor has been recently cloned from the tissues of guinea pig, rat, mouse and man. It is characterized by 2 transmembrane regions and is anchored at rest to the membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum.

The sigma-2 receptor is much less characterized and colocalizes with fluorescent markers of mitochondria, lysomes, endoplasmic reticulum, and the plasma membrane. It has been linked to cancer biology by two important observations. Synthetic agonists of the sigma-2 receptor trigger a cell response leading to cell death and inhibit the activity of the P-glycoprotein, responsible for the active extrusion of anticancer drugs. Its precise physiological role remains unknown and has been implicated in the regulation of cell proliferation.