Personale docente

ACADEMIC CAREER AND HONORS
July 1983: High-school Diploma (60/60) at the Liceo-Ginnasio Gian Domenico Romagnosi, Parma.
May 1989: Laurea in Veterinary Medicine (cum laude), University of Parma, with Professor A. Mozzarelli. Thesis title: “Crystalline tryptophan synthase: microspectrophotometric characterization of catalytic intermediates”.
July-December 1989: research assistant in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Dunn (Dept. of Biochemistry, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, U.S.A.).
Nov. 1990-Oct. 1993: PhD student in Molecular Biotechnology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Piacenza, Italy (Degree officially awarded on June, 1994). Thesis title: “Catalytic and regulative properties of tryptophan synthase from Salmonella typhimurium”
August-September 1993: NATO-EMBO-FEBS Summer School on “Protein structure, function and design” (Spetsai, Greece)
1993-1994: National Research Council Fellow. Project title: “Use of caged compounds to study enzyme kinetics in the crystal”
Sept. 1994-Jun. 1997: post-doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Daniel Herschlag (Dept. of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, U.S.A.), supported in the period April 1995-March 1997 by a Human Frontier Long-Term Postdoctoral Fellowship. Project title: “Role of metal ions in hammerhead ribozyme catalysis”
July 1997-July 1998:post-doctoral student in the laboratory of Dr. Gian Luigi Rossi (Inst. of Biochemical Sciences, University of Parma), supported by an E.U. Postdoctoral Fellowship on “Electron transfer reactions in protein crystals”
July 1998-Oct. 2000: Ricercatore, University of Parma.
Since Nov 2000: Associate Professor, University of Parma. Tenured since 2003.
Since October 2001: EMBO Young Investigator status, obtained with a research project entitled “Mechanism of action of catalytic DNA molecules”.
October 2006-May 2009: PI of a project funded by Telethon Italy. Title: “Biochemical characterization of human enzymes involved in the metabolism of glyoxylate: implications for the treatment of primary hyperoxaluria type 1”

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES
1987-94 Analysis of the dynamic and functional properties of the PLP-dependent enzyme tryptophan synthase, in solution and in the crystal, studied by UV-visible spectrophotometry, spectrofluorimetry, microspectrophotometry and kinetic methods (including stopped-flow). Functional characterization of crystalline DOPA decarboxylase.
1994-97 Studies on the activity of a model RNA enzyme, the hammerhead ribozyme, carried out employing innovative experimental approaches such as chemical rescue and the systematic analysis of thio effects.
1997-98 Analysis of electron transfer reactions occurring in crystals of methylamine dehydrogenase complexed with electron acceptor proteins.
1998-present Functional basis of the activity of catalytic DNA molecules (deoxyribozymes). Kinetic, thermodynamic and mutational characterization of the ‘8-17’ deoxyribozyme. Development of novel kinetic techniques to study the reactions catalyzed by RNA-cleaving deoxyribozymes.
2001-2004: Biochemical characterization of the plant enzyme phytochelatin synthase
2002-present: Study of derivatized calixarenes as enzyme mimics.
2002-present: Functional genomics of PLP-dependent enzymes. Bioinformatic analysis of the inter- and intragenomic distribution of these enzymes. Cloning and characterization of enzymes with unknown or uncertain catalytic function. Characterization of aminotransferases involved in glyoxylate metabolism