Cancer cells show profoundly altered mitotic divisions, and mitotic proteins are viewed as potential targets of novel antineoplastic drugs. Here, we have developed an in silico virtual screening to identify one small molecule targeting the interaction surface between microtubules and the kinetochore protein Hec1, thereby blocking microtubule dynamics. This small molecule effectively inhibits neoplastic growth, both in cultured cancer cells and in murine xenograft models, by promoting mitotic ...

Genomic analysis of longevity offers the potential to illuminate the biology of human aging. In a study, recently published in Nature Communications, a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 606,059 parents' survival, helped discover two regions associated with longevity (HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA). Previous suggestions that APOE, CHRNA3/5, CDKN2A/B, SH2B3 and FOXO3A influence longevity have also been validated. Next, the study shows that giving up smoking, educational attainment, openness to new ...

As every year, the Institute of Molecular Genetics of CNR organized a conference to commemorate the scientific and human figure of Arturo Falaschi, first Director of the Institute and a great scholar of the mechanisms that govern DNA replication. This event is part of the IGM-CNR contribution to the Course of Doctorate in Genetics, Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Pavia. The Sixth edition of the 'Arturo Falaschi Lecture' will be held by Professor Tomas Lindahl who, along with Paul ...

Bacteria are highly adaptable and can live in very hostile environments. Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a small gas molecule produced by bacteria in our intestine, and is a powerful inhibitor of cellular respiration by blocking the enzyme responsible for oxygen consumption in human cells. The aim of this study was to assess the hypothesis that some enzymes help bacteria to produce energy and survive despite the presence of acid, often damaging human health. The team led by Ibpm, in collaboration ...

A synergic collaboration between soft-matter physicists and molecular biologists of nucleic acid has yielded the realization of a new nano-material, DNA-hydrogel, liquid at low and high temperatures (≤20°C, > 45°C) and gelifies at 32/40°C. The liquid DNA hydrogel at 20°C can be easily injected into the organism and then quickly gelifies at body temperature (37°C). The abilty to gelify at 37°C is the starting point for the design and development of novel DNA-hydrogels as carriers ...

The genetic information is present in the cell as DNA, which is the form for storage and propagation to the next generation, and RNA, which is the form used by the cell to decode the instructions contained in its genes. DNA is composed of deoxynucleotides, while RNA is made of ribonucleotides. These two components are specifically recognised, respectively, by DNA polymerases, which use deoxynucleotides to build DNA, and by RNA polymerases, which synthesise RNA using ribonucleotides. DNA ...

The concept is emerging that the persisting memory T lymphocytes in the bone marrow (BM) is essential for immunological memory and successful response to vaccination, yet many questions remain unsolved. Di Rosa has proposed that the BM is essentially a nest for the homeostatic proliferation of memory T cells. Other researchers propose that the BM is rather a storage depot for memory T cells (debate in Nat Rev Immunol, april 2016). In 2016, Di Rosa proposed the "dual-niche" hypothesis, offering ...

Striking and eradicate cancer cells without damaging healthy tissue, how? The answer comes from nanomedicine. The research team led by Dr. Ceci is developing "smart" nano-carriers capable of carrying large amounts of anticancer drugs, directing them selectively towards neoplastic cells. The selective delivery to cancer sites is a critical issue in the outcome of currently used cancer therapeutics that distribute non-specifically in the body, thereby damaging healthy as well as cancer cells. ...

Braccio di Ferro, con la sua tipica pipa permanentemente in bocca e gli avambracci nerboruti, è un uomo di mare dall'aspetto un po' buffo che si trova sovente in situazioni rissose con Bruto, imponente marinaio attaccabrighe dalla barba folta e nera. L'arma segreta di Braccio di Ferro sono gli spinaci, un alimento ricco di diverse sostanze nutritive tra cui i nitrati. Recenti studi scientifici suggeriscono che l'ossido nitrico, prodotto derivante dai nitrati, svolge diverse funzioni ...

Particular attention is given to the study of mitochondri¬al biogenesis and its regulation under physiopathological conditions. Indeed, mitochondria, organelles equipped with membranes for energy transduction, have a pivotal role in the cell response to various kind of stress. The following topics are studied in detail: i) molecules of the mitochondrial membrane, such as cardiolipin, ii) aspects of mitochondrial bioenergetics under physiopathological and metabolic con¬ditions; iii) ...

1. Regulation of expression, structure and assembly of mem¬brane energy transducing systems of both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. In this contest, the signal transduction and second messen¬gers, in particular cAMP, play an important role in regulating the biogenesis and functional capacity of membrane ener¬gy transducing systems and oxygen free radical balance in physiological and pathological conditions. Another area in¬volves the study of energy transducing systems in microor¬ganisms of ...

This research activity is involved in the identification and in the functional and structural characterization of mitochon¬drial membrane transporters belonging to the family SLC25 known as "mitochondrial carrier family (MCF)". Main research topics are: i) study of the relationship between structure and function of mitochondrial carriers; ii) effects of either endogenous and xenobiotic molecules on the transport activity, mediated by mitochondrial carriers; iii) identification of the catalytic ...

Objective of this research is the study of signaling pathways and mitochondrial metabolism in different models of neuro¬degenerative/neurodevelopmental diseases and in cancer. The delicate balance between cell death and proliferation is essential to the genesis of various pathologies and the mi¬tochondria are proving to be the key factors in regulating: cell growth and death, intracellular signaling and integration of stress signals. The targets of this research concern: mi¬tochondria-nucleus ...

This research activity include the following research topics: 1) Development of bioinformatics methodologies and spe¬cialized databases for taxonomic analysis and functional characterization of "omics" data. 2) Structural and functional annotation of the genome and study of the mechanisms of regulation of gene expression in prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms, viruses and organ¬elles (mitochondria and chloroplasts) through High-Through¬put Sequencing (HTS) technology and advanced ...

Gli adolescenti con gravi comportamenti antisociali presentano evidenti anomalie cerebrali rispetto ai coetanei che non soffrono di questo disturbo: è quanto emerge da una ricerca recentemente pubblicata sulla rivista internazionale Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Lo studio è stato condotto dalle Università di Cambridge e Southampton in collaborazione con l'Università Tor Vergata e il Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). I ricercatori che hanno partecipato allo studio ...

The Microscopy School, in collaboration with the Digital Microscopy Center at "Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli" in Bologna, aims to provide the basic information for the use of the main optical microscopy techniques such as SIM Super Resolution, STORM, STED , TIRF and deconvolution. Super resolution microscopy is one of the most significant developments in imaging in biology since the light microscope was invented. The course is opened to researchers, students and technicians who are interested in ...

The feasibility and sensitivity of the TSPO radiotracer 18F-DPA-714 for the study of microglial activation in the brain and spinal cord of transgenic SOD1G93A mice, a model of ALS, was evaluated using high-resolution PET/CT and immunohistochemistry. The results showed that a significant increase in 18F-DPA-714 uptake can be measured with high-resolution PET/CT in the brainstem of symptomatic SOD1G93A mice as compared to WT SOD1 mice. Moreover, immunostaining revealed that TSPO expression was ...

A new MRI parameter representative of active tumor burden, the diffusion volume (DV), is proposed in the evaluation of histological grade (G1/G2/G3) and risk classification (low/medium/high-risk) of patients with cervical and endometrial cancer. DV is defined as the sum of the voxels within a tumor with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values enclosed in a specific range and associated to higher cellular density. A semi-automated segmentation procedure was used to calculate the DV. A ...

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The encouraging results of a phase II randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial testing the use of NGF in patients with severe optic pathway gliomas, were published in the prestigious journal Brain. The study was conducted at the Policlinico A. Gemelli in Rome by Antonio Chiaretti (Assistant Professor of Pediatrics), Benedetto Falsini (Associate Professor of Ophthalmology) and Riccardo Riccardi (Professor of Pediatric Oncology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart) in ...

Il meccanismo molecolare che controlla la funzionalità dei linfociti T dell'uomo è stato chiarito da una ricerca scientifica condotta dal gruppo del Prof. Giuseppe Matarese del Dipartimento di medicina molecolare e biotecnologie mediche dell'Università di Napoli 'Federico II' in collaborazione con il Laboratorio di proteomica dell'Itb-Cnr e il Laboratorio di immunologia dello Ieos-Cnr. I risultati dello studio sono stati pubblicati sulla prestigiosa rivista Immunity. I linfociti T umani sono ...

We are all very proud that Sarah Giacchetti, LM student in Molecular Biology and Genetics, and Marco Roncandor, student in Medicine at the University of Pavia, have won one of the fellowships made available by the Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Foundation in collaboration with CNR, the College Ghislieri, CIBIO / University of Trento, the Scuola Normale and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa. Both winners are engaged in research work at our institute, Sarah Giacchetti at the Dr. Elena Botta's ...

L'Unità di Oncogenomica della Dott.ssa Poliseno ha sede ad IFC ed è parte del Core Research Laboratory dell'ITT (http://www.ittumori.it/). L'Unità è stata costituita tramite un finanziamento start up erogato dall'ITT nel 2012 e si occupa di studiare il ruolo svolto dai microRNA, piccole molecole di RNA a singolo filamento, come effettori e come regolatori del pathway delle MAP chinasi. Tale pathway, composto dalle proteine RAS, RAF, MEK e ERK, è quello più frequentemente alterato in ...

Chronic respiratory diseases and allergic diseases have doubled in the last 25 years and living in a urban area is a risk factors for these diseases. Few epidemiological surveys on general population samples estimated changes in prevalence of respiratory symptoms/diseases over a long time interval. A study performed by the Pulmonary Environmental Epidemiology Unit, Institute of Clinical Physiology, CNR, Pisa, along with the Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology, CNR, Palermo, the ...

On October 13th, Dario Fo, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997, died. Others may better illustrate his absolutely original and innovative contributions in the literature and in the performing and visual arts, as well as his passionate commitment to social issues. On our side, we would like to remember the enthusiastic support that he and his wife Franca dedicated to our scientific research, in particular to the project stemming from a collaboration between Giovanni Maga in our Institute and ...

AIRC rewards this year two young researchers at the IGM-CNR of Pavia: Elisa Belloni (with a three years fellowship) and Anna Di Matteo (with a one year fellowship). Both researchers are involved in a research project in the group directed by Dr. Claudia Ghigna aimed at identifying the molecular mechanisms driving the development of tumor vasculature, a fundamental process in cancer progression since cancerous cells stimulate the formation of new blood vessels in order to support their growth and ...

The research group of Dr. Claudia Ghigna (Institute of Molecular Genetics of the National Research Council, CNR-IGM of Pavia) supported by the AIRC-Italian Cancer Research Association and in collaboration with the group of Dr. Ugo Cavallaro (IEO of Milan) showed that in the blood vessels of the ovarian tumor, one of the most common causes of death from cancer in the female population between 50 and 69 years, is present a new variant of the L1 protein. This variant (called L1-deltaTM) was ...

Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals1. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample1, 2 of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study in an independent sample of 111,349 individuals from the UK Biobank. We identify 74 genome-wide ...

All'inizio di quest'anno, la Incontinentia Pigmenti Genetic Biobank (IPGB) ha ricevuto l'approvazione per entrare a far parte del network Registry & Biobanking del "Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure" (BBMRI), specifico per malattie rare, uno strumento indispensabile per il progresso delle ricerche sulle malattie genetiche rare. Il BBMRI è una struttura europea che raccoglie tutte le biobanche europee che rispondano a requisiti di qualità del materiale e dei dati ...

The real possibility of a revolutionary approach to new-generation antivirals demonstrated by a study of the University of Siena and the Italian CNR. A single drug against all viral infections, capable of hitting the protein that the virus uses to multiply. And this is the goal that will be made possible thanks to a study conducted in collaboration between the University of Siena and the CNR, which has identified new molecules capable of inhibiting the human protein DDX3. The research, ...