Over the last two decades, biological sciences have undergone radical transformation through the development of new research technologies that have produced a real explosion in the amount of data available. Just think of the modern genomic sequencing techniques that have made the sequencing of the human genome, different animal and plant organisms, and many microorganisms simpler, less expensive and more reliable with enormous benefits for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In the wake of the ...

Resistance to cancer chemotherapeutics, e.g. taxanes and anthracyclines, is largely due to the overexpression of efflux pumps, in particular ABCB1 (P-glycoprotein or MDR1). Resistance leads to poor clinical outcome. Overexpression of a group of genes that surround the ABCB1 genomic locus (the ABCB1 amplicon), including Sorcin (SRI), may contribute to the establishment of the multidrug-resistant phenotype. Here we show that: i) Sorcin is overexpressed in several tumors and cancer cell lines, in ...

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 ...

The e-scientific newsletter Connexon Creative highlights as THIS WEEK'S TOP STORY the paper "Estrogens enhance myoblast differentiation in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy by antagonizing DUX4 activity", result of a research carried out in our Institute (https://www.musclecellnews.com/issue/). Connexon Creative sifts through all of the most recent scientific literature and news, and selects the most relevant and highest impact publications on regenerative medicine. This week, it ...

Highlights 2017 (see for details www.SPIN.CNR.it) Superconductivity Physical Review - R. Cristiano Physical Review - Z. J. Ying, M. Cuoco Physical Review Letters - A. Martinelli, P. Manfrinetti, A. Provino, F. Caglieris, G. Lamura, M. Putti Scientific Reports - C. Nappi, C. Camerlingo, E. Bellingeri, V. Braccini, C. Ferdeghini, E. Sarnelli Supercond. Sci. Technol. - I. Pallecchi, A. Leveratto, V. Braccini, V. Zunino, A. Malagoli Physical Review Materials - G. ...

Report of the Scientific activities for thee period 2016-17

Su iniziativa del gruppo Menarini e di Oxford BioTherapeutics è stato sviluppato un anticorpo monoclonale, umanizzato, MEN1112 che è in grado di riconoscere ed eliminare cellule di leucemia mieloide acuta. Dopo una fase preclinica di studio e caratterizzazione, che ha dimostrato efficacia e tollerabilità, MEN1112 è stato ed è utilizzato in uno uno studio di tipo traslazionale nel quale l'anticorpo ha dimostrato promettente attività in campioni di sangue periferico e midollare di pazienti ...

The question of the worlwide climate modification, due to the human emissions (i.e. greehnouse gas) is alwais more stringent: Europe consumes more petroleum for transportation than for any other energy use; transportation is responsible for about half of the smog forming pollutants in our cities, for up to 90% of the carbon monoxide, and for more than half of the toxic air pollutants. The need to accelerate the development of the technologies able to reduce the effect of the human activity ...

Highlights 2016 (see for details www.SPIN.CNR.it) Superconductivity: Physical Review - R. Citro, P. Marra, A. Braggio. Carbon - R. Fittipaldi, M. Salvato, C. Cirillo, A. Vecchione, C. Attanasio. Physical Review - A. Leo, P. Marra, G. Grimaldi, R. Citro, S. Kawale, E. Bellingeri, C. Ferdeghini, S. Pace, A. Nigro. Scientific Reports - S. Pagano, G. Carapella, P. Sabatino, C. Barone. Topical Review in Superconductor Science and Technology - I. Pallecchi, F. Caglieris, M. ...

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 ...

SPIKY (Kreuz et al., 2015) is a graphical user interface written in Matlab which facilitates the analysis of electrophysiological data such as the EEG and neuronal spike trains (sequences of electrical action potentials emitted by neurons). In addition to the standard Peri-Stimulus Time Histogram (PSTH) it contains several time-resolved measures of spike train synchrony which were all developed in our lab: ISI-distance, SPIKE-distance, and SPIKE synchronization. For a given data set SPIKY ...

Diffusion essentially refers to a motion which leads to the spreading of some quantity: density of particles, energy, and so on. It owes its universality to the central limit theorem, according to which che combination of independent, random events has general features not related to the details of the single events. For example, in a standard, diffusive motion the spreading quantity does not vary proportionally to the time, but its variation may double only if time quadruples! If however the ...

Quantum electronics is now a mature field of physics in the sense that its basis is well understood, and in that it is a natural playground to develop quantum technology. Despite this tremendous success in both the understanding and harnessing of charge transport, very little is known regarding the quantum properties of heat transport. The COHERENT CALORITRONICS group at CnrNano activity aims at strengthening the understanding of phase-coherent heat transport in mesoscopic superconducting ...

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) - strips of graphene few tens of nanometers wide - are good candidates for next-generation graphene based electronics. At the Istituto Nanoscienze of CNR (CnrNano) a research focus is dedicated to the study of structural, electronic, optical and vibrational properties of graphene nanoribbons with theoretical approaches that are developed in collaboration with leading experimental research groups. One of the recent results achieved in the field, is the first ...

The effectiveness, efficiency and quality of judicial systems are cornerstones of democracy and they are of paramount importance for the economic competitiveness of every country, as recently also emphasized by the "EU Justice Agenda for 2020" of the European Commission. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for "research capacity" to improve functioning and performance of justice systems, with a specific interest in efficiency, length of proceedings, quality of decisions, court management, ...

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 ...

More than 30 years ago, Glauber theorized the existence of quantum systems to explain the link between the reversible microscopic and irreversible macroscopic scale. The formulation of such model is based on the so-called "rigged Hilbert space" and include irreversibility as a fundamental principle through the introduction of an inverted harmonic oscillator describing quantum amplifier. The standard quantum mechanics does not forbid time-travel. However, according to the Glauber theory a quantum ...

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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) ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

Sometimes, under certain circumstances, we know that problems that are in general hard to solve become easy for certain input instances. Of course, we have to be able to recognize such "lucky instances"and therefore we have to be able to characterize their "lucky properties" and exploit the characterization to devise efficient recognition algorithms. In other words we have to be able to answer the following question efficiently: "Is this instance a lucky one"; if the answer is yes then we are ...

Production of a ship is a very complex task, representing the synthesis of an intense design activity: all the relevant parameters affecting the mission of the ship are considered in this phase. However, some of these parameters are changing in time, i.e. the payload may increase or reduce due to the different market demands: if the variations are not negligible, a review of the project could be economically advantageous after some years, identifying a modification of the hull able to produce an ...

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 ...

AMICA (Analysis of the oral microbiome during hormonal cycle and its alterations in menopausal women) is a project proposed by young ICB-CNR women researchers, directed by Dr. Fabiana Piscitelli, which aims to analyze and characterize the women salivary microbiome in function of changes in hormone levels (FSH, LH, progesterone and estradiol) during menstruation and menopause. For this reason, it is enlisting women volunteers of childbearing age and menopause between 25-70 years. Two are the main ...

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 ...

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 ...

Many of the research activities that IBAM carry out in the field of archaeology assume that the priority and most urgent problem is undoubtedly the recognition and the evaluation of Cultural Heritage. It is a necessity of primary importance both for studies directed towards historical and archaeological reconstruction and, especially, to enable appropriate policies to be put in place for the protection, monitoring and management, which are essential for the conservation and enhancement of value ...

Since its foundation the IBAM has been very active in the application of airborne and spaceborne earth observation technologies in Archaeology. Two laboratories, one in Lecce and the second in Potenza, focus on aerial archaeology and the development and validation of image processing algorithms for archaeological applications, respectively. The research is developed in cooperation with Laboratory of Ancient Topography and Photogrammetry of the University of Salento and the Laboratory of Remote ...