The Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (IBBC, https://www.cnr.it/it/istituto/130/istituto-di-biochimica-e-biologia-cellulare-ibbc) of the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) was born in June 2019 from the merger of the Institute of Protein Biochemistry (IBP, located in Naples) and the Institute of Cell Biology and Neurobiology (IBCN, located in Monterotondo Scalo, Rome). IBP and IBCN were the headquarters of two European infrastructures: EurobioImaging and Infrafrontier/EMMA, ​​respectively. These are now both an integral part of IBBC. The main research topics of IBBC are: cellular and molecular biology, differentiation; biochemistry and structure of proteins and lipids; immunology; neurobiology and aging; molecular oncology and pathology; imaging and advanced microscopy; generation, cryopreservation and phenotyping of murine mutants, human disease models.

Francesca M. Pisani

Francesca M. Pisani (http://www.ibp.cnr.it/research/francesca_maria_pisani) graduated in Biology at the University of Naples Federico II (Naples, Italy) in 1987. In 1988 she moved to the laboratory of Brian S. Hartley at Imperial College in London (UK) as a recipient of a European Community Training Fellowship. Back to Italy, she was CNR fellow from 1990 till 1993 at the IBP in Naples (Italy). In 1994 she got a CNR Staff Scientist position and in 2001 she was promoted to CNR Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader at IBP (now IBBC). Francesca M. Pisani has a long-standing experience in the biochemical analysis of DNA replication proteins and enzymes (DNA polymerases and DNA helicases and their accessory factors) by various biochemical experimental methodologies. Her major expertise includes production and purification of recombinant proteins using bacterial, insect and mammalian cell systems; in vitro reconstitution of multi-protein complexes; analysis of protein-protein and protein-DNA interaction by various biochemical and biophysical methods. Her research now focusses on the the role of human DNA helicases and their protein binding partners in genome stability cellular pathways, relevant in cancer biology.

Giuseppe Manco

Giuseppe Manco (http://www.ibp.cnr.it/research/giuseppe-manco) graduated in Biology at the University of Naples Federico II (Naples, Italy) in 1987. He was CNR fellow at International Institute of Genetics and Biophysics (IIGB) in Naples (Italy) from 1989 till 1991 and, then, at IBP from 1992 till 1994. He became CNR Staff Scientist in 1994 and Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader in 2001 at IBP (now IBBC). His main research line is the study of enzyme structure-function relationships with the aim of understanding the determinants that underlay (thermal) stability, substrate recognition, inhibition and catalysis.

Within the AntiHelix consortium Giuseppe Manco is supervisor of ESR2; Co-organiser of Mid Term Plenary Meeting and some training courses.

Ana Boavida

Ana Boavida studied Biology in University of Évora (Évora, Portugal), followed by a master Degree in Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences focusing on Forensic Genetics and Quality Control, at the University of Coimbra (Coimbra, Portugal - 2017). Soon after, she went to Genentech (San Francisco, CA) as a Visiting Scientist for 6 months where she worked in the field of Molecular Biology and Virology (2018). More recently, she spent time in Raquel Oliveira’s lab, in Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Lisboa, Portugal), to study new Cohesin and Condensin regulators as well as chromosome dynamics (2019-2020).

Ana joined the AntiHelix consortium in March 2020 as ESR1, working on the structure-function relationships of DDX11 DNA helicase.