Structural Biology Laboratory
We apply molecular and structural biology tools to study the basic genetic processes within the cell and to characterise some of the proteins involved. Structural biology is an interdisciplinary research area, requiring expertises from both the life sciences and the physical sciences. We use protein crystallography to determine the atomic structure of these proteins, as well as biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand how they work. Crystallographic studies are complemented by the concomitant use of electron microscopy to visualise the architecture of large complexes and/or small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to obtain additional structural information. Our research focus on DNA replication, genome stability and cell signalling. These are crucial events in the cell cycle, underpinning cellular processes with important consequences such as cell proliferation and genome stability. Failure to control these processes causes chromosome instability, which can lead to the development of cellular abnormalities, genetic diseases and the onset of cancer.
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CryoEM map of MthMCM bound to DNA |
News
Silvia Onesti is giving a lecture on Macromolecular Crystallography at the ICTP School on Synchrotron Light Sources and their Application, from the 23rd of January to the 3rd of February.
Elisa De Piante is giving a talk at "G4ME, the first Italian meeting on G-quadruplexes and other non-canonical nucleic acid structures" (27-28 October, 2022).
Getting ready for SHARPER 2022 (European Researchers' Night)! Gianluca Centrone and Manil Kanade, from the AntiHelix Team, will talk about our work at the "Beyond the visible" session, explaining how structural biologists can use the special light from a synchrotron to better understand the cell mechanisms ensuring the integrity of the genome.
The AIC school "Protein structure models, biophysical data and high-performance computing for drug design" will be held in Trieste from the 7th to the 10th of September 2022. Silvia Onesti is chairing the Organising Committe.
Silvia Onesti has been invited to chair the "Structures in Cancer Biology" mycrosymposium within the European Crystallographic Meeting ECM33, held in Versailles (FR), from the 23rd to the 30th of August.
The AIRC grant to Silvia Onesti on "Understanding the role of RecQ4 in cancer development and progression" has been extended by two years (January 2022-December 2023).
2021 SHARPER Night (European Researcher's Night): Meet our team in Piazza Unità on Friday the 24th of September from 17:30 to 18:30, to find out how the cell heals damaged DNA! With Giuseppe Cortone, Manil Kanade, Raghu Hegde, Elisa De Piante, Luisa Napolitano, Silvia Onesti, Antonio Longo.
2021 SHARPER Night (European Researcher's Night): Listen to Elisa De Piante giving a short talk within Street Science!
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Welcome to Andrei Gerasimov, from Russia, who joined us to work with Paola Storici as postdoc to study novel targets for brain tumors' therapies.
Congratulations to Giuseppe Cortone for successfully defending his PhD thesis in SISSA, April 2022.
Congratulations to Marta S. Semrau for successfully defending her PhD thesis in Biomolecular Sciences at University of Trento, February 2022.
Welcome to Gianluca Centrone, from the UK, who has joined us in January 2021 to work with S. Onesti and Luisa Napolitano as AntiHelix Early Stage Researcher!
Congratulations to Elisa De Piante, who obtained an AIRC Fellowship to work on "Distinct and overlapping roles of human RecQ helicases in the recognition and unwinding of different G4 topologies"
Welcome to Theo Battista, from Rome, who joined us to work with Paola Storici as postdoc on SBDD of SARS-CoV-2 targets.
Alfredo De Biasio, Assistant Professor at the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) has been named Young Distinguished Scientist at Elettra: we are looking forward to collaborate more closely with him!
Welcome to Kirtishila Sonkar, who has joined us as ICGEB-Elettra Fellow in November 2021 to work with Silvia Oneesti & Emanuele Buratti (ICGEB).
Welcome to Federica Ruzzier, who has joined us as laboratory technician.
Welcome to Elisa De Piante, who has started a PhD in Chemistry in November 2021 under the supervision of S. Onesti, L. Napolitano and C. Giancola (University of Naple)
Welcome to Antonio Longo, who has won a CERIC-Integra fellowship, to join us in November 2020 to carry out a PhD in Chemistry, under the supervision of S. Onesti, R. De Zorzi (University of Trieste) and S. Glatt (Max Plank Research Group, Krakow, PL)
Welcome to Manil Kanade, from IISER Pune, who has (finally!!!) joined us in September 2020 to work with S. Onesti and Luisa Napolitano as AntiHelix Early Stage Researcher!
Congratulations to Elisa De Piante for successfully finishing her Master degree, not only cum laude but also with a special mention!
Congratulations to Sebastiano Baldassar for successfully finishing his Master degree, and for being the first student in the lab discussing the thesis on-line!
We are looking for two bright and motivated PhD students to work with S. Onesti and L. Napolitano, within the MSCA-ETN AntiHelix project (https://www.elettra.eu/AntiHelix/Main/ESRs). The positions are subjected to the usual MSCA eligibility rules (not more than 4 year from the degree that allows you to do a PhD, and transnational mobility) and will start in February/March 2020
Congratulations to Ilenia Bagnano for successfully defending her PhD thesis in SISSA, October 2019.
Congratulation to Antonio Longo for successfully defending his Master thesis in Functional Genomics, at the University of Trieste, October 2019.
Welcome to Raghurama Hegde and Andrea Flores-Ibarra, who have joined us to work on the Trans-Glioma INTERREG project with S. Onesti and P. Storici.
Welcome to Sebastiano Baldassar, a Master student from the University of Bologna who has joined us in April 2019 to work with S. Onesti.
Welcome to Elisa De Piante, a Master student from the University of Parma who has joined us in March 2019 to work with S. Onesti.
Welcome to Antonio Longo, a Master student from the University of Trieste who has joined us in January 2019 to work with S. Onesti.
Congratulations to Marco Franzon, and Veronica Delsoglio for successfully defending their Master thesis, at the Universities of Trieste and Turin, respecitvely, December 2018.
Welcome to Simone Pirrello, who has started a PhD in the Joint PhD Programme in Molecular Biology under the supervision of S. Onesti, November 2018.
Welcome to Marta Semrau, who has started a PhD at the University of Trento, under the supervision of P. Storici, November 2018.
Congratulation to Simone Pirrello for successfully defending his Master thesis, October 2018.
Welcome to Marco Franzon, Simone Pirrello e Stella Dibenedetto that have joined us to carry out their Diploma Thesis work, under the supervision of S. Onesti and P. Storici
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