Patrizia Polverino de Laureto
 | Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Padova Contacts |
Short CV
Doctor degree cum laude in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Naples in 1986.
May-June 1988: Stage at the laboratory of Prof. Angelo Fontana, Dept. of Organic Chemistry, University of Padua.
1989: Research activities at the laboratory of protein sequencing (head Dr. G. di Prisco), Institute of Protein Biochemistry and Enzymology of CNR, Naples.
From 1988 to 1991: PhD-Course in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Padua. Fellowship from Pierrel SpA (Milan).
In 1993: stage at the laboratory of Cellular Biology (head Dr. E. Appella), National Cancer Institute (NIH, Bethesda, USA). In the same year, stage at the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (head Dr. M. Mann), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany).
1994-1996: Post-doctoral fellowship provided by University of Padua, at CRIBI Biotechnology Centre.
In 1995: stage at the Mass Spectrometry Laboratory (head Prof. H. Morris), Imperial College of Science, Medicine and Technology (London, UK).
1995-1997: Fellowship provided by Alfa-Wassermann (Bologna), at CRIBI Biotechnology Centre.
January 1997-February 1998: Specialization in "Human Ecology", course organized by University of Padua.
1997-2001: Laboratory Assistant at CRIBI Biotechnology Centre.
2001-2015: researcher at CRIBI Biotechnology Centre. Actual position: assistant professor in BIO/10 scientific area at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (University of Padova).
Teaching
Office hours
Upon appointment
Availability for Thesis Projects
Study of the chemical modifications of alpha-synuclein and its mutant H50Q produced under oxidative conditions. 2 positions available
Research
Scientific Activities
Currently she is conducting her research activity at the CRIBI Biotechnology Centre of Padova. Her research studies are dedicated to the biochemical and biophysical characterization of proteins and peptides and mainly concern the analysis of the aggregation states of proteins. In particular she is interested in the process of amyloid aggregation of alpha-synuclein with the aim of clarifying at the molecular level the mechanism of aggregation and the role of this protein in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. She also studies the interaction between proteins and lipids, using biochemical and biophysical techniques. Of particular interest is her expertise in mass spectrometry and part of his research is dedicated to the development of new methodologies related to it.
She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Chromatography & Separation Techniques since 2010 and works as a reviewer for several international scientific journals, including Biochemistry, PlosOne, Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, BBA, Journal of Biological Chemistry. She holds various institutional positions, including President of the Council of the Degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from AY 2015-2016 and was a member of the Committee on Research of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2013. She is representative for the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the event "Researchers' Night" sponsored by the University of Padua.
Technical expertise
In our lab all the techniques for the purification (all types of chromatography and electrophoresis) and characterization of proteins and peptides are routinely used. In particular,for our research interest, we use spectroscopic techniques (CD, fluorescence and FT-IR spectroscopy) for the structural characterization of proteins. Of particular interest, our expertise in mass spectrometry analysis.
Publications
- G. De Franceschi, E. Frare, M. Pivato, A. Relini, A. Penco, E. Greggio, L. Bubacco, and P. Polverino de Laureto. Structural and morphological characterization of aggregated species of alpha-synuclein induced by docosahexaenoic acid. J. Biol. Chem., 286, 22262–22274 (2011).
- G. De Franceschi, P. Cecchini, E. Frare, A. Fontana, and P. Polverino de Laureto. The role of tryptophan in protein fibrillogenesis: relevance of Trp7 and Trp14 to the amyloidogenic properties of myoglobin. PEDS 25, 199–203 (2012).
- M. Pivato, G. De Franceschi, L. Tosatto, E. Frare, D. Kumar, D. Aioanei, M. Brucale, I. Tessari, M. Bisaglia, B. Samorì, P. Polverino de Laureto, L. Bubacco. Covalent α-synuclein dimers: chemico-physical and aggregation properties. PLoS One 7(12). doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0050027 (2012).
- C. Fecchio, G. De Franceschi, A. Relini, E. Greggio, M. Dalla Serra, L. Bubacco, P. Polverino de Laureto. α-Synuclein oligomers induced by docosahexaenoic acid affect membrane integrity. PLoS One. 8(11), e82732. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0082732. (2013).
- Y. Feng, G. De Franceschi, A. Kahraman, M. Soste, A. Melnik, P. Boersema, P. Polverino de Laureto, Y. Nikolaev, A. P. Oliveira and P. Picotti. Probing protein structural transitions in complex biological backgrounds. Nature Biotechnology 32, 1036–1044, doi:10.1038/nbt.2999 (2014).
