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 ...

ICVBC-CNR é partner del progetto "Percorsi tra le storie di Cogoleto", vincitore del bando "In ITINER@" finanziato dalla Compagnia di San Paolo di Torino. Le iniziative proposte hanno finalità nell'ambito turistico in particolare per la valorizzazione dell'offerta culturale con la creazione di un percorso tra le peculiarità storico-artistiche del territorio. Nell'ambito del progetto si prospetta un intervento all'interno della chiesa di S. Maria Addolorata dell'Ex-Ospedale Psichiatrico di ...

Precious works of art in need of preservation or authentication could in future be studied using a new laser technique, developed by a collaboration of UK and Italian scientists, that can analyse layers of paint without causing any damage to the object itself. This new technique will be of real benefit to curators of cultural heritage who need to preserve and authenticate precious works of art without harming them. UK and Italian scientists have, for the first time, tested this laser technique ...

The Institute for Conservation and Valorization of Cultural Heritage (ICBVBC - CNR) offers advice for the study of objects of ancient and modern jewelery, by means of multianalytical and non-invasive techniques. The elemental analysis by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), for example, is able to provide compositional information of constituent material of the object, characterizing the alloy and executive technique. The technique is based on the registration of the characteristic fluorescence emitted by ...

The research team of ICVBC together with Gwenelle Kavich (Smithsonian Institution MCI), Adele de Cruz (Department of Biology and Chemistry, Duke University), Bill Brown (North Carolina Museum of Art), Nick Barbi (XGLab) is disclosing the secrets of Italian masters' paintings at North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh-USA, by using several mobile instruments included the new XRF by XGLab. The North Carolina Museum of Art houses a permanent collection of Italian paintings from the fourteenth to ...

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. ...

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 ...

On February 2016 the Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry (CNR) and AutismAid signed a collaboration agreement for the realization of divulgation and formation activities concerning biomolecular chemistry, aimed to support the social inclusion of children with autism. AutismAid is a not-for-profit association of parents and volunteers committed to defending the rights of autistic people. The Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry is committed to chemical study of biological systems and processes to ...

The aims of the Seedbank are:to store seeds, to preserve their longevity and genetic diversity, to monitor germination potential and to revaluate deriving pants. Seeds are living creatures and keeping them viable requires adjusting storage moisture and temperature appropriately. Seeds are amenable to storage for very long time as demonstrated by relief of seeds from archeological sites that nowadays are still able to germinate and are kept in other international Seedbanks. In the Seedbank at ...

Gli organismi marini polari sono di grande interesse perchè: (i) sono tra le specie più vulnerabili al cambiamento climatico; (ii) rappresentano una fonte importante di composti naturali bioattivi che possono avere applicazioni nella "drug discovery". Gli adattamenti fisiologici negli organismi marini polari sono stati guidati, nel corso dell'evoluzione, da due fattori molto importanti: la bassa temperatura e l'alta concentrazione di ossigeno. LO STUDIO DEL CASO: LE EMOGLOBINE NEGLI ORGANISMI ...

Tra le iniziative legate alle celebrazioni per il trecentenario della morte del filosofo tedesco Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) è stata organizzata la mostra 'Brückenschläge - Daniel Ernst Jablonski im Europa der Frühaufklärung'. La mostra descrive, mediante una serie di pannelli, l'importante contributo offerto dal suo corrispondente Daniel Ernst Jablonski (1660-1741) al dibattito religioso e politico del Settecento. La figura di Jablonski infatti contribuisce alla ricostruzione ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...

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 ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

Sulla prestigiosa rivista 'Accounts of Chemical Research' è stato recentemente pubblicato da ricercatori dell'Istituto di fisica applicata 'Nello Carrara' del Cnr (Ifac-Cnr), insieme a un collega della National Gallery of Art di Washington, un lavoro di rassegna dedicato ad alcune delle più significative applicazioni dell'imaging iperspettrale su opere policrome di grande pregio storico artistico. La tecnologia dell'imaging iperspettrale rappresenta oggi una delle più avanzate frontiere ...

The so-called Cyber-Physical Convergence is one of the main trends of the research in the Future Internet domain. It argues that the pervasiveness of mobile devices with networking capabilities is fostering a convergence between the physical world and the cyber world, whereby smart objects and humans interact with the cyberspace via sensing, computing and communication, generating huge volumes of data flowing between the two worlds. To address this vision, IIT-CNR researchers focus on several ...

Modern wireless communication systems employ large bandwidth digital modulated signals with very high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) to enhance spectral efficiency and maximize the data rate. However, high PAPR digital modulations schemes are strongly detrimental for the radiofrequency (RF) amplifier that must operate most of the time several dB in back-off with respect to the nominal power and, therefore, with very low efficiency. A common technique to improve the RF high power amplifier ...