CV Anna Marabotti –LTeC University of Salerno
Anna Marabotti, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biology "A. Zambelli"
University of Salerno
Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132
84084 Fisciano (SA)
Italy
Education and training:
- 11/11/1996, University of Parma (Italy): “Laurea” summa cum laude in "Chimica e Tecnologia Farmaceutiche" (Medicinal Chemistry)
- 17/02/2001, Associated Universities of Turin and Parma (Italy): “Dottorato di Ricerca” (Ph.D.) in
Biochemistry
Other professional certifications:
- 27/01/1998, University of Parma: Professional qualification for the activity of pharmacist
- National Academic Qualification (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale) as Associate Professor for the code 05/E1 (Tornata 2012).
Employment and research experience:
-11/1996-10/1997: Dept. Neurological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Univ. Verona (Italy): Post-graduate fellowship. Research activity: study of mutants of DOPA decarboxylase by means of classic biochemistry approaches
-11/1997-10/2000: Dept. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Univ. Parma (Italy): Ph.D. fellowship. Research activity: study of allosteric communications of tryptophan synthase, by means of classic biochemistry and molecular biology techniques, and bioinformatics techniques.
During the Ph.D. internship, short-term stage periods at: Institute for Structural Biology and Drug Discovery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond (USA), under the supervision of prof. Donald J. Abraham and Glen E. Kellogg, working on the exploitation of a software for the prediction of free energy of binding for protein-ligand complexes; Dept. Biochemistry, University of California, Riverside (USA), under the supervision of prof. Michael F. Dunn, working on rapid-scanning stop flow measurements to analyse reaction intermediates of tryptophan synthase
-3/2001-2/2002: CRIBI, Univ. Padua (Italy): Post-doc fellowship. Research activity: characterization of the folding process and structural-functional features of myoglobin, by means of classic biochemistry and molecular biology techniques, and bioinformatics techniques
-3/2002-3/2003: Quality Assurance section of GlaxoSmithKline S.p.A., Verona (Italy): Fixed-term contract employee
-1/2003-1/2006: CRISCEB, Second University of Naples (Italy): Post-doc fellowship. Research activity: structural-functional characterization of proteins involved in breast cancer, genetic diseases and of relevant biotechnological interest by means of bioinformatics techniques
-3/2006-11/2008: ISA-CNR, Avellino (Italy): Post-doc fellowship. Research activity: structural-functional characterization of proteins of relevant biotechnological interest and involved in genetic diseases by means of bioinformatics techniques
-11/2008-11/2009: ISA-CNR, Avellino (Italy): fixed term contract researcher. Research activity: structural-functional characterization of proteins of relevant biotechnological interest and involved in genetic diseases by means of bioinformatics techniques
-1/2010-12/2011: ITB-CNR, Segrate (Italy): Pos-doc fellowship. Research activity: study of proteins of biomedical interest, involved in genetic diseases and development of drugs by means of bioinformatics techniques and virtual screening
-12/2011-10/2012: IRCCS “E. Medea” - Ass. “La Nostra Famiglia”, Bosisio Parini, Italy: Post-doc fellowship. Research activity: Principal Investigator for the project GR-2009-1570296 (see below)
-10/2012-present: Dept. Chemistry and Biology, Univ. Salerno, Fisciano (SA): Assistant Professor (permanent position). Research activity: structural-functional characterization of proteins of relevant medical interest and involved in genetic diseases by means of bioinformatics techniques coupled to experimental approaches.
Main research interests:
Studies of structure-dynamics-function relationships of proteins, protein-ligand interaction and allosteric regulations using a combination of experimental and bioinformatics techniques. In particular:
- studies on the enzymes associated to the different forms of the rare genetic disease galactosemia for the characterization of the impact of disease-associated mutations on structure- function-dynamics of the proteins and to find genotype-phenotype correlations at clinical level; development of a Web-accessible database to collect and promote the diffusion of this kind of information worldwide; computational biology approaches to identify inhibitors of GALK enzyme suitable to develop new lead compounds to alleviate long-term complications in patients affected by classic galactosemia;
- computational studies to identify human proteins as possible targets for mycotoxins and other food contaminants, bioinformatics and experimental validation of their interactions in order to identify possible targets involved in the onset of autism spectrum disorders;
- computational studies on structure-dynamics-function relationships of sugar-binding proteins and other ligand-binding proteins and enzymes from mesophilic and thermophilic organisms, with a potential biotechnological interest for their application as biological moieties for the development of biosensors for several applications;
- computational characterization of the properties of the enzyme transglutaminase involved in celiac disease;
- studies on the interactions of environmental pollutants with several human target proteins.
Skills and competences:
Known foreign languages: English, French
Knowledge of experimental laboratory techniques:
- Electrophoretic techniques
- Spectrophotometric techniques
- Chromatography
- Mass spectrometry
- Limited proteolysis applied to the study of protein structures
- Molecular biology techniques
- Expression and purification of proteins in bacteria
Specific competences for bioinformatics and computational biology:
- Knowledge and use of database for nucleotides and proteins sequences and structures
- Knowledge and use of programs for pairwise and multiple alignments of sequences
- Knowledge and use of programs and web servers for predicting structures of proteins and for the analysis of their structural features
- Knowledge and use of freeware and commercial packages for biomolecular structure analysis and visualization
- Knowledge and use of programs for molecular docking and of web servers for reverse docking simulations
- Knowledge and use of programs for molecular dynamics simulations
- Knowledge and use of programs for the analysis and estimation of interaction energy in protein-ligand, protein-DNA and protein-protein complexes.
Projects:
PI for the following projects:
-2/2009-2/2011: Project: “Study of conformational flexibility of several antimicrobial peptides in solvent and lipid membranes” approved by CASPUR in the framework of research projects for high performance computing systems
-3/2011-3/2012: Project: “Computational biology strategy for the development of ligands of GALK enzyme as potential drugs for people with classical galactosemia” funded by Parents of Galactosemic Children, Inc., Mandeville, LA, USA (presently Galactosemia Foundation Inc., USA)
-12/2011-12/2015: Project: “The relationship among food, mycotoxins, gastrointestinal disorders and autism: a multidisciplinary approach for the molecular investigation” (GR-2009-1570296) funded by Italian Ministry of Health in the framework of grant “Ricerca Finalizzata e Giovani Ricercatori 2009”
-FARB 2012-2013-2014-2015, funded by University of Salerno
Participation to other projects:
- 2012-2013: participation to project PON: "Tecnologie di comunicazione per la valorizzazione dei processi delle filiere conserviera e vitivinicola" (decreto di concessione n. 00104MI01) - responsible prof. Francesco Polese.
- 2013-2014: participation to FARB projects (Responsible: Prof. Carla Esposito and Prof. Ivana Caputo) funded by University of Salerno.
Teaching:
- 2003-2012: Lecturer in several Italian Universities (Parma, Viterbo, Naples “Federico II”) and other institutions (IST-Genova, ISA-CNR-Avellino) for courses of Bioinformatics and Biochemistry
- 2012-present: Course “Advanced Biochemistry” (including Structural Bioinformatics) (6 CFU) for the Master Degree in Biology, University of Salerno.
Other activities:
Member of the Scientific and/or Organizing Committees for several congresses, courses, workshops and seminars. Involved in national and international scientific societies. Reviewer for several scientific journals and national/international projects.
Publications
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9510-5205
Co-author of more than 70 full papers published in journals indexed by the main online resources (PubMed, JCR, Google Scholar, Scopus...) and in journals with ISSN/ISBN code, and of about 100 communication to congresses.