Academic interests
Proteins are carbon-based nanomachines, one of the 'big four' building blocks of living matter, mediating actions as diverse as contracting muscles, seeing colors or digesting food. Their three-dimensional structure reveals how a limited chemical toolbox, the 21 proteinogenic amino acids, is assembled in clever combinations, forming molecular devices that carry out complex tasks.
My professional interest lies in understanding what specific proteins do, how they work, and why. In practical terms, I collect structural data and use them to understand the mechanism underlying known protein-mediated processes or to investigate the function of poorly understood proteins. Experimentally, I mainly rely on X-ray diffraction-based methods for structural analysis (X-ray crystallography, SAXS), which I integrate with a broad spectrum of biochemical and biophysical techniques for functional characterization.
Curriculum vitæ
I studied Chemistry/Physical Chemistry at the University of Turin (Turin, Italy) graduating in 2006 with a MSc thesis on a Molecular Angiogenesis project (Federico Bussolino's lab, Candiolo Cancer Institute, Turin, Italy). I got my PhD in 2013, at the University of Oslo, working in Ute Krengel's Structural Biology Lab and mainly focusing on structure-functional analysis of cytotoxic lectins.
Later on, I worked as a postdoctoral fellow/lecturer at Rikkert Wierenga's lab (Biocenter Oulu, University of Oulu, Finland), on a structure-based enzyme redesign project. In 2018 I joined back the Krengel's lab, where I am involved in several projects, ranging from lectins to bacterial toxins, metabolic enzyme and colonization factors. I am additionally responsible for day-to-day operations of both the Krengel's lab and the PX-Oslo Protein Crystallization Core Facility.
Courses taught
- Protein Crystallography ( KJM4350 / KJM9350 - BIOCAT): data processing theory, model building/refinement and molecular graphics labs
- Biomolecular Structure and Function ( KJM5310 / KJM9310 - BIOCAT): molecular graphics lab
- Structural Biology Techniques ( KJM5320 ): molecular graphics lab
- Advanced molecular and pharmaceutical microbiology course ( FARMBIOS4860 ): drug design lecture