Structural biology, Cryo-EM, X-ray crystallography, Structure-based drug design

Department

Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Padova

Main research activities/topics/projects

Research in my group is concerned with diverse aspects of protein structure and function, protein-ligand recognition as well as protein-protein interactions. My laboratory employs a multi-disciplinary approach involving state-of-the-art X-ray and neutron crystallography, cryo-EM, complementary biophysical techniques, and molecular biology to address fundamental and modern problems in biochemistry. My group has a long-standing interest in structural enzymology. Over the years our work on mechanistic enzymology has been published in PNAS, JACS, Angewandte Chemie Int Ed, JBC, EMBO J. An important area of my research is also that of contractile and motile systems with work published in Science, PNAS, JMB, Elife. In particular, I am interested in the recognition and activation mechanisms of kinesin-cargo complexes. My lab has been the first to elucidate the structural basis for the most general mechanism of kinesin-1 recognition as well as an alternative one that is isoform specific. Additionally, I am one of the authors of the refinement software package Refmac5, one of the flagships of the macromolecular crystallography CCP4 suite and employed by users all around the world. As of now, the Refmac5 reference paper published in 2011 has been cited more than 6,000 times.

A 200 kV Glacios cryo-TEM equipped with a Falcon 4i detetector is available for in-house measurements. Routine access is also available for X-ray measurements at synchrotrons.

Special entry requirements

Interest in structural biology

Duration in months (min-max)

Master research: 3- no max 

PhD sandwich: 3- no max 

Post Doc: 3- no max