The aim of this project is to clarify the functional and structural relationships between respiratory complexes I and III to understand whether their supramolecular organization in supercomplexes can mitigate the effect of deleterious mutations in cytochrome b,one of the catalytic core subunits of complex III. To this purpose, biochemical approaches will be applied in human and bacterial cellular models carrying mutations in cytochrome b to analyze the structural stability and enzymatic activity of complex III in its isolated form or in assembled supercomplex I+III. The biochemical approaches will be associated with molecular dynamics simulations of supercomplex I+III by modeling wild type and mutated cytochrome b to obtain information on critical interactions between the two complexes for supercomplexes stability. From this project, we expect to obtain new knowledge on the structural and physiological relevance of supercomplexes healthy and pathological conditions.

PhD positions are available in the course of Medical-Surgery BioTechnologies and Translational Medicine in the lab of prof. Francesca Gioia Klinger, at University of Rome Tor Vergata, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, Section of Histology and Embryology. The research lab focus mainly on advanced techniques to protect and preserve the ovarian reserve in human and in mice models. In line with this, the research concentrate on the discovery of new molecules to be used as fertoprotective agents and the use of mesenchymal stem cells and their released factors to improve and preserve the ovarian environment

The call for applications is open for the PhD in Molecular Biomedicine jointly offered by the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Trieste and the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) For info please refer to the Admission section of this website where you will find links to the official announcement and info for the application the available projects Deadline June 7, 2021 @ 1 PM CE

This new project is focusing on new regulatory mechanisms of metabolism and their relevance for cancer metastasis, funded by a Worldwide Cancer Research grant. The current research of the lab is focused on mechanotransduction and how this regulates signaling and metabolism.

Aberrant sensing of nucleic acids originating from the expression of endogenous retroviral elements or accumulating DNA damage and consequent increase in type I IFN levels have been suggested to be a primary driver of pathogenesis of the Aicardi-Goutières Syndrome (AGS), a genetic Leukodystrophy that mainly affects the brain, immune system and skin. Nevertheless, the precise molecular mechanisms triggering the disease remain elusive. On these premises, we arerecruiting a post-doctoral fellow with strong experience in iPSC-based differentiation of Neural Stem Cells and Progenitorand/or innate immunity to viral infectionsto work on a project aimed at evaluating the consequences of the AGS gene defects in the human Central Nervous Systems (CNS) taking advantage of iPSC-based in vitrodifferentiations. The goal is to elucidate the role of different cell types of the CNS, including microglia, in AGSand to investigate what are the endogenous signals that aberrantly activate the disease-causing antiviral responsesin these cells. We combine molecular virology approaches with state-of-the-art NGS technology and proteomics in the highly relevant context of human iPSC-based in vitro disease models.