The second edition of the Luca Daveggio's award (1,000 €) has been conferred to the best oral presentation given during the 2016 ABCD PhD meeting, held in Salerno on April 7-9. The competition was fierce: the program consisted of seventeen oral presentations, mostly given by third year's PhD students, on topics ranging from organelle biogenesis to developmental processes and genetic disease mechanisms. A reviewing panel composed of senior investigators and graduate students carefully assessed all presentations for their scientific value, clarity of the message and the ability of the speaker to reply to challenging questions by the audience. At the end the prize was personally awarded by Luca Daveggio's mother - who kindly and enthusiastically attended the meeting - to Andrea Conte, from the Federico II University in Naples.

Andrea is a 27-year-old biotechnologist originally from Naples. He got his Bachelor Degree in Biotechnology (summa cum laude) in 2010, preparing an experimental thesis in the Cell Biology lab of prof. Stefano Bonatti. Andrea worked at his undergaduate honor thesis project in the lab of prof. Alfredo Fusco, under the guide of dr. Giovanna Maria Pierantoni, investigating the role of the oncogenic protein HMGA1 in the transcriptional regulation of Spindle Assembly Checkpoint (SAC) genes. He eventually obtained the Master's Degree in Medical Biotechnology (summa cum laude) in 2012. Soon thereafter he entered the PhD program in Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology at the University of Naples Federico II, and continued to work with his tutor dr. Pierantoni in Alfredo Fusco’s lab. During his PhD, Andrea has completed his studies about the relationship between HMGA1, SAC genes and genomic instability in cancer and embryonic cells. Besides, he has investigated the role of HMGA1 in the regulation of autophagy and has collaborated to characterize the cerebellar functions of the kinase HIPK2, an interactor of HMGA1. He has spent part of his PhD at the University of Gissen (Germany) in the lab of prof. Lienhard Schmitz, an expert of HIPK proteins.

Andrea will discuss his PhD thesis in May 2016, after which he is aiming to move abroad to continue his research activity, either in an academic environment or in a pharmaceutical company.