Members' Directory

Biography: Present Position
Lecturer in the Dept. Of Biothecnology and Biosciences, University of Milano ? Bicocca.

Reaserch Project: Mechanisms of alternative pre-mRNA processing and their role in human disease
In higher eukaryotes, many alternative splicing events involve the choice of alternative terminal exons. Studies on the definition of the terminal exon have shown that processing involves interactions between splicing factors at the 3' splice site of the last exon and components of the 3'-end processing complex at the poly(A) site. To eleucidate the role of polyadenylation factors on the definition of 3?-terminal exons we are concentrating on the study of the mammalian 3?-end processing factor CFI. Our working hypothesis is that CF Im might be the factor that together with some SR proteins couples pre-mRNA 3'-end processing and splicing.
To study the role of the interaction between CF Im and SR proteins in determining the cell?type specific alternative processing patterns we use two model transcripts: the calcitonin/calcitonin gene related peptide (CT/CGRP) and the ß-tropomyosin. Moreover, we are studying how alterations of the expression of these processing factors might be involved in the ethiology of human genetic diseases and in cancer. We want to investigate the mechanism that causes aberrant processing of the glutamate transporter EAAT2 (GLT?1) in patients with sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and of the LGI1 pre-mRNA in brain tumors.

Reaserch Experience
1994 -2000 Assistant in Prof. W. Keller's laboratory, Cell Biology Department, Biozentrum, University Basel, Switzerland
1992 - July 1994: Post-doctoral Fellow in Dr. E. Boncinelli's laboratory, DIBIT, H S. Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
October 1988 - March 1992: Post-doctoral Fellow in Dr. A.I Lamond's laboratory, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.

Biography: Born in Bologna the 15th march 1969, mother of three daughters.

She has graduated at the University of Bologna in Agricultural science (100/100 lode) in 1994.

In the same year, she obtained an EMBL PhD fellowship to make a PhD thesis on Molecular Biology at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg (Germany). The thesis, entitled ‘Signal transduction domains: WW, DH and PH' was defended at the Ruprecht-Karl-Universität – Heidelberg and the PhD degree obtained with ‘magna cum laude' in 1998.

From 1998 to 1999 she worked as post-doc in laboratory of Prof. Chris Lamb at the Salk Institute in San Diego (CA-USA) and at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland-UK).

From the 1th November 1999 she is researcher at the University of Bologna (Scientific area: AGR/12- Plant Pathology) at DIPROVAL- Agricultural Faculty, teacher of the ‘Laboratory of molecular biology' at the Biotechnology three years university degree.

Biography: Winfried Barchet, Dr. rer. nat.
Born May 15th 1973

Education, Degrees

1993 – 1995 Biochemistry, Free University of Berlin, Germany
1995 – 1998 Biochemistry, Biology Ae, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
1998 Diploma Degree “Dipl. Natw. ETH“
1998 – 2002 European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Rome, Italy
2002 Doctoral Degree “Dr. rer. nat.”, University of Cologne, Germany


Professional and research experience

1996 – 1997 Diploma Thesis, Institute for Experimental Immunology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland (Prof. Dr. Hans Hengartner, Prof. Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel)
1998 Internship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Prof. Dr. Don Brenner)
1998 – 2002 PhD-fellowship with the EMBL-Mouse Biology Programme, Rome, Italy (Prof. Dr. Klaus Rajewsky)
2002 – 2006 Research associate, Department of Pathology and Immunology,
Washington University in St. Louis, USA (Prof. Dr. Marco Colonna)
2006 – today Research group leader, Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Pharma-cology, University of Bonn, Germany (Prof. Dr. Gunther Hartmann)
Since January 2008 the group is supported in the DFG Emmy Noether-Programme

Biography: 1982 Graduate in Biology (Univ. Complutense of Madrid, Spain)
1986 PhD in Biology (Univ. Complutense of Madrid and Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC, Spain)
1987-1988 Post-Doctoral scientist, Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
1988-1991 Post-Doctoral scientist, Institut für Molekularbiologie und Tumorforschung. (Lab Prof. M. Beato), Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.
1991-1994 Post-Doctoral researcher, EMBL Gene Expression Program (Lab. Dr. H. G. Stunnenberg). Heidelberg, Germany.
1995-1996 Research Associate, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas-CSIC, Madrid, Spain.
Since 1997 Staff Scientist and Research Group Leader at the Instituto De Biomedicina de Valencia (CSIC)., Valencia, Spain.

Research interests: Unraveling the molecular mechanisms through which Nuclear Hormone Receptor signalling (mainly Retinoic Acid and Thyroid Hormone) influences cell differentiation in mammalian neural cells.

Biography: BSc. degree: 1975- 1978, 1st Class Honors, Reading University, UK

PhD. Thesis: 1978-1981 , "The interferon system in the developing mouse embryo" Warwick University, UK. Supervisor: Prof. DC Burke

Post-Doctoral Fellowship (1) 1981-1985 with Dr. Brigid Hogan, at the I.C.R.F. Mill Hill Laboratories, London, U.K. Project - Isolation of basement membrane genes

Post-Doctoral Fellowship (2) 1985-1988 with Dr. Hans Lehrach, at the E.M.B.L. Heidelberg, Germany. Project - Molecular strategies to isolate developmental genes from the mouse t complex region.

Group Leader (1) 1988-1995 Institute of Molecular Pathology (I.M.P), Vienna.
Research area: Mammalian Developmental Genetics, focus on genomic imprinting. (5 + 3 year position). Elected EMBO member in 1995

Group leader (2) 1996 ? 2001 (May) The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Research area: links between mammalian development and tumor genetics (Permanent position)

Head, Department of Developmental Genetics, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Molecular Biology, Salzburg, Austria. From 1st June 2000 (Permanent position)

General scientific interest:
1. Mammalian development in mice and the involvement of developmental genes in human disease. The last 10 years, focus on genomic imprinting function and mechanism. We earlier identified the mouse Igf2r gene as an imprinted gene also demonstrated that this gene uses a methylation imprint to express the maternal allele. Many imprinted genes now appear to carry methylation imprints that act to express the active allele. Silencing of the paternal Igf2r allele was recently shown to involve a regulatory non-coding RNA named Air . Future work will investigate the mechanism of silencing by non-coding RNAs and their general application to silencing imprinted genes. July 25, 2002.
2. Member and current chair of the EMBO Science and Society Committee

Biography: I discovered EMBL trough a summer training at EMBL from april to sept 2000, with Matthias Hentze. Then went on with the PhD programme in Matthias Hentze's lab from sept 2000 to april 2003

Postdoc at Rockefeller University, New York - USA, lab of Robert Darnell from june 2003 to dec. 2004

Scientific expert for Amgen Europe (biotechnology industry)- based in Paris, France. Since January 2005

If you are interested to know more, don't hesitate to get in contact !

Biography: Rosa Barrio got her master degree in Biology (specialty: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) from the Autonoma University of Madrid (UAM) in 1988. She did her Ph. D. in the Center of Molecular Biology ?Severo Ochoa? (CBMSO), a mixer centre between the UAM and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). During her Ph. D., granted by the Basque Government, she studied the ubiquitin genes using Drosophila melanogaster as a model system. After she got her Ph. D. in 1993 she moved to the laboratory of Professor Fotis C. Kafatos in Harvard University (USA) and soon after she was granted by the Human Capital and Mobility Program form the European Union to continue her research in Crete. In 1995 she was granted by the Spanish Ministery of Education to move to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany), always under the supervision of Professor Kafatos, where she continued her research on Spalt proteins and BPM signaling during the wing and nervous system development in Drosophila. In 2001 she moved to the CBMSO (UAM/CSIC) in Madrid, to work with Dr. J. F. de Celis in the laboratory of Professor Antonio García-Bellido, and she obtained a Ramón y Cajal contract in 2003. Since December 2004 she is in charge of the Laboratory 1 in the Functional Genomics Unit at CIC bioGUNE, where she will continue her research on Spalt transcription factors and BPM signaling in Drosophila.

Biography: Geoff Barton did his first degree in Biochemistry at the University of Manchester. He then did a Ph.D. supervised by Mike Sternberg in the Department of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London before spending two years as an ICRF Fellow working with Chris Rawlings at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund Labs. in London. In 1989 he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to work in the Lab of Molecular Biophysics, University of Oxford. From April 1995 until October 1997, Geoff was also Head of Genome Informatics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics.

From 1st October 1997-July 2001 Geoff was a Research and Development Team Leader at the EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute.

From 1st January 1998-July 2001 Geoff was also head of the European Macromolecular Structure Database at EBI.

From 30th March 2001 Geoff has been Professor of Bioinformatics at the School of Life Sciences, University of Dundee. Geoff moved to Dundee full-time in July 2001 and is now co-director (with Mike Ferguson) of the Post Genomics and Molecular Interactions Centre.

Biography: 2012-2013 Postdoctoral Fellow, EMBL - European Bioinformatics Institute, United Kingdom
2008-2012 Ph.D. student, University of Cambridge, EMBL - European Bioinformatics Institute, United Kingdom (Thesis defended 31st November 2012)
THESIS Computational Studies on the Biogenesis and Function of Small Non-coding RNAs.
2006-2008 Researcher at GlaxoSmithKline Research Centre Zagreb, Croatia
RESEARCH Analyzed the effects of multiple immunosuppressive drugs on gene expression based on high-throughput data. Performed experimental work, including the construction of recombinant kinase proteins and the inhibition of inflammatory responses in T-cells.
2001-2006 Bs.C. and M.Sc. Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Zagreb, Croatia

THESIS Construction, expression and characterization of chimere proteins LCK and ZAP-70 through confocal microscopy and hybridization of specific antibodies.
GRADE 4.55 out of 5
1999-2004 Bs.C. and M.Sc. Molecular Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb, Croatia
THESIS MADNet: Microarray Database Network web server for analysis and interactive visualization of microarray data.
RESEARCH Built a tool for the visualization of microarray data on pathway maps, allowing for the prediction of transcription factor binding sites in co-regulated genes; second author in Nucleic Acid Research.
Analyzed the codon usage of available metagenomic datasets.
GRADE 4.96 out of 5
1997-1999 United World College - USA, International Baccalaureate (IB). Montezuma, NM, USA
GRADE 42 out of 45.