Conveners
ePoster session: X-ray approaches
- Francesco Bellia (CNR - Istituto di Cristallografia)
ePoster session: Life Science
- Francesco Bellia (CNR - Istituto di Cristallografia)
ePoster session: Software and Tools
- Francesco Bellia (CNR - Istituto di Cristallografia)
Type I collagen is the main fibril-forming protein of the extracellular matrix (ECM), that provides mechanical support to tissues and organs. The protein distribution and organization is tissue-specific, depending on the bio-mechanical function of the tissue itself. From the molecular order, up to supramolecular scale, type I collagen is organized in triple helices assembled in fibrils and...
Over the years, there has been a growing interest in the development of nanofibrous structures with natural (collagen, silk fibroin, elastin, chitosan, alginate) and synthetic (polylactic acid - PLA, poly-lactic-co-glycolic acid – PLGA, polycaprolactone – PCL) polymers as fibrous structures. Thanks to tunable specific features linked to their nanostructure, the application of nanofibers in...
Molecular Replacement is the most used technique to solve macromolecules; an original algorithm called REMO09 (Caliandro et al., 2009) has been developed and implemented in the software produced by Institute of Crystallography. In order to get a final model as complete and refined as possible, we have developed a pipeline based on the synergy between our phase refinement algorithms (Burla et...
The advent of new-generation X-ray sources as well as more sensitive and fast detectors discloses the possibility of deeper static and dynamic structural investigations. X-ray powder diffraction (XPD) and pair distribution function (PDF) measurements are sensitive to long and short-range order, which can be modelled by fitting procedures. Subtle structural changes induced in situ by varying...
Nerve growth factor (NGF) is an important neurotrophic factor involved in the regulation of cell differentiation and survival of target neurons. Expressed as a proNGF precursor, NGF is matured by furin-mediated protease cleavage.
Increasing evidence suggests that NGF and proNGF have distinct functional roles. While the structure of mature NGF is available, little is known about that of the...
SUNBIM (supramolecular and submolecular nano- and biomaterials X-ray imaging) [1] is a suite of integrated programs which, through a user-friendly graphical interface, are optimized to perform a number of functions, such as: centering, q-scale calibration, two-dimensional to one-dimensional folding of small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS/WAXS) data, also in grazing-incidence...
Molecules in crystal form represent nowadays one of the preferred formulation for bio-therapeutics. In addition, protein crystallization ensures high stability and a high purity level of the active ingredients and it is potentially able to reduce downstream manufacturing costs by improving the efficiency of the biomolecule purification step with respect to conventional chromatographic methods...
Anthracene derivative compounds have recently known an increasing scientific interest thanks to their unique physical properties (i.e., bright luminescence and large charge mobility)[1], making them ideal candidates for applications in new optoelectronic devices.
A structural study of new anthracene derivative compounds was carried out by single-crystal synchrotron X-ray diffraction to have...
Angiogenesis plays a crucial role in numerous physiological and pathological phenomena and consists in a multi-regulated process in which many factors are involved, including growth factors and metals. In particular, Copper stimulation of growth factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), is involved in the formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones1. Although the...
The role of proteasome in the regulation of all cellular functions, is so relevant that its modulation became a useful therapeutic strategy for a large variety of diseases (1). Besides the potential clinical usefulness, proteasome regulators provide interesting and important tools for cell and molecular studies. Some years ago we have proposed cationic porphyrins as a new class of proteasome...
Hyaluronic acid (Hy) is a glycosaminoglycan widely distributed in humans and it is the main component of the extracellular matrix1. The wide range of physiological functions includes hydration and turgidity maintenance of tissue, extracellular matrix structure, regulation of innate immunity, and protection and lubrication of joints. The molecular and mechanical properties make this...
Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) do not have rigid 3D structures, showing changes in their folding depending on the environment or ligands. Intrinsically disordered proteins are widely spread in eukaryotic genomes, and these proteins participate in many cell regulatory metabolism processes. Some IDPs, when aberrantly folded, can be the cause of some diseases such as Alzheimer′s,...
Hyaluronic acid (Hy), is a polyanionic linear nonsulfated glycosaminoglycan (GAG)1. It is widely distributed throughout mammalian cells and tissues and its biomechanical and biochemical properties support its involvement in myriad physiological functions, including hydration and turgidity maintenance of tissue, extracellular matrix structure, regulation of innate immunity, and protection and...
Quorum sensing (QS) is a bacterial cell-to-cell communication mechanism based on the production and detection of chemical signals called autoinducers (AIs) to regulate gene expression in response to changes in population density. QS allows bacteria to behave as a cohesive group under differing environments by means of microbe–microbe and host–microbe interactions1. Interestingly, bacteria...
Neurodegenerative disorders are mainly protein aggregation diseases widespread in the elderly, yet onsets in youngsters are not unheard of. The complexity also arises from their association with each other. For example, a linkage was established between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM). Studies have shown the increased prevalence of dementia in diabetic vs. non...
Copper (Cu) is an essential micronutrient for most organisms and serves mainly as a redox-active catalytic centre in enzyme cycling between Cu+ and Cu2+. In mammalian cells the membrane transporter Ctr1 regulates the import of Cu into the cytosol (Fig.1). Even though the Cu is imported by Ctr1 as Cu+ , it may be transferred as Cu2+ to the high-affinity N-terminal Cu2+ binding site of the...
The neurotrophins (NTs) are a structurally and functionally related family of growth factors that regulate cell survival, differentiation, neurite outgrowth and regeneration, and synaptic plasticity in both the central and the peripheral nervous system. NTs include nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), neurotrophin-4/5, -6, -7 [1]. A few...
It is known since 40’s that the rate of killing by antibiotic is in strict correlation with the bacterial growth rate, and that for non growing bacteria antibiotics result ineffective. The ability of some bacteria to enter and endure in a highly depressed non-replicating metabolic state has been recognize as a frequent cause of failure in the treatment of chronic infections, and the need for...
Understanding of how radiation emitted by a particular radiotracer distributed in various organs, deposits energy in different tissues through various mechanisms of radiation interaction with matter, relies on the correct description of the chemical composition of the scattering medium and the involved radiation transport processes. Monte-Carlo (MC) methods allow the simulation of the...
Introduction. An actual challenge of health systems is the practical implementation of ICT. It is useful to introduce new organizational models and guide decision makers towards an appropriate use of resources. Thanks to a strictly cooperation with healthcare units using ICT techniques and technologies, innovative applications have been studied, designed and implemented.
Telemedicine....
Copper is involved in several biological processes. A complex machinery of transporters, storage proteins, chaperones, transcription factors and small molecules as glutathione (GSH which contributes to the cell reducing environment) controls the static and labile copper pools. To follow the fate of intracellular copper labile pool, a variant of human apocarbonic anhydrase has been proposed as...
