DISPONIBILITà DI TESI DI LAUREA

The obtainment of gamma-glutamyl derivatives with flavor-enhancing and/or nutraceutical properties in sufficiently large amount for practical applicat ...

The obtainment of gamma-glutamyl derivatives with flavor-enhancing and/or nutraceutical properties in sufficiently large amount for practical applications is currently hampered by the troublesome and low-yielding procedures connected with isolation from natural sources and the non-economic chemical synthesis. An enzymatic approach based on the use of gamma-glutamyltransferases is attractive, but still plagued by several drawbacks. The project is aimed at the study of the transpeptidation reaction catalyzed by bacterial gamma-glutamyltransferases and mutants thereof, in order to circumvent the limitations currently affecting the biocatalysts.

Studio degli effetti embriotossici nel modello animale alternativo Xenopus laevis (usando il test FETAX) di inquinanti ambientali, interferenti endocr ...

Studio degli effetti embriotossici nel modello animale alternativo Xenopus laevis (usando il test FETAX) di inquinanti ambientali, interferenti endocrini, xenobiotici e micronutrienti. Studio dei potenziali effetti miscela e applicazione di nuovi test di funzionalità.

Stem Cell Epigenetics Laboratory headed by Prof. Giuseppe Testa is inviting student applications for an extremely innovative project that investigates ...

Stem Cell Epigenetics Laboratory headed by Prof. Giuseppe Testa is inviting student applications for an extremely innovative project that investigates the deregulation of protein synthesis in neurodevelopmental disorders, especially in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The main focus of our group is on modeling neurodevelopmental diseases using 2D and 3D neural models, namely induced glutamatergic neurons and brain organoids.

ASD is one of the most complex and prevalent forms of neurodevelopmental disorders, whose major socioeconomic burden has thus far defied any therapeutic prospect. It concerns 2% of newborns, and currently, neither cure nor early diagnostics are available.  The goal of this project is to discover early diagnostics markers and possible druggable targets for ASD.  To do so, instead of focusing on the cause and the clinical picture that is very heterogeneous among autistic conditions, this project focuses on deregulated protein synthesis that has emerged as a common mechanism in ASD. Our aim is to systematically dissect all changes in protein synthesis downstream of the well-known ASD-causing mutations in 3 genes PTEN, FMR1, and TSC2, which are known to regulate protein synthesis. The first goal of the project was to introduce selected mutations in the iPSC from three different healthy male donors by using CRISPR/Cas9. Now, we plan to differentiate these mutant lines in induced neurons and brain organoids, with the aim of identifying all changes triggered by selected mutations at the level of transcriptome and proteome, with a final goal to identify potential biomarkers and druggable targets.

We are looking for a highly motivated student to join this interactive and multinational project on the edge of disease modeling, neurobiology, and translational regulation of gene expression. He or she will help in generating brain organoids, induced neurons and preparing samples for single-c