Curriculum Vitae PERSONAL DATA Date of Birth: 05 December 1963. Place of Birth: Reggio Calabria (RC), Italy. Military Service: served as Sergeant of the Marina Militare Italiana at Taranto (TA) and Castellammmare di Stabia (NA) Marine Corps installations from 30 September 1984 to 31 March 1986. Marital status: Married, with three children. Current Position: Associate Professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Genetics, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (TO), Italy. Work Address: Molecular Biotechnology CenterDepartment of Genetics, Biology and Biochemistry School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino Via Nizza, 52 10126 Torino (Italy) Tel: +39-011-6706426 Fax: +39-011-6706432 e-mail: francesco.retta@unito.it EDUCATION and professional qualifications 1982 Maturità Scientifica at the Liceo Scientifico "Leonardo da Vinci" of Reggio Calabria (RC), Italy; (54/60). 1988 Laurea Degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Messina (ME), Italy; summa cum laude (110/110 e lode). 1988-89 Postgraduate Specialization Course on Marine Biology and Aquaculture with residential Master’s Programs in Marine Biology, Aquaculture, Informatics and Communication Sciences. University of Messina (ME); ITEA (Rome); National Research Council of Lesina (FG). 1989 Professional Qualification to practice as Biologist. 1993 Professional Qualification as High School Teacher of "Natural Sciences, Chemistry and Geography". 1992-94 Fidia Pharmaceuticals residential scientific and managerial course and training program for the formation of "Research Project Leaders". Fidia Pharmaceuticals S.p.A., Abano Terme (PD); National Research Center on Biomaterials (BR); Department of Genetics, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (TO), Italy. 1997 Postgraduate Specialization Degree in Biotechnological Applications at the University of Torino (TO), Italy; summa cum laude (70/70 e lode). ACADEMIC POSITIONS 1996-99 Assistant Professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Biopathology and Biomedical Technologies, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Palermo (Italy). 1999-2002 Assistant Professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Genetic, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (Italy). 2002-present Associate Professor of Applied Biology at the Department of Genetic, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (Italy). FELLOWSHIPS 1988-89 Fellowship from ITEA (Rome) for a Postgraduate Specialization Course on Marine Biology and Aquaculture at the University of Messina (ME). 1990-91 Research fellow of the National Research Council (CNR) at the “CNR Institute of Genetic Improvement of Orto and Flower Plants”, Portici (NA), and the Department of Agrochemistry and Agrobiology, University of Reggio Calabria (RC), under the supervision of Prof. Luigi Frusciante and Prof. Giovanni Cacco. 1992-94 Research fellow of the Fidia Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. at the Department of Genetic, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (TO), under the supervision of Prof. Guido Tarone and Prof. Lorenzo Silengo. 1995-96 Research fellow of the National Research Council (CNR) at the Department of Genetic, Biology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino (TO), under the supervision of Prof. Guido Tarone and Prof. Lorenzo Silengo. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES 1995 Research fellow at the Department of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, Leicester (U.K.), under the supervision of Prof. David Critchley. 1997 Visitor Scientist at the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill (NC) (U.S.A), for a collaborative research work with Dr. Alexey Belkin. 1998 Research fellow at the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill (NC) (U.S.A), under the supervision of Prof. Keith Burridge. 2003 Visitor Scientist in the laboratory of Prof. Victor Small at the Institute of Molecular Biology, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Salzburg (Austria). 2004 Visitor Scientist in the laboratory of Prof. Victor Small at the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA), Vienna (Austria). RESEARCH INTERESTS The research interest has been mainly focused on the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the function of integrins in distinct cellular processes, including adhesion, migration and proliferation. In particular, the major research topics have been the analysis of signal transduction pathways triggered by integrin receptors of the beta1 and alphaV families, as well as the study of the molecular mechanisms underlying the crosstalk between adhesion receptors, including integrins and cadherins, the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton, and the functional roles of integrin-regulatory proteins, including ICAP1, RAP1 and KRIT1. Among the principal accomplishments there are the finding that the human beta1B integrin isoform is not able to trigger p125FAK tyrosine phosphorylation (Balzac et al., 1994), the characterization of the role of tyrosine phosphatase activity on focal adhesion and actin stress fiber assembly (Defilippi et al., 1995; Retta et al., 1996), the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms involved in the dominant negative effect of the human beta1B integrin isoform on cell adhesion, extracellular matrix assembly and migration (Retta et al., 1998; Calì et al., 1998, 1999), the characterization of the specific roles of the muscle-specific human beta1D isoform in cell adhesion and proliferation (Belkin et al., 1997; Belkin and Retta, 1998), the identification of a novel crosstalk mechanism between beta1 and beta3 integrins (Retta et al., 2001), the characterization of distinct ICAP1 functions (Degani et al., 2002; Bouvard et al., 2003; Fournier et al., 2005), the discovery of a novel isoform of KRIT1 (Retta et al., 2004), the finding that RAP1A mediates the crosstalk between cadherins and integrins (Balzac et al., 2005; Retta et al., 2006), the characterization of structural and functional differences between KRIT1A and KRIT1B isoforms (Francalanci et al., 2008), and the identification of a novel role for KRIT1 in the molecular machinery that controls the homeostasis of intracellular Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) to prevent oxidative cellular damage (Goitre et al., submitted). |
