On January 16, 2026, at 02:30 PM, the seminar titled “Systematic in-silico reconstruction of altered genomic landscapes in cancer” will be held in the Falaschi Lecture Hall at the Institute of Molecular Genetics “Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza” of the CNR in Pavia.

Speaker: Mariano Barbieri, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Institute of Pathology
University Medical Centre, Göttingen, Germany

 

Biography

Mariano Barbieri has a long-standing experience and publication record in the field of genome structure-to-function relationships. During his PhD in Fundamental and Applied Physics at Napoli University “Federico II” (2010–2013) and his post-doctoral period at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in Berlin (2013–2016), he applied tools from the Statistical Mechanics of Polymer Solutions to the study of chromatin–protein interactions with Prof. Mario Nicodemi (“Federico II”) and Prof. Ana Pombo (MDC & Humboldt University Berlin), in order to investigate the connection between genome spatio-temporal organization and transcription regulation in mESC and through differentiation (Barbieri et al. PNAS 2012; Barbieri et al. Nat Str & Mol Bio 2017).

Thanks to funding from the Berlin Institute of Health, their jointly experimental and computational approach provided one of the first mechanistic models of the formation of regulatory contacts in terms of spontaneous phase separation driven by chromatin’s epigenetic state (e.g. histone and RNAPolII post-translational modifications).

Since 2021, he has joined Prof. Argyris Papantonis’ team at the Pathology Department of the University Medical Centre in Goettingen (UMG), to continue the study of genome organization and dynamics from the perspective of aging, pathology, and cancer in human and patient-derived cells (Zhang et al. Nat Gen 2023; Xie et al. Nat Comm 2023; Karpinska et al. Nat Str & Mol Bio 2025).

In the period 2017–2020, he paused his academic career to experience the R&D industry environment, working as a Credit Risk Associate and Risk Analyst at Morgan Stanley Inc., where he applied the theory of stochastic processes to pricing projections of financial products. This experience also strengthened his attitude towards risk and project management (and had him married along the way).

Recently, he secured funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation (EKFS) for the study of the relationship between genome structural variants and altered cis-regulatory element interactions in cancer.

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On October 23, 2025, at Sapienza University of Rome, Giovanna Lattanzi — Research Director and Head of the Bologna Branch of IGM-CNR — received the De Sanctis Prize for Research, established by the De Sanctis Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of Universities and Research.
The prize celebrates Italian scientific excellence and featured eight outstanding researchers. Dr. Lattanzi was honored for her pivotal contribution to the study of laminopathies, a group of rare genetic diseases linked to mutations in nuclear membrane proteins. Her work has had a significant impact on understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying conditions such as progeria, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, and familial partial lipodystrophy, opening new perspectives in precision medicine.
During the ceremony, a posthumous award was also presented to Sammy Basso, biologist and science communicator, for transforming his illness into a universal message of strength and love for science. Sammy, who passed away in 2024, was for years a point of reference for the scientific community and for IGM, with which he actively collaborated in research on progeria. His determination inspired the development of innovative technologies such as SAMMY-seq, created at IGM by Dr. Francesco Ferrari, to study DNA alterations in laminopathies. In addition to Giovanna Lattanzi and Sammy Basso, other leading figures in the scientific world were honored during the event: Silvio Garattini (Lifetime Achievement Award), Roberto Burioni, Maria Leptin, Domenica Lorusso, Maurizio D’Incalci, and the PTA Lab research group from the University of Bologna.