Tuesday, September 24th at 11:30 Prof. Barbara van Loon will hold a seminar entitled: “Role of DNA repair in neurodevelopment”.

Brief CV:

Barbara van Loon obtained MSc in Biology at the University of Zagreb (Zagreb, Croatia) in 2006. She then moved to the University of Zurich (Zurich, Switzerland) and was, under supervision of prof. Ulrich Hu?bscher, awarded PhD degree with honors in 2010. After Postdoctoral stay in the group of prof. Leona D. Samson at the MIT (Cambridge, USA), Barbara returned to the University of Zurich and established her research group. In 2016 Barbara was awarded Onsager Fellowship, and as associate professor joined the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Trondheim, Norway). Barbara’s major scientific contributions include, unraveling role of DNA polymerases and glycosylases in the oxidative and alkylation DNA damage response, and demonstrating links between impaired genome integrity maintenance and onset of neurological disease. Currently Barbara’s research primarily focuses on exploring the importance of DNA glycosylases, and consequently recognition of aberrant DNA bases, in ensuring unperturbed neurodevelopment.

Professor Tullio Pozzan (Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences – National Research Council) will hold the 8th Arturo Falaschi Lecture titled “Spatiotemporal heterogeneity of second messengers in living cells”.

The Lecture will be held on May 17^th 2019 at 11:00 at the Institute of Molecular Genetics Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza – National Research Concil – Via Ferrata 9 – Pavia.

For further information contact: IGM CNR, Via Ferrata 9A Pavia  tel. 0382 546361 – e-mail: direttore@igm.cnr.it – http: www.igm.cnr.it

A new family of DDX3X helicase inhibitors has been discovered to be effective in blocking West Nile virus replication in human cells without damaging healthy cells. The study conducted by research groups coordinated by Giovanni Maga (Institute of Molecular Genetics of the National Research Council of Pavia) and by Maurizio Botta (University of Siena), is published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

News CNR

Brai A., Martelli F., Riva V., Garbelli A., Fazi R., Zamperini C. et al., DDX3X Helicase Inhibitors as a New Strategy To Fight the West Nile Virus Infection  J. Med. Chem.  Med Chem. 2019 Feb 21. doi: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.8b01403

A new book by dr. Federico Focher entitled “Alla scoperta delle leggi della vita. Ritratti di Redi, Maupertuis, Trembley, Humboldt, Wallace, Mendel” was published (editor “Il prato”).

Every scientific discovery, however revolutionary, is not born from nothing, but it is the last flower of a great tree, without which it would never have blossomed. Certainly you could just admire the cut flower, but only by knowing the leaves, the branch on which it shows itself, the tree as a whole, and the gnarled roots from which it has been nourished, you can fully understand the beauty and the meaning of that flower. Because, as Isaac Asimov once said, Science is not the flower, which will one day wither, but the whole tree, which will continue to live.

With the aim of recovering the memory of the roots of biological thought, in this book are portrayed six scientists who, looking for the truth, have marked some milestones of the natural sciences. Among the many who deserved to be remembered, were not deliberately chosen the most famous, but those who, despite their indisputable importance in the history of science, are less known today, or those who, like Gregor Mendel, are not known in their personal aspects and in their training as scientists, because obscured by a cumbersome posthumous monument.