Ph.D
Biomedical Sciences Department
University of Catania (ITALY)
Post Graduate Master
University "La Sapienza" of Rome
Biosapiens Network of Excellence
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
31/10/2009
Ph.D. in “Clinical, Experimental and Computational Pathology and Hematology”,
Department of Biomedical Sciences University of Catania (Italy). Project title: Computational and experimental validation
of the mechanisms regulating BCR intracellular localization.
Supervisors: Prof. Angelo Messina and Dr. Paolo Vigneri.
10/01/2005
B. Sc. habilitation achieved at the University of Catania (Italy).
07/10/2003
Post graduate Master course in Bioinformatics. University "La Sapienza", Rome (Italy) with final
grade of 110/110 cum laude. Thesis title: In Silico analysis of bacterial NRPSs stored domain in eukariotic genomes.
This Master participates to the initiative of the Biosapiens Network of Excellence for the coordination of the European Master.
Supervisor: Prof. Anna Tramontano.
Member of the Bioinformatics Italian Society - (BITS)
Member of the Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology - (SIB)
01/03/2002
Degree in Biological Sciences (5 years program equivalent to Master of Science including 2
years research in Molecular Biology). University of Catania (Italy) with final grade of 110/110 cum laude. Thesis title:
Cloning and trans-activation of the SURVIVIN gene's promoter. Supervisor: Prof. Angelo Messina.
WORK EXPERIENCE
11/10/2004 - Current
Responsible for Bioinformatics and Computational support in molecular biology
applied in cancer research at the Biomedical Science Department (General Pathology Section) of the University of Catania (Italy).
Main areas of research:
- Structural Biology
- Computational Onco-Proteomics.
AWARDS
11/10/2004
G.Alazio Fondation, Palermo (Italy) Fellowship: "New methods applied in Cancer Research".
TECHNICAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES
Computer proficiency with a good knowledge of Windows 9x/Me/2000/Xp, UNIX, GNU/Linux e MacOSX.
Operator Certificated in Microsoft OFFICE package, released by University of Catania - 20/12/2001.
Good knowledge of main Biological data-bases and related tools for research and analysis of bio-sequences.
Realization and interpretation of multiple alignments of bio-sequences.
Good knowledge of the genomic analysis system ENSEMBL and Data mining with BioMart. Prediction methods for Gene Finding.
Good knowledge of molecular analysis software, computational modeling procedure and rendering
(Insight II on SGI System, Modeller-9v3, Deep View-spdbv 4.0, PyMOL, UCSF Chimera, RasMOL).
Good knowledge of the major procedures for Protein-Ligand Molecular Docking (AutoDock 4.2) and Virtual Screening software
for Computer-Aided Drug Design.
Good knowledge of major procedure and tools for Natively Unfolded Proteins analysis (Disorder Probability,
Amino Acid composition profile, Charge-Hydrophobicity plot, CDF, Contact analysis).
Good knowledge of major computational procedure for Proteins Function (Pattern recognitions, package for in silico
construction of protein mutants and relative reaction pathway analysis, Phosphorylation site prediction, Pathway analysis).
Antisense Oligonucleotide (AOs) target site selection based on MAST and secondary structure of target mRNA.
Good knowledge of software for Molecular Evolution and Phylogenetic analysis (Protdist, Fitch, Drawtree and DrawGram), PHYLIP package.
Programming:
Knowledge of Python language oriented to develop scientific
tools and applications (BIO-Python), under Windows and GNU/Linux environments.
PUBBLICATIONs
D. Aliotta, P. Buffa, G. Iaccarino.
An Evolutionary General Purpose WebGIS to Disclose EGFR Mutations in Lung Cancer.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008 Vol. 5188 pp.247-258.
P. Buffa, L. Manzella, M.L. Consoli, A. Messina, P. Vigneri.
Modelling of the ABL and ARG proteins predicts two functionally critical regions that are natively unfolded.
Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics. 2007 Apr 1;67(1):1-11.
C. Di Pietro, M. Ragusa, L. Duro, M.R. Guglielmino, D. Barbagallo, A. Carnemolla, A. Laganà, P. Buffa, R. Angelica,
A. Rinaldi, M.S. Calafato, I. Milicia, C. Caserta, R. Giugno, A. Pulvirenti, V. Giunta, A. Rapisarda, V. Di Pietro, A. Grillo,
A. Messina, A. Ferro, K.H. Grzeschik, M. Purrello.
Genomics, Evolution and Expression of TBPL2, a member of the TBP family.
DNA and Cell Biology 2007 Jun 26(6):369-85.
Author of the manual "LINUX user guide and Shell programming", published online on http:// www.biocode.it - Download area, 2007.
Author of “Sistemi Linux in Bioinformatica”, published by LinuxPro magazine, Future Media Italy - Milan, November 2004.
CONGRESS COMUNICATIONs and POSTERs
Italian Society of Pathology in collaboration with the American Society for Investigative Pathology
XXIX National Congress - University of Calabria - Rende (Italy) 10-13/09/2008
P. Buffa, M. Massimino, A. Fidilio, L. Manzella, A. Messina, P. Vigneri
Computational and biological characterization of nuclear import / export signals of the human BCR protein.
[Poster Section ST03 - PDF]
10th International Conference on Visual Information Systems (VISUAL08) - Salerno (Italy) 11-12/09/2008
D. Aliotta, P. Buffa, G. Iaccarino.
An Evolutionary General Purpose WebGIS to Disclose EGFR Mutations in Lung Cancer.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 2008, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg Vol. 5188 pp.247-258.
Conference CNB9 - Biotechnology Fondation - Turin (Italy) 7-9/09/2006
M.L. Consoli, P. Buffa, L. Manzella, A. Messina, P. Vigneri.
Modelling of the ABL and ARG proteins predicts two functionally critical regions that are natively unfolded.
[Poster Section - PDF]
TEACHING ACTIVITY
2010
Bioinformatics teaching Activity at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Catania
and Public Speacker in several schools on behalf of the Associazione Italiana Ricerca sul Cancro (AIRC) on cancer
prevention and molecular therapeutics.
11/04/2008
Responsible for the 1st course of "Bioinformatics Operator on GNU/Linux System" organized by
Ephestus Linux Solution - Catania (Italy).
9-22/07/2006
Tutor at the 3th course International School of Advanced Biomedicine and Bioinformatics -
Lipari (Italy) and presentation on the theme: "Natively Unfolded Proteins".
SPECIALIZATION SCHOOLS AND CONGRESS
BioSapiens Network of Excellence - 27-31/08/2007
7th European School in Bioinformatics, BIOZENTRUM Basel (Switzerland) on the following topics:
| Protein Families and Functional Annotation
| Protein Structure Prediction
| Data integration and Access to Genes and Genomes
| System Biology
| Analysis of Microarray data
University of Catania (Italy) - 24-25/11/2006
Sicilian International Workshop on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia.
University of Catania (Italy) - 9-22/07/2006
International School of Advanced Biomedicine and Bioinformatics, Lipari (Italy).
BioSapiens Network of Excellence - 19-24/09/2005
3rd European School in Bioinformatics, Madrid (Spain).
European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) - 1-3/10/2004
International meeting on “Bioinformatics and Computational Biology”, Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome (Italy).
University "La Sapienza" of Rome (Italy) - 12/03/2003
The first Italian conference on Bioinformatics and Computational Biology.
LANGUAGES
Knowledge of english language and technical-scientific english
INTERESTS, HOBBY AND OTHER INFORMATION
I play chess at a competitive level [ Terza Nazionale Federazione Scacchistica Italiana ( FSI ) ].