Laura graciotti

CURRICULUM VITAE

Place of birth: Ancona, Italy

EDUCATION

February 1999 Pavia University, Pavia, It Ph.D. in Physiopathology Thesis Title: “Muscular dystrophy in mdx mouse. Studies of skeletal muscle, myocardium and neuromuscular junction ”. Advisor: Prof. Andrea Corsi July 1992 Urbino University, Urbino, IT, Degree in Biology Thesis Title: “Plastic phenomenon of motor innervation consequent to dorsal rhizotomy”. Advisor: Prof. Riccardo Cuppini July 1986 Ancona High Level School of Chemistry, Ancona IT Diploma in Industrial Chemistry

PROFESSIONAL POSITION

August 1999 – at present: Research Associate Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona IT. Nov 1995- Apr 1996: Research Assistant department of Cellular Biology, Max Planck Institute, Munich DE. 1994 and 1997: Research Assistant Laboratory of Molecular Biology, MRC, Cambridge UK. 1993: Research assistant Department of Physiology Faculty of Medicine University, of Birmingham UK.

HONORS AND PRICE

1994-1996 fellowship “Human and capital mobility” sponsored by UE, European Commission grant. 1996-1999 PhD Fellowship sponsored by Italian Government, Ministry of Education, Italy. RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

From the beginning my principal interest was toward the study of physiopathology of striated muscle. In
particular I was interested in tissues remodeling after different kind of damage, not only direct to muscular
cells but also to the related tissue such as nerve and vessels.
Several aspect of muscle physiopathology was investigated using many different approaches such as
physiological measurement in living animal, cellular and molecular biology, morphology by the use of optical
and electron microscopy (TEM).
As a student and immediately after I was focused on motor and sensory innervations of skeletal muscle with
a particular emphasis on neuromuscular plasticity and microcirculation remodeling. By altering sensorial
feedback we proved that motor innervations and microcirculation were modified in order to restore muscle
functionality.
Subsequently Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy became the main topic of my research. I was interested in the
understanding the role of dystrophin lack in muscular damage genesis.
Skeletal and cardiac muscle damage and regeneration in dystrophic mdx mice was studied.
In particular the role of satellite muscle cell was evaluated in skeletal muscle regeneration of dystrophic
mice. Cardiac muscle was studied in order to elucidate the phenomena that lead to cardiac myofiber
degeneration. In particular was of my interest the understanding of a possible common pathogenetic
mechanism in skeletal and cardiac muscle. We ended up in demonstrating that cardiac muscle has a
peculiar molecular defects arising from lack of dystrophin that suggest different pathogenesis in respect to
skeletal muscle.
Alterations due to dystrophin lack was also investigated in nervous tissue. Hippocampus of mdx mice show
alteration in term of cellular and synaptic composition that underlies other muscle unrelated pathogenetic
mechanism.
On the other side I develop other scientific interest related to the cellular biology of mesothelial and
mesenchimal cells.
METHODOLOGICAL COMPETENCE:

Animal colony breeding and maintenance.
Surgical techniques in small animal.
Protein Biochemistry, enzymology chromatography and immunological methods.
Morphology: histology, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry using optical and Transmission Electron
Microscopy technique.
Cell Biology: primary and tumor cell culture preparation and maintenance, cell motility and invasion studies;
cytochemistry and immunocytochemistry; transfection; flow cytometry.
Molecular Biology: extraction and purification of DNA, RNA and miRNA from tissues, cells and biological
fluids. DNA cloning. PCR and Real Time PCR. miRNA expression profiling. DNA sequencing.
Recombinant protein expression and purification.
TEACHING EXPERIENCES
- Practical courses of General Pathology for Medicine and Dentistry Students. - Supervisor of student in thesis preparation for degree and PhD. - Member for General Pathology exams commission of the Ancona, University Medical and Dentistry School.
OTHER EXPERIENCE

Member of Department of Clinical and Molecular Science Council as elected representative.

COMPUTER SKILL

2011- ECDL certification (European Computers Driving License) Competent with most Microsoft and Macintosh programs and internet navigation. LANGUAGES

OTHER INTEREST

Arts, sports mainly sailing and tracking, travels, bricolage, cooking.

LIST OF REFERENT
Antonio Domenico Procopio, MD Full Professor of Experimental and Clinical Pathology Polytechnic University of Marche - Ancona, Italy Phone +39 0712206241 Fax +39 0712206240 a.d.procopio@univpm.it Dott Murray Stewart: Laboratory of Molecular Biology MRC, Hills Road CB2 2QH, Cambridge, UK Phone +441223 402463 fax +44 1223 213556 ms@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk Prof Olga Hudlicka: Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine Birmingham University, Edgbaston Birmingham UK. o.hudlicka@bham.ac.uk
LIST OF PUBBLICATION

1: Olivieri F, Lazzarini R, Recchioni R, Marcheselli F, Rippo MR, Di Nuzzo S, Albertini MC, Graciotti L,
Babini L, Mariotti S, Spada G, Abbatecola AM, Antonicelli R, Franceschi C, Procopio AD. MiR-146a as
marker of senescence-associated pro-inflammatory status in cells involved in vascular remodelling. Age
(Dordr). 2012 Jun 13.
2: Graciotti L, Becker J, Granata AL, Procopio AD, Tessarollo L, Fulgenzi G. Dystrophin is required for the
normal function of the cardio-protective K(ATP) channel in cardiomyocytes. PLoS One. 2011;6(10):e27034.
Epub 2011 Oct 31.
3: Rippo MR, Villanova F, Tomassoni Ardori F, Graciotti L, Amatori S, Manzotti S, Fanelli M, Gigante A,
Procopio A. Dexamethasone affects Fas- and serumdeprivation-induced cell death of human osteoblastic
cells through surviving regulation. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2010 Oct-Dec;23(4):1153-65.
4: Graciotti L, Minelli A, Minciacchi D, Procopio A, Fulgenzi G. GABAergic miniature spontaneous activity is
increased in the CA1 hippocampal region of dystrophic mdx mice. Neuromuscul Disord. 2008
Mar;18(3):220-6.
5: Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L, Faronato M, Soldovieri MV, Miceli F, Amoroso S, Annunziato L, Procopio A,
Taglialatela M. Human neoplastic mesothelial cells express voltage-gated sodium channels involved in cell
motility. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2006;38(7):1146-59. Epub 2006 Jan 17.
6: Catalano A, Graciotti L, Rinaldi L, Raffaelli G, Rodilossi S, Betta P, Gianni W, Amoroso S, Procopio A.
Preclinical evaluation of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent celecoxib on malignant mesothelioma
chemoprevention. Int J Cancer. 2004 Apr 10;109(3):322-8.
7: Hudlicka O, Graciotti L, Fulgenzi G, Brown MD, Egginton S, Milkiewicz M, Granata AL. The effect of
chronic skeletal muscle stimulation on capillary growth in the rat: are sensory nerve fibres involved? J
Physiol. 2003 Feb 1;546(Pt 3):813-22.
8: Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L, Corsi A, Granata AL. Reversible binding of glycolytic enzymes and size change
in the actin-containing filaments of the frog skeletal muscle. J Muscle Res Cell Motil. 2001;22(5):391-7.
9: Tomasetti M, Graciotti L, Fulgenzi G, Granata AL. Determination of high-energyphosphate compounds
and inorganic phosphate by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography: evaluation of
myocardial metabolic status in aerobically perfused and hypoxic mouse heart. J Chromatogr B Biomed Sci
Appl. 2001 Feb 25;751(2):229-36.
10: Cuppini R, Sartini S, Ambrogini P, Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L. Rat motor neuron plasticity induced by
dorsal rhizotomy. Neurosci Lett. 1999 Nov 5;275(1):29-32.
11: Rivero F, Albrecht R, Dislich H, Bracco E, Graciotti L, Bozzaro S, Noegel AA. RacF1, a novel member
of the Rho protein family in Dictyostelium discoideum, associates transiently with cell contact areas,
macropinosomes, and phagosomes. Mol Biol Cell. 1999 Apr;10(4):1205-19.
12: Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L, Granata AL, Corsi A, Fucini P, Noegel AA, Kent HM, Stewart M. Location of the
binding site of the mannose-specific lectin comitin on F-actin. J Mol Biol. 1998 Dec 18;284(5):1255-63.
13: Granata AL, Vecchi C, Graciotti L, Fulgenzi G, Maggi S, Corsi A. Gamma irradiation can reduce muscle
damage in mdx dystrophic mice. Acta Neuropathol. 1998 Dec;96(6):564-8.
14: Fulgenzi G, Graciotti L, Collis MG, Hudlická O. The effect of alpha 1 adrenoceptor antagonist prazosin
on capillary supply, blood flow and performance in a rat model of chronic muscle ischaemia. Eur J Vasc
Endovasc Surg. 1998 Jul;16(1):71-7
15: Egginton S, Hudlicka O, Brown MD, Graciotti L, Granata AL. In vivo pericyte-endothelial cell interaction
during angiogenesis in adult cardiac and skeletal muscle. Microvasc Res. 1996 Mar;51(2):213-28.
16: Fulgenzi G, Re L, Graciotti L, Cola V. [Presynaptic effects induced by pretreatment with formamide of
the neuromuscular junction of the mouse]. Boll Soc Ital Biol Sper. 1992 Jun;68(6):403-7. Italian.
Several international meeting participation.

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