Università della Svizzera italiana

Opening study on the development of a new biosensor for metal toxicity based on pseudomonas fluorescens pyoverdine

Chiadò, Alessandro ; Varani, Luca ; Bosco, Francesco ; Marmo, Luca

In: Biosensors, 2013, vol. 3, no. 4, p. 385-399

To date, different kinds of biosensing elements have been used effectively for environmental monitoring. Microbial cells seem to be well-suited for this task: they are cheap, adaptable to variable field conditions and give a measurable response to a broad number of chemicals. Among different pollutants, heavy metals are still a major problem for the environment. A reasonable starting point...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Rational modification of estrogen receptor by combination of computational and experimental analysis

Ferrero, Valentina Elisabetta Viviana ; Pedotti, Mattia ; Chiadò, Alessandro ; Simonelli, Luca ; Calzolai, Luigi ; Varani, Luca ; Lettieri, Teresa

In: Plos one, 2014, vol. 9, no. 7, p. e102658

In this manuscript, we modulate the binding properties of estrogen receptor protein by rationally modifying the amino acid composition of its ligand binding domain. By combining sequence alignment and structural analysis of known estrogen receptor- ligand complexes with computational analysis, we were able to predict estrogen receptor mutants with altered binding properties. These predictions...