Biosketch: Marco Linari is Professor of Physiology at the Department of Biology (School of Sciences, University of Florence), where he teaches Integrative physiology (Master degree course in Molecular and Applied Biology), Neurobiology (Master degree course in Environmental and Behavioral Biology) and General Physiology (degree course in Optics and Optometry). He has been Chair of the degree course in Biological Sciences and of the Master degree course in Biology (2011-2015), member of the Academic Senate of the University of Florence (2015-2016) and member of the Administration Board of the University of Florence (2017-2020). His scientific activity concerns the study of the molecular mechanisms of skeletal and cardiac muscle contraction and regulation. These goals are pursued through biophysical techniques applied to skeletal and cardiac muscle at different levels in the hierarchical organization of the contractile machinery. The mechano-chemistry and structural dynamics of the muscle molecular motor myosin II has been determined in situ, combining sarcomere-level mechanics and X-ray diffraction from synchrotron light (at the ESRF, Grenoble, France and APS, Argonne, USA) in single intact and demembranated cells from the most suitable animal models. More recently the same approach has been applied to study thin and thick filament-based regulation of muscle. A new regulatory system based on myosin filament mechano-sensing has been defined firsts in the intact skeletal muscle fibre of the frog and then in intact trabeculae of the cardiac ventricle of the rat. The same techniques have been applied to investigate, in the skeletal muscle, the role of nebulin, myopalladin and titin in muscle regulation. He has been PI/local PI of several National grants: (Telethon, Italian Ministry of Health, Italian Ministry of Research) and collaborator (national PI) in International collaborative grants (Wellcome Trust, European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases, AFM-Telethon France).
Roles: Spoke 2 WP6 contributor
Contacts: marco.linari@unifi.it
Website: https://cercachi.unifi.it/p-doc2-0-0-A-3f2a3d2f36292b-0.html
Research interests