Biosketch: Mariafrancesca Scalise is associate professor in Biochemistry in the Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Molecular Biotechnologies Unit, at University of Calabria, Dep DiBEST. In 2009 and 2010, she worked for the WHO in Lyon (France) where she was involved in the study of transforming properties of HPVs. Her research interest in membrane transporters is linked to several aspects of metabolism in health and diseases with particular reference to absorption, distribution and excretion of nutrients (amino acids, carnitine and organic cations) and drugs. The study of transporters is conducted using an integrated platform of combined approaches ranging from in silico to in vitro and ex vivo technologies set up at the University of Calabria in the research group led by Prof. Cesare Indiveri. The platform allows the over-expression in heterologous hosts of membrane proteins, site-directed mutagenesis, structure/function relationships studies and, hence, identification of critical residues for protein activity and interaction with substrates and drugs. The transport assays are performed using substrates labelled with radioisotopes or fluorescent dyes. The cell biology approaches are employed to study transporter trafficking and expression levels in normal and pathological tissues. The platform is also used to identify new therapeutic targets and protocols for large-scale screening of drugs in order to improve drug design. Mariafrancesca Scalise has several international collaborations, among which the University of Canterbury in New Zealand for the functional characterization of bacterial membrane transporters of sialic acid involved in the antimicrobial resistance. Mariafrancesca Scalise is co-author of more than 70 publications, among which papers on Nature Communication, Scientific Reports and Cell dealing with membrane transporters involved in physiological and pathological conditions. She supervised undergraduate students for bachelor and master thesis and PhD students for doctorate projects. Mariafrancesca Scalise is member of the editorial board of peer review journals and editor of special issues and research topics dealing with membrane transporter biology. Mariafrancesca Scalise is member of several scientific communities (SIB, GIBB, SLAS) and was elected within the Board of Directors of the American SLAS (Society for Laboratory, Automation and Screening). Mariafrancesca Scalise is PI within the WP1 (Cellular senescence and SASP) of the PNRR-PE8 Age-it and PI of the PRIN PNRR-2022 (under-40); she is also co-worker of other projects at Unical.
Roles: Spoke 2 WP1 Task 1.3 Leader
Contacts: mariafrancesca.scalise@unical.it
Website: https://dibest.unical.it/storage/teachers/mariafrancesca.scalise/
Research interests