Annamaria Tonazzi

Biography

"EDUCATION: 1988: Graduation in Pharmacy, Summa cum laude, Università di Bari Facoltà di Farmacia 1996: Ph.D. in ""Cellular Biochemistry and Cellular Pharmacology "" University of Bari PROFESSIONAL EMPLOYMENT: 1989-1991: CNR two year research grant 1994-1998: fixed-term contract researcher CNR (art. 23) 1998 - today: CNR researcher, IBBE (Institute of Biomembrane and Bioenergetics- Bari) "

Research Interest

"Membrane proteins: identification, isolation, purification and manipulation (mitochondial carnitine/acylcarnitine translocator, mitochondrial ornithine translocator, carntine translocator of the endoplasmic reticulum); reconstitution in artificial membranes (liposomes); transport protein functional and kinetic studies; cloning and protein over-expression in bacteria; genetic pathologies correlated to mutations in mitochondrial carrier; protein chemical and functional modifications; site-directed mutagenesis pointed to: • identification of aminoacids relevant for the transport function to get deep inside the knowledge of the molecular mechanism of the transport • study of the spatial relationship between aminoacids using chemical modification of mutated proteins to get deep inside the knowledge of the tertiary structure of the transport proteins Study of the interaction of hexogen compounds with transport proteins in the proteoliposome system. Use of bioinformatics for the comparative structural analysis of membrane proteins and for molecular docking."