Giovanni Raugei

Biography

Born in Florence in 1953. Graduated in Biological Sciences (1978), with a thesis on bacterial genetics. 1980-81: at Max Planck Inst. fur Molecular Genetic (Berlin), studies the reactions of a Ficomicete in blue light. 1982-85: EMBL (Heidelberg, Germany), in the lab. of Prof. Riccardo Cortese, deals with the cloning of various liver-specific human genes and their transcriptional regulation. 1985-92: Sclavo Research Center (Siena) deals with the regulation of human interleukin 1 and lipocortin gene genes. From nov. 1992, associate professor in Biochemistry (Faculty of Medicine of Florence) at the Department of Biochemistry Sciences (professor of the band since September 2000); studies various phosphomonoidrolases, in particular LMW-PTP, helping to define the mechanism of action of this tyrosine phosphatase. He later devoted himself to cellular biology research, contributing to clarifying the role of LMW-PTP in controlling proliferation and cell adhesion, demonstrating how this phosphatase has multiple substrates in the cell. The study of the same proteins (kept in evolution) has also been addressed in yeast. More generally, he was concerned with the role of ROS as second messenger in cell signaling and in particular studying the reversible redox adjustment of the LMW-PTP. Subsequently, his interest has focused on the redox regulation of oxidative proteins during proliferation and adhesion to the extracellular matrix. In recent years, it has been mainly devoted to the definition of the oncogenic role of LMW-PTP, both in model systems (cell cultures, nude mice) and in various types of human tumor. He recently participated in a European project (NANOMUBIOP) for the development of a diagnostic platform for papilloma virus.

Research Interest

Molecular Biology