Universitą degli studi di Pavia

Curriculum

Personal data
Date of birth: 6th December 1990
Place of birth: Pavia
Nationality: Italian
Address: via Maestra 115 Borgo San Siro (PV) Mobile: 3397672756 Email: simone.savino01@universitadipavia.it

Education
-PHD STUDENT IN GENETICS, MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR BIOLOGY 2014-PRESENT
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY “L. SPALLANZANI” UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA, ITALY
Specialization disciplines: Structural Biology, Biocrystallography, Glycobiology and Glycochemistry Research outline: Structure and function of glycozymes

-M.S. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND GENETICS (101/110) 2012-2014
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY “L. SPALLANZANI” UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA, ITALY
Specialization disciplines: Structural Biology and Biocrystallography
Thesis title: Elucidating the three-dimensional structure of a novel fungal Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase

-B.S. BIOMOLECULAR BIOTECHNOLOGY (93/110) 2009-2012 DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY “L. SPALLANZANI” UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA, ITALY Thesis title: Use of ELISA assays for measurment of affinity between proteins (Kd)

-HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA (74/100) 2004-2009 LICEO CLASSICO “B. CAIROLI” VIGEVANO (PV), ITALY

Research experiences
-PHD STUDENT IN A. MATTEVI BIOCRYSTALLOGRAPHY LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA 2014-PRESENT
During my first two months as a PhD student I carried on my work on determination of protein structure for an hydroxy- steroid dehydrogenase of pharmacological interest.

-UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT IN A. MATTEVI BIOCRYSTALLOGRAFY LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA 2012-2014
My experience has been focused on obtainment of protein crystals and following structural characterization of different target macromolecules. The main project required knowledge in flavoenzimology. Nevertheless I also earned expertise in molecular biology, cell culture, protein expression and purification, and biochemical assays.
During my internship I had the opportunity to solve the structure of two unrelated proteins.

-UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT IN F. FORNERIS “ARMENISE-HARVARD” LABORATORY, UNIVERSITY OF PAVIA 2014
During this experience I performed crystallization trials, protein expression and analytical purifications.
A portion of a bigger protein has been solved by me during this experience.

Technical skills
Skilled at carrying out the following laboratory techniques:
- Protein expression in E. coli and P. pastoris
- Protein purification with AKTA system chromatography (affinity, size exclusion, desalting)
- Electrophoretic techniques
- Absorbance/fluorescence spectroscopy
- Molecular biology techniques
- Protein crystallization (vapour diffusion, microbatch, manual and robotic)
- Microbial cultures
- PCR
- Plasmidic DNA transformation by heat-shock and electroporation
- Plasmidic DNA extraction
- SDS-PAGEs
- Enzymatic activity assays
General and structural biology-related IT skills:
- Good command of Oss: Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh and Linux variants
- Good command of Microsoft Office package and Apple iWork package
- Structural biology programs: iMosflm, ccp4i suite, Phenix, Coot, PyMOL, ccp4mg
- NCBI databases and tools
- EMBL-EBI databases and tools

Courses, seminars and other experiences
Frontiers in structural biology, Milan, 24th - 25th November 2014
1st European crystallography school, Pavia, 28th August - 6th September 2014
Short course in NMR spectroscopy in molecular and structural biology by Prof. Annalisa Pastore, Pavia, 5th - 7th May 2014 Short course in Structural biology and pharmacology by Prof. Dale Edmondson, Pavia, 14th - 15th April 2014 EPIGEN-MiChroNetwork Chromatin Seminar, Pavia, 21st January 2014
Short course in Plant molecular biology and biotechnology by Dr. Silvia Costa, Pavia 14th -16th January 2014
Short course in Chromosome structure and dynamics by Prof. Kevin Sullivan, Pavia, 3rd - 5th December 2013
Social skills and foreign languages
Highly motivated in carrying on my own projects but also ready to be involved in new ones. Despite the fact that my first and main interest is structural biology, I would not disdain collaborations involving acquisition of expertise in strict molecular biology practises. Among my scientific interests, there is the acquirement of structural biology techniques other than biocrystallography and strengthening of pure crystallographic knowledge.Able to work in team and under stress, supplying the best contribution I can, from both a practical point of view and organization of space, time and resources. Ability to work with foreign personnel, procuring cares in accommodation and acclimatization. I can be extremely focused on my job but I also like to interact with colleagues and guests to both acquire and suggest new ideas.

Foreign languages:
- English: good level both in scientific area and everyday life
- French: basic level
 

Publications



Research Project

Structure and function of glycozymes

Thanks to a collaboration between ACIB (Austrian Centre for Industrial Biotechnology) and the Structural Biology group in Pavia, my project will be focused on the structural characterization of two different target proteins involved in glycosylation processes. The idea from which such a collaboration was born is mainly devoted to the development of green chemistry techniques, with the perspective to degrade by-products coming from industrial pipeline production of chemicals.
In order to reach the final goal, my work will start from protein expression and purification. Once proteins will be available in decent amount, I will carry on a biophysical characterization intended to find the best conditions for the targets. In the ideal conditions, the purity of the sample will increase to the level required for protein crystallization and crystallographic techniques will be eventually applied in order to get the macromolecular structure.
Depending on the results coming out from this first phase, further investigation is going to be designed, possibly involving biochemistry and mutagenesis studies, in order to improve enzymatic activity from a product selectivity perspective.