Ph.D. Program in Cellular, Molecular and Industrial Biology

(Project n. 2: Functional Biology of Cellular and Molecular Systems)

Inter-molecular interactions and biological recognition mechanisms in the micro- and nano-meter scale

1) Single-molecule methodologies for biology
Single molecule force spectroscopy allows to mechanically unfold single proteins and to stretch any biopolymer. The mechanical stability of a protein provides many useful information such as the shape of the free energy profile of the folded state, the presence of mechanically induced intermediates and, as it has been recently shown by our group, a suitable technique to map the poorly populated conformers of a protein. In our laboratory this methodology is applied in particular to study: the Folding and mis-folding of proteins (1) involved in neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and the transduction of a mechanical signal into a biochemical function (2,3). In the schematic below the main principles of the mechanical unfolding of a multimodular protein by atomic force microscopy are reported. When single polyprotein is stretched, each subsequent domain unfolded generates a peak in the force-extension plot.

 

2) DNA-based nano-architectures
Connecting the nano- to the macro-world by tailor-made DNA-based architectures. The self-assembling of these DNA nanostructures is directed by the structural codes that drive the DNA molecular recognition processes in the cell (4). The main challenge is now to master and to increase the level of complexity and precision in the construction of either static (5) or dynamic (6) DNA-based architectures towards applications to surface nanopattering, nanoelectronics, DNA-computing, signal-enhancement in sensors (see below), etc.

3) Nanobiological DNA and protein sensors
The research aims at the development of a innovative strategies towards the implementation of biosensors dedicated to the detection of proteins and nucleic acids with particular stress on the following topics
• Protein-sensors for early detection of cancer biomarkers
• DNA-sensors for genetic analysis, bio-terrorism and environmental assays
• The electronic/electrochemical read-out (7,8) is coupled to signal enhancement methodologies based on nanotechnological approaches

Selected Publications

- B. Samorì, G. Zuccheri, P. Baschieri (2005) ChemPhysChem, 6 (1), 29-34
- F. Grandi, M. Sandal, G. Guarguaglini, E. Capriotti, R. Casadio, B. Samorì (2006) ChemBioChem, 7, 1774-1782
- M. Sandal, F. Valle, B. Samorì (2007) Physics of Life Review
- B. Samorì, G. Zuccheri (2005). Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 44(8), 1166-1181
- M. Brucale, G. Zuccheri, B. Samorì, (2006) Trends in Biotechnology 24, 235-243
- M. Brucale, G. Zuccheri and B. Samorì (2005) Org . Biomol. Chem. 3, 575–577
- C . Guiducci, C. Stagni, G. Zuccheri, A. Bogliolo, L. Benini, B. Samorì, B. Riccò (2004) Biosensors and Bioelectronics 19, 781-787
- C. Stagni, C. Guiducci, L. Benini, B. Riccò, S. Carrara, B. Samorì, C. Paulus, M. Schienle, M. Augustyniak, R. Thewes ( 2006) IEEE J. Of Solid-State Circuits 41 (12), 2956-2964

Research Group

Bruno Samorì (full professor)
e-mail: bruno.samori@unibo.it
Giampaolo Zuccheri (Research associate)
Francesco Valle (post-doc)
Francesco Musini (post-doc)
Marco Brucale (post-doc)
Sandro Carrara (post-doc)
Massimo Sandal (PhD student)

Location

Laboratory of NanoBioScience and NanoBioTecnology
“G. Moruzzi” Department of Biochemistry
via S. Giacomo 11, 40126 Bologna
Tel/Fax: +39 051 209 4387