Name: Francesco Cecconi

DTI position: Associate Telethon Scientist

Research field: Molecular and Cell Biology, apoptosis and autophagy in neurodegeneration, Alzheimer’s Disease

Hosting Institute: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tor Vergata, Rome – Italy; Department of Experimental Neuroscience, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome – Italy

Projects funded: click here

Contacts

Lab 1: Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133, Rome – Italy; Lab 2: Via del Fosso di Fiorano 64, 00143, Rome – Italy
Tel. +39 06 72594230 (Off)
Tel. +39 06 72594239 (Lab)
Tel. +39 06 501703092/3 (Lab 2)
Fax +39 06 72594222
E-mail 1: francesco.cecconi@uniroma2.it 
E-mail 2: fcecconi@dti.telethon.it 

Profession profile

I obtained my Degree (Laurea) in Biological Sciences in 1992, followed in 1996 by a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology (University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy), working on snoRNA regulation in Xenopus. Between 1996 and 1999 I was awarded a number of Long Term fellowships from ESF, EMBO, HFSPO and the MARIE CURIE/TMR from EU (European Union), to work as a PostDoc at the Max-Planck-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie in Peter Gruss´ laboratory (Göttingen, Germany). There I gained expertise in Developmental Neuroembryology and, in 1997, I described the knockout phenotype of the Apaf1 gene (a master regulator of mitochondria-dependent apoptosis). In November 1999, I was awarded a Telethon Assistant Scientist position, and until June 2005 I have been Group Leader of the Developmental Molecular Biology Lab at the Department of Biology, University of Tor Vergata. My main scientific interest in this period has been the link between the apoptosome and cell death in neurodegeneration. In December 2004, I was appointed as Associate Telethon Scientist and, since January 2005, I am Director of the Laboratory of Molecular Neuroembryology at the IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia in Rome. Since November 2006, I am Full Professor of Developmental Biology at the Faculty of Science of the University of Tor Vergata. After my seminal work on the pro-autophagic molecule Ambra1, I became a world-leader in the field of autophagy in development and disease, while producing in parallel key papers on the role played by apoptotic molecules in synaptic degeneration. I am member of several National and International Societies, such as the Italian Society of Biophysics and Molecular Biology (SIBBM), whose I am a Council member, or the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO).

Selected publications

D’Amelio M, Cavallucci V, Middei S, Marchetti C, Pacioni S, Ferri A, Diamantini A, De Zio D, Carrara P, Battistini L, Moreno S, Bacci A, Ammassari-Teule M, Marie H and Cecconi F, “Caspase-3 triggers early synaptic dysfunction in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease”. Nature Neurosci. (2010), in press.

Di Bartolomeo S, Corazzari M, Nazio F, Oliverio S, Lisi G, Antonioli M, Pagliarini V, Matteoni S, Fuoco C, Giunta L, D’Amelio M, Nardacci R, Romagnoli A, Fimia GM, Piacentini M and Cecconi F, “The dynamic interaction of Ambra1 with the dynein motor complex regulates mammalian autophagy”. J Cell Biol. 2010; 191, 155-168.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20921139 

Cecconi F and Levine B, “The role of autophagy in mammalian development: cell makeover rather than cell death”. Dev Cell 2008; 15: 344-357.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18804433 

Ferraro E, Pulicati A, Cencioni MT, Cozzolino M, Navoni F, di Martino S, Nardacci R, Carrì MT and Cecconi F, “Apoptosome-deficient cells lose cytochrome c through proteasomal degradation but survive by autophagy-dependent glycolysis”. Mol Biol Cell 2008; 19: 3576-3588.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18550800

Tasdemir E, Maiuri MC, Galluzzi L, Vitale I, Djavaheri-Mergny M, D'Amelio M, Criollo A, Morselli E, Zhu C, Harper F, Nannmark U, Samara C, Pinton P, Vicencio JM, Carnuccio R, Moll UM, Madeo F, Paterlini-Brechot P, Rizzuto R, Szabadkai G, Pierron G, Blomgren K, Tavernarakis N, Codogno P, Cecconi F, Kroemer G, “Regulation of autophagy by cytoplasmic p53”. Nat Cell Biol 2008; 10: 676-687.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18454141

Zermati Y, Mohuammad S, Stergiou L, Besse B, Galluzzi L, Boehrer S, Pauleau A.-L, Rosselli F, D'Amelio M, Amendola R, Castedo M, Hengartner M, Soria J.-C, Cecconi F, Kroemer G, “Non-apoptotic role for Apaf-1 in the DNA damage checkpoint”. Mol Cell 2007; 28: 624-637.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18042457

Fimia GM, Stoykova A, Romagnoli A, Giunta L, Di Bartolomeo S, Nardacci R, Corazzari M, Fuoco C, Ucar A, Schwartz P, Gruss P, Piacentini M, and Cecconi F, “Ambra1 regulates autophagy and development of the nervous system”. Nature 2007; 447: 1121-1125.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17589504 

Di Sano F, Ferraro E, Tufi R, Achsel T, Piacentini M, and Cecconi F, “Endoplasmic reticulum stress induces apoptosis by an apoptosome-dependent but caspase 12-independent mechanism”. J Biol Chem 2006; 281: 2693-2700.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16317003 

Marsden VS, O’Connor L, O'Reilly LA, Silke J, Metcalf D, Ekert PG, Huang DC, Cecconi F, Kuida K, Tomaselli KJ, Roy S, Nicholson DW, Vaux DL, Bouillet P, Adams JM, and Strasser A, “Apoptosis initiated by Bcl-2-regulated caspase activation independently of the cytochrome c/Apaf-1/caspase-9 apoptosome”. Nature 2002; 419: 634-637.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12374983 

Cecconi F, Alvarez-Bolado G, Meyer BI, Roth KA, Gruss P, “Apaf1 (CED-4 homolog) regulates programmed cell death in mammalian development”. Cell 1998; 94: 727-737.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9753320 

Group members

Marcello D’Amelio (Staff Scientist), m.damelio@hsantalucia.it
Daniela De Zio (Staff Scientist), daniela.de.zio@uniroma2.it
Sabrina Di Bartolomeo (Staff Scientist), sabrina.dibartolomeo@uniroma2.it
Virve Cavallucci (Post Doc), virve@tiscali.it
Flavie Strappazzon (Post Doc), f.strapazzon@hsantalucia.it
Juliane Becher (PhD Student), juliane.becher@yahoo.de
Matteo Bordi (PhD Student), matteobordi@gmail.com
Valentina Cianfanelli (PhD Student), vale.cianf@hotmail.it
Francesca Nazio (PhD Student), kikkafly@hotmail.com
Somayeh Poorpirali (PhD Student), s_pirali@yahoo.com
Meysam Yazdenkhah (PhD Student), meysam.yazdankhah@yahoo.co.uk
Magdalena Acuña-Villa (Assistant Secretary), magdalena.acuna.villa@uniroma2.it