Theo Battista

Surname and Name BATTISTA THEO
E-mail theo.battista@uniroma1.it
Skype battista.theo
Place and date of Birth
(MM/DD/YY)
Frascati (RM), 01/04/1991
Nationality Italian

EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• November 2017 – December 2020 Ph.D. in Biochemistry at “Sapienza”, University of Rome, Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology – CNR, Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Rome, Italy.
Ph.D. thesis: “Anti-trypanosomatidal drug discovery: a challenge for structural biology”
Main research projects:
- Structural and inhibitory studies of trypanothione metabolism drug targets
- Structural insights of the Sigma-1 Receptor, an enigmatic transmembrane protein involved in neurodegenerative diseases.
Supervisor: Dr. Gianni Colotti Ph.D. programme coordinator: Prof. Stefano Gianni
• December 2020 National scientific qualification as a Professional Biologist
• October 2014 – January 2017 Master degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnologies at “Sapienza”, University of Rome, Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology – CNR, Department of Biochemical Sciences “A. Rossi Fanelli”, Rome, Italy.
Degree grade: 110/110 cum laude
Research project: “Structural and inhibitory studies of trypanothione reductase from Leishmania infantum with diarilical compounds”.
Supervisors: Dr. Gianni Colotti, Prof. Fabio Altieri

WORK EXPERIENCE
• November 2023 – May 2024 Post-doctoral researcher at Jagiellonian University, Dioscuri Centre - Structural dynamics of Receptors, Faculty of Biochemistry, Biology and Biotechnology, Krakow, Poland
Scientific Supervisor: Prof. Przemyslaw Nogly
• August 2022 – May 2023 Research Associate at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Protein Production Facility – Structural Biology Lab, Trieste, Italy.
Scientific Supervisor: Dr. Paola Storici
• July 2021 – July 2022 Post-doctoral researcher at University of Trieste, Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Trieste, Italy (in collaboration with the Protein Production Facility at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste).
Scientific Supervisor: Dr. Sara Fortuna

TECHNICAL SKILLS AND COMPETENCES
Crystallography and structural biology: Crystallization screening/reagents preparation and handling with multiple automated systems (Crystal Phoenix, Mosquito, Tecan Freedom Evo), multiple crystallization techniques for soluble and membrane protein (vapor diffusion, batch, LCP), diffraction data collection at synchrotron radiation sources, data processing with XDS, use of Phenix, CCP4 and Coot for structure solution, model building and refinement, use of PyMOL and Chimera for structure visualization and analysis, structure validation and deposition, basics of time-resolved serial crystallography (crystallization, sample preparation for fixed target analysis, data collection at XFEL) Biochemistry: Protein expression in prokaryotic and eukaryotic systems (E. Coli, P. Pastoris, S. Frugiperda, HEK293), protein purification (IMAC, IEX, SEC), biophysical techniques for protein-ligand interaction characterization (enzyme inhibition kinetics, SPR, TSA, OMNISEC) Structural Bioinformatics: Protein/nucleotide sequence alignment and analysis, use of Autodock and online tools for protein-ligand/protein-protein interaction prediction and validation (e.g. Swissdock, HADDOCK, Pdb-REDO); Molecular biology: Constructs design, cloning (restriction enzyme, LIC, SLIC), PCR and mutagenesis; Informatics: use of Linux and WIndows OS for scientific data managing and analysis.

TEACHING AND SUPERVISION
• November 2018 – May 2024
Continuous supervision and tutoring of students and PhD candidates
Organizer and tutor of theoretical and practical sessions during the “HERCULES 2023 – European School” at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste
Official guide at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste for national and international undergraduate students (Topics: Crystallography, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology)

EXPERIENCES
21st February 2020 – 7th March 2020
Visiting Ph.D. student at Aarhus University-DANDRITE, Dept. of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Head of the Lab: Prof. Poul Nissen
October 2019 – December 2019
Visiting Ph.D. student at Roma Tre University, Dept. of Science, Head of the Lab: Prof. Paraskevi Tavladoraki
June 2018 – July 2018
Collaborator at Protein Production Facility at Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, Head of the Lab: Dr. Paola Storici

Participation to national and international schools, workshops and congresses
Serial Crystallography Workshop, 23 - 24 January 2024, Didcot, England
58th International School of Crystallography “Structural Drug Design 2023: Biology, Chemistry and Computers”, 2 – 10 June 2023, Erice, Italy
19th P4EU Meeting, 22 – 23 May 2023, Padriciano, Trieste, Italy
4th Joint Conference of the Italian Crystallographic Association (AIC) and the Italian Synchrotron Light Association (SILS), 12 – 15 September 2022, Trieste, Italia
24th International Symposium on Molecular Medicine, 10 – 12 October 2019, Sparta, Greece
(Selected speaker: “New compounds inhibiting trypanothione reductase: an attractive target to develop drugs against Human African Trypanosomiasis”)
MISCA2019 Fifth meeting of the Italian (AIC) and Spanish (GE3C) Crystallographic Associations, 4 – 7 September 2019, Napoli, Italy
“IBPM annual meeting 2019: from model systems to therapies”, 9 May 2019, Rome, Italy (Selected speaker: “Structure guided drug design in antitrypanosomatidal drug discovery”)
Macromolecular Crystallography School 2019, 22 – 28 April 2019, Madrid, Spain “Thiols: key players in the redox regulation of cellular functions” Symposium, 28 February – 1 March 2019, Jacksonville, Montevideo, Uruguay (Selected speaker: “A double approach for antitrypanosomatidal drug discovery: targeting Trypanothione reductase, a key enzyme for the redox equilibrium in Trypanosomatids”)
ICGEB Course “Redox chemistry and biology of thiols”, 18 – 27 February 2019, Montevideo, Uruguay
ICGEB Workshop "Molecular biology of Leishmania", 22 – 24 October 2018, Padriciano, Italy
ARBRE biophysics – Training School “MOLECULE IN(ter)ACTION: from in vitro to zebrafish”, 6 – 9 February 2018, Palermo, Italy

Publications
Pascarella, G., Antonelli, L., Narzi, D., Battista, T., Guidoni, L., Fiorillo, A., Colotti, G., Morea, V., Ilari, A. (2023) Investigation of the entry pathway and molecular nature of σ1 receptor ligands International Journal of Molecular Sciences 24(7):6367.

Battista, T., Federico, S., Brogi, S., Pozzetti, L., Khan, T., Butini, S., Ramunno, A., Fiorentino, E., Orsini, S., Di Muccio, T., Fiorillo, A., Exertier, C., Di Risola, D., Colotti, G., Gemma, S., Ilari, A., Campiani, G. (2022). Optimization of Potent and Specific Trypanothione Reductase Inhibitors: A Structure-Based Drug Discovery Approach ACS Infectious Diseases 8(8):1687-1699.

Barile, A.*, Battista, T.*, Fiorillo, A., di Salvo, M.L., Malatesta, F., Tramonti, A., Ilari, A., Contestabile, R. (2021). Identification and characterization of the pyridoxal 5'-phosphate allosteric site in Escherichia coli pyridoxine 5'-phosphate oxidase. Journal of Biological Chemistry 14(5), 1–17. (*co-first authorship)

Battista, T., Pascarella, G., Staid, D. S., Colotti, G., Rosati, J., Fiorillo, A., Casamassa,
A., Vescovi, A. L., Giabbai, B., Semrau, M. S., Fanelli, S., Storici, P., Squitieri, F., Morea, V., & Ilari, A. (2021). Known drugs identified by structure-based virtual screening are able to bind sigma-1 receptor and increase growth of Huntington disease patient derived cells. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22(3):1293.

Chiarini, V., Fiorillo, A., Camerini, S., Crescenzi, M., Nakamura, S., Battista, T., Guidoni, L., Colotti, G., & Ilari, A. (2021). Structural basis of ubiquitination mediated by protein splicing in early Eukarya. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - General Subjects. 1865(5):129844.

Genovese, I., Giamogante, F., Barazzuol, L., Battista, T., Fiorillo, A., Vicario, M.,
D’Alessandro, G., Cipriani, R., Limatola, C., Rossi, D., Sorrentino, V., Poser, E., Mosca, L., Squitieri, F., Perluigi, M., Arena, A., van Petegem, F., Tito, C., Fazi, F., … Colotti, G. (2020). Sorcin is an early marker of neurodegeneration, Ca2+ dysregulation and endoplasmic reticulum stress associated to neurodegenerative diseases. Cell Death & Disease, 11(10), 861.

Battista, T., Colotti, G., Ilari, A., & Fiorillo, A. (2020). Targeting Trypanothione Reductase, a Key Enzyme in the Redox Trypanosomatid Metabolism, to Develop New Drugs against Leishmaniasis and Trypanosomiases. Molecules 25(8), 1924.

Battista, T., Fiorillo, A., Chiarini, V., Genovese, I., Ilari, A., & Colotti, G. (2020). Roles of Sorcin in Drug Resistance in Cancer: One Protein, Many Mechanisms, for a Novel Potential Anticancer Drug Target. Cancers 12(4), 887.

Turcano, L.*, Battista, T.*, De Haro, E. T., Missineo, A., Alli, C., Paonessa, G., Colotti, G., Harper, S., Fiorillo, A., Ilari, A., & Bresciani, A. (2020). Spiro-containing derivatives show antiparasitic activity against trypanosoma brucei through inhibition of the trypanothione reductase enzyme. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 14(5), 1–17. (*co-first authorship)

Genovese, I., Carotti, A., Ilari, A., Fiorillo, A., Battista, T., Colotti, G., & Ivarsson, Y. (2020). Profiling calcium-dependent interactions between Sorcin and intrinsically disordered regions of human proteome. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects, 1864(8), 129618.

Colotti, G., Saccoliti, F., Gramiccia, M., Di Muccio, T., Prakash, J., Yadav, S., Dubey, V.
K., Vistoli, G., Battista, T., Mocci, S., Fiorillo, A., Bibi, A., Madia, V. N., Messore, A., Costi, R., Di Santo, R., & Ilari, A. (2020). Structure-guided approach to identify a novel class of anti-leishmaniasis diaryl sulfide compounds targeting the trypanothione metabolism. Amino Acids 52(2), 247–259.

Genovese, I., Ilari, A., Battista, T., Chiarini, V., Fazi, F., Fiorillo, A., & Colotti, G. (2018). Molecular bases of Sorcin-dependent resistance to chemotherapeutic agents. Cancer Drug Resistance
Ilari, A., Genovese, I., Fiorillo, F., Battista, T., De Ionna, I., Fiorillo, A., & Colotti, G. (2018). Toward a Drug Against All Kinetoplastids: From LeishBox to Specific and Potent Trypanothione Reductase Inhibitors. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 15(8), 3069–3078.

Ortalli, M., Ilari, A., Colotti, G., De Ionna, I., Battista, T., Bisi, A., Gobbi, S., Rampa, A., Di Martino, R. M. C., Gentilomi, G. A., Varani, S., & Belluti, F. (2018). Identification of chalcone-based antileishmanial agents targeting trypanothione reductase. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 152, 527–541.

Ciaccio, C., Tognaccini, L., Battista, T., Cervelli, M., Howes, B. D., Santucci, R., Coletta, M., Mariottini, P., Smulevich, G., & Fiorucci, L. (2017). The Met80Ala and Tyr67His/Met80Ala mutants of human cytochrome c shed light on the reciprocal role of Met80 and Tyr67 in regulating ligand access into the heme pocket. Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 169, 86–96.