• Title Research Assistant Professor, Perissi Laboratory
  • Education PhD: University of Turin
    Postdoctoral training: Univ of California San Diego
  • Office K6
  • Web Address http://blogs.bu.edu/vperissi
  • Phone 617-358-4563
  • Area of Interest Transcription, Mitochondria and Metabolism

I’m currently an Instructor in Dr. Valentina Perissi Laboratory at Boston University School of Medicine. I hold a “Laurea” in Molecular Biology (equivalent to a B.S. and a Master) and a PhD in Complex System in Molecular Biology from the University of Turin in Italy. As part of my doctoral fellowship, I spend the last two years of my doctorate in Dr. Rosenfeld Laboratory in La Jolla as a Visiting Graduate Student to investigate breast cancer from an epigenetic standpoint. After graduation I become a junior postoctoral fellow in Dr. Rosenfeld Lab. and after three years of training I join Dr. Perissi Lab. as a senior postdoctoral fellow.

In my work as a PhD student I focused on the diverse aspects of the action of estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) in the regulation of gene expression and chromatin architecture in breast cancer. My studies help to establish that estrogen causes an ERα dependent series of interchromosomal interaction, linking transcriptional interactions, elongation and RNA processing event. Also I was able to describe a new role for ERα as a ligand-independent activator that can be essential for the determination of epithelial morphology and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) during breast cancer progression. In my most recent research I have focused on investigating the role of the nuclear receptor cofactor G Protein Suppressor 2 (GPS2), in regulating non-proteolytic ubiquitin signaling events both inside and outside of the nucleus. Thanks to this work, GPS2 has emerged as a novel and critical regulator of lipid metabolism and inflammation in the adipose tissue.

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