Dr Domenica Farci, PhD

pok. 0/131, tel. 225932534

e-mail: domenica_farci@sggw.pl

 
Research interests

- Structural and functional analysis of Surface layer proteins

- Characterisation of carotenoid-binding membrane proteins

- Evolution and mechanisms of photo- and chemo-protection mediated by carotenoids

Professional experience

10/09/2018-present

Research Associate/Postdoc position. Project:“Structural and functional characterisation of SlpA the main S-layer protein of Deinococcus radiodurans”. Warsaw University of Life Science (SGGW), Warsaw (Poland). Funded by the SONATA-BIS program (grant Nr PRO-2017/26/E/NZ1/00344).

05/10/2017-31/07/2018

Postdoc position. Project:“Functional and structural characterisation of the main S-layer protein DR_2577 of Deinococcus radiodurans”. University of Cagliari (Department of Life and Environmental Sciences), Cagliari (Italy). Funded by the L'Oréal-UNESCO fellowship for Women in Science (L'Oréal Italia per le Donne e la Scienza – 2017).

01/03/2017-30/05/2018

Professor assistant and Student Tutor for the course of Plant Physiology at Biology Degree Course, Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy, University of Cagliari (Italy).

01/03/2012-31/07/2014

Professor assistant and Student Tutor for the course of Plant Physiology at Biology Degree Course, Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy, University of Cagliari (Italy).

Education

01/08/2014-04/10/2017

PhD degree in Biochemistry. Score: cum laude. Date of award: 4th of October 2017.

PhD thesis entitled “ Spatial organization of a chemoreceptor guanylate cyclase in the flagellum of Arbacia punctulata sperm”. Center of Advanced European Studies and Research (CAESAR) – Associated Institute of the Max Planck Society, Department of Molecular Sensory System, Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Bonn (Germany) and University of Cologne, Cologne (Germany). Supervisors, Prof. Dr. U.B. Kaupp.

18/09/2012-23/07/2014

Master Degree in Cellular and Molecular Biology. Master of Science. Score: 110/110 summa cum laude. Date of award: 23/07/2014.

Master Thesis entitled “Structural characterisation of S-layer protein complexes from Deinococcus radiodurans R1”. University of Cagliari; Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy; Master Course in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Research activities performed at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Photobiology Supervisor: Dr. Dario Piano.

01/03/2014-31/03/2014

Practical internship during Master Degree Studies.

Subject: purification and characterization of enzymatic reactions performed by proteins which are validated target for drug development. Work Project: Identification of HIV-1 transcriptase (RT) associated ribonuclease H (RNase H) activity inhibitors and heterologous expression, purification and characterization of GEF protein from HIV. University of Cagliari (Italy); Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; Laboratory of Molecular Virology. Referents: Prof. Enzo Tramontano, Dr. Francesca Esposito.

14/01/2013 – 14/03/2013

Practical internship during Master Degree Studies.

Subject: purification, characterization and crystallization of membrane proteins. Work Project: Heterologous expression, purification and characterization of the Slow Anion Channel 1 (SLAC1) from Nanoarchaeum equitans. University of Regensburg (Germany); Institute of Biophysics and Physical Biochemistry. Department of Structural Biology. Referents: Prof. Christine Ziegler, Dr. Chitra Rajendran.

20/09/2009-20/07/2012

Bachelor Degree in Biology. Bachelor of Science. Score: 110/110 summa cum laude. Date of award: 20/07/2012/

Bachelor Thesis entitled Deinococcus radiodurans R1: growth analysis under UV radiation in presence of different Manganese concentrations. University of Cagliari; Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Natural Sciences; Bachelor Course in Biology. Major subjects: Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Genetic, Molecular Biology, Microbiology, Physiology. Research activities performed at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences; Laboratory of Plant Physiology and Photobiology Supervisor: Dr. Dario Piano.

Post-graduate courses

17/01/2018-19/01/2018

Intensive post-graduate (21h). INSTRUCT course on Image Processing for Electron Microscopy in the cloud. National Center for Biotechnology (CNB), Madrid, Spain. Referent: Dr. Carlos Oscar S. Sanchez.

01/09/2015 – 11/09/15

Intensive post-graduate level module of lectures and instruction (58h). Image Processing for Cryo-electron microscopy. EMBO, Birkbeck University (London). Referents: Prof. Elena Orlova; Prof. Helen Saibil.

05/12/2014

FELASA B certificate, for laboratory animal science. Course provided by Provadis Partner für Bildung und Beratung, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Awards

2017 (award ceremony held on the 12th of June 2017 at the University of Milan, Milan – Italy).

L'Oréal-UNESCO Fellowship for Women in Science (National recipient for Italy, 2017) -  for accomplishments in scientific research. Project: Functional and structural characterisation of the main S-layer protein DR_2577 of Deinococcus radiodurans R1. Award given by the L'Oréal Foundation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Publications

Farci D, Farci SF, Esposito F, Tramontano E, Kirkpatrick J, Piano D. (2018) On the S-layer of Thermus thermophilus and the assembling of its main protein SlpA. Biochim. Biophys. Acta – Biomembranes. 2018, 1860: 1554-1562. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamem.2018.05.010.

Sanna C, Rigano D, Corona A, Piano D, Formisano C, Farci D, Franzini G, Ballero M, Chianese G, Tramontano E, Taglialatela-Scafati O, Esposito F.  (2018) Dual HIV-1 reverse transcriptase and integrase inhibitors from Limonium morisianum Arrigoni, an endemic species of Sardinia (Italy). Nat Prod Res. 4:1-6.

Farci D, Slavov C, Piano D. (2018) Coexisting properties of thermostability and Ultraviolet radiation resistance in the main S-layer complex of Deinococcus radiodurans. Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2018 17:81-88. doi: 10.1039/c7pp00240h.

Collu G*, Farci D*, Esposito F, Pintus F, Kirkpatrick J, Piano D. (2017) New insights into the operative network of FaEO, an enone oxidoreductase from Fragaria x ananassa Duch. Plant Mol Biol. 94:125-136. doi:10.1007/s11103-017-0597-5. (* shared first co-autorship)

Farci D, Kirkpatrick J, Piano D. (2017) A new procedure for a fast soft staining of BN-PAGEs on photosynthetic complexes. Electrophoresis. 38: 441-446.

Farci D, Esposito F, El Alaoui S, Piano D. (2016) S-layer proteins as a source of carotenoids: isolation of the protein cofactor deinoxanthin from its S-layer protein DR_2577. Food Res Intern. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2016.10.003.

Farci D, Collu G, Kirkpatrick J, Esposito F, Piano D. (2016) RhVI1 is a membrane-anchored vacuolar invertase highly expressed in Rosa hybrida L. petals. J Exp Bot. 67:3303-3312. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erw148.

Farci D, Slavov C, Tramontano E, Piano D. (2016) The S-layer protein DR_2577 binds the carotenoid deinoxanthin and under desiccation conditions protect against UV-radiation in Deinococcus radiodurans. Front Microbiol. 7:155. ddoi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.00155.

Haniewicz P, Floris D, Farci D, Kirkpatrick J, Loi MC, Büchel C, Bochtler M, Piano D. (2015) Isolation of plant Photosystem II complexes by fractional solubilisation. Front Plant Sci. 6:1100. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2015.01100.

Farci D, Bowler MW, Esposito F, McSweeney S, Tramontano E, Piano D. (2015) Purification and characterization of DR_2577 (SlpA) a major S-layer protein from Deinococcus radiodurans. Front in Microbiol. 6:414. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2015.00414.

Farci D, Bowler MW, Kirkpatrick J, McSweeney S, Tramontano E, Piano D. (2014) New features of the cell wall of the radio-resistant bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans. Biochim. Biophys. Acta - Biomembranes. 1838:1978-1984. doi:10.1016/j.bbamem.2014.02.014.

Conferences

Gordon Research Conference on Carotenoids, Apocarotenoids and Retinoids: from Nature to Beside. 17-22 June 2018, Grand Summit Hotel at Sunday River, Newry, ME, US. Poster 1 title: Isolation of a carotenoid-binding membrane protein complex from chromoplasts of Capsicum annuum L. (Red Bell Pepper). Authors: Farci D,  Cocco E, Piano D; Poster 2 title: Carotenoid-binding S-layer proteins as an evolutionary template to understand the evolution of photoprotection. Farci D,  Slavov C, Piano D.

European Society for Photobiology 2017 Congress, Pisa, Italy, 4-8 September 2017.  Talk title: Carotenoid-binding S-layer proteins as an evolutionary template to understand photoprotection evolution. Authors : Farci D, Slavov C, Piano D.

Cryo-EM Symposium, European Photon & Neutron Campus, Grenoble, France, 6-7 July 2017.

Joint Congress of the French and Italian Photochemists and Photobiologists, Università Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy, 19-22 September 2016.

Poster title :  The S-layer as a UV-radiation shield: the case of Deinococcus radiodurans  and its S-layer Deinoxanthin Binding Complex. Talk title :  The S-layer as a UV-radiation shield: the case of Deinococcus radiodurans  and its S-layer Deinoxanthin Binding Complex. Authors : Farci D, Slavov C, Bowler MW, Piano D.

Gordon Research Conference on Ligands Recognition and Molecular Gating, Renaissance Tuscany Il Ciocco, Lucca (Barga), Italy, 31 January – 5 February 2016.

5th International caesar conference, Bonn, Germany, 30 September - 2 October 2015. Poster title: Insight into the sea urchin sperm flagellum: the highly ordered guanylate cyclase. Authors : Farci D, Gunkel M, Al-Amoudi A, Irsen S, Kaupp UB.

EMBO course Cryo-EM 2015, London, United Kingdom, 1-11September 2015. Poster title: Insight into the sea urchin sperm flagellum: the highly ordered guanylate cyclase.Authors : Farci D, Gunkel M, Al-Amoudi A, Irsen S, Kaupp UB.

Membership at Scientific Societies

since 2016 - Società Italiana di FotoBiologia (SIFB) – Italian Society for Photobiology.

since 2017 - European Society for Photobiology (ESP)

Editorial Boards

since 2018 – Editor at International Journal of Proteomics and Genomics (IJPG)