Name: Cinzia Rinaldo
Date and place of birth: 5November 1975, Naples, Italy
Present position: Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (Rome), National Research Council of Italy
Education: PhD in Genetics (2002), Degree in Biology (1997)
Research positions and activity:
2023 - senior research scientist (permanent position) at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM), CNR, Rome, Italy.
2011 - research scientist (permanent position) at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Pathology (IBPM), CNR, Rome, Italy.
2007-2011 -research scientist at the Molecular Oncogenesis Lab, Regina Elena Cancer Institute (IRE) Rome, IT
2004-2006 - three-year research position funded by the Italian Foundation for Cancer Research (FIRC) at the Molecular Oncogenesis Laboratory, IRE (Supervisor: S. Soddu)
2002-2003 - Post-Doc at the Molecular Oncogenesis Laboratory, IRE (Supervisor: S. Soddu)
1999-2001 - PhD at the Istituto di Genetica e Biofisica (IGB)-CNR, Naples, IT (Supervisor: A. La Volpe)
1995-1998 – graduate and post-graduate training at IGB- CNR, Naples (Supervisor: A. La Volpe)
Career interruptions: 2 interruptions (6 months each in 2005 and 2014) for maternity leave
Research grants and Projects:
2023-2025 PRIN-2022; Cell imaging-based approaches to identify non-invasive biomarkers in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
2023-2025: Ministero della Salute-PNRR Malattie rare; NF1 across lifespan: an interdisciplinary model of care from epigenetic to innovative therapeutic approaches
2023-2025: AFM-Telethon Grant; Spastin elevating approaches to counteract HSP.
2023-2025: Royal Society UK /CNR; How do post-translational modifications regulate the activity of AAA+ enzymes?
2021-2023: Telethon Grant; Elevating spastin by inhibiting its degradation: a possible therapeutic approach in Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia
2019-2021: AFM-fondazione Telethon Research Grant; The HIPK2 kinase/spastin axis in HSP: functional roles and potential therapeutic applications. 2017- 2018: Telethon Grant; Hereditary spastic paraplegia: investigations on the regulation of spastin protein mediated by the kinase HIPK2 in proliferating cells and in neurons.
2015-2018: IG AIRC grant; Cytokinesis failure, chromosomal instability and tumorigenicity: HIPK2 role in pancreatic cancer.
2010-2013: My First AIRC Grant; Role of the putative oncosuppressor HIPK2 in cytokinesis.
2010-2013: Grant dal Ministero della Salute-Giovani Ricercatori-bando 2008; Role of the putative oncosuppressor HIPK2 in cytokinesis and induction of chromosomal instability
Prizes and awards:
2021- Best Paper Award Adolf Struempell Prize for HSP therapy -For Sardina et al., Life Sci Alliance. 2020;
2009 - “Guido Berlucchi Award” (for Rinaldo et al., Mol. Cell 2007)
2007 - "Caputo Award for best young researcher in the field of oncology"
Teaching activity/supervision:
since 2016: member of the board of professors of the PhD course in Cellular Biology and Development at Sapienza University of Rome
2011-2015: member of the board of professors of the PhD course in Genetics and Molecular Biology at Tuscia University, Viterbo.
since 2010 supervision of 3 Diploma Theses and 3 PhD Thesis. Currently, supervising 1 diploma student, 1 post graduate fellow, 1Phd student and 1 post-doctoral fellow.
Membership:
Italian Society of Oncology, Italian Association of Cell Biology and Differentiation, NeuroNET Network. Honorary member of the UK HSP support group.
Bibliometric indicators:
Author of 36 published papers on peer-reviewed journals of medium-high impact factor
Individual Bibliometric Values:
Number of papers: 36
Number of citations: 1861 (source: Scopus)
H-index: 23 (Scopus)
Synopsis of research activity, career achievements and expertise:
My long-standing interest in the cell response to DNA damage first developed while studying the role of RAD-51 gene in DNA homologous recombination repair in the nematode C. elegans.
I then joined, as a post-doc, a leading laboratory in studies on apoptotic response in human tumors, led by Dr Silvia Soddu at IRE (Rome), that had innovatively contributed to the understanding of the mechanism through which the oncosuppressor p53 is regulated by its pro-apoptotic activator the kinase HIPK2. During this period, I characterized in tumor cells the molecular mechanism underlying the p53-mediated cell decision between mitotic arrest and clinically more desirable apoptosis after neoplastic treatments. In particular, I contributed to characterize 1) HIPK2/p53 role in the regulation of anti-apoptotic factor galectin-3 and in the chemo-resistance of thyroid tumors; 2) MDM-2 mediated p53 degradation induced by the SGK1 factor; 3) p53 intrinsic apoptotic pathway mediated by MDM4 at the mitochondria; 5) HIPK2/p53-mediated apoptosis after p53-reactivating drugs; 5) p53-independent mechanisms of HIPK2 proapoptotic response; 6) p53-mediated response to therapeutic treatments in stem cancer cells.
During the last year of my post-doc, I discovered a new role of HIPK2 kinase in cytokinesis. This latter finding set the basis for the establishment of my research unit in Rome at IRE (supported by a Ministero della salute –Giovani Ricercatori Grant and the MFAG-Grant), focusing on the study of the role of this protein in the prevention of tetraploidization and in cancer predisposition. In 2011, I won a competition for permanent position at IBPM-CNR in a highly competitive, nation-wide selection, and I moved my research unit at IBPM by maintaining a strict collaboration with IRE, thanks to an official agreement between the two Institutes. During this period, we demonstrated that HIPK2 deficiency causes chromosomal instability in Aurora-B dependent manner by cytokinesis failure and increases tumorigenicity in vitro and in vivo. These studies are currently undergoing, thanks to IG-AIRC grant, in pancreatic tumor context in vitro and in vivo. Thus, we generated a conditional null HIPK2 mouse models of pancreatic tumor in which we are studying the effects of cytokinesis defects and microenvironment fibrosis due to the absence of HIPK2 in vivo. In parallel, supported by Telethon and AFM-Telethon we are focusing on the role of HIPK2/spasin axis in hereditary spastic paraplegia.
At IBPM my research unit, currently consisting of 1 diploma student, 1 post graduate fellow, 2 Phd students and 1 post-doctoral fellow, is part of the “Molecular mechanisms of cell cycle and mitosis” Genetic Section, which hosts the most numerous and productive italian group of scientists in the field of cell division, with national and international collaborations, as well as state-of-the-art instrumentations. Imaging facility and citofluorimetry facilities are the major relevant facilities of this laboratory. In the last years, a group of these scientists have started to integrated their established experimental traditions of cellular and molecular biology with advanced single-cell imaging analysis to study the type of cellular response (i.e. transient mitotic arrest, death or genomic instability) in opportune cell tumour models after protein expression manipulation or treatment with active molecules, patogens and recently nanoparticles by using an advanced microscopy platform (http://bbcd.bio.uniroma1.it/bbcd/archivionotizie/cnr- microscopy-platform-nikon-reference-center-ibpm- see web site for specific references). The platform that is Nikon Reference Center for Central-Southern Italy consists of a fully automated up-right Nikon 90i microscope for high-resolution fluorescence, 3D-reconstruction, deconvolution; and an inverted fully automated Nikon Eclipse Ti for high-resolution time-lapse imaging.