Emilia Maria Pedone

Dott. Emilia Maria Pedone was born on 29th of April, 1971, in Naples. She is married and has three daughters. She graduated with laude in Biological Sciences in 1994 at the University of Naples Federico II. She began her career as student in the laboratory of Prof. Simonetta Bartolucci working on the expression, purification and characterization of proteins isolated from thermophilic microrganisms. In 1994 she attended the laboratories of Prof. Laurence Pearl at the University College of London. In 1999 she attained the PhD in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology at the Department of Organic and Biological Chemistry. In 1999 she won a fellowship entitled” Characterization of redox proteins from thermophilic microorganisms” at the Department of Organic and Biological Chemistry . In January 2000 she won a research fellowship for three years entitled “Proteins from thermophilic microorganisms: characterization of the structure-function relationship in native proteins, obtained through cloning and expression in heterologous organisms and through techniques of protein engineering”. Since December 2000 she is Researcher at Institute of Biostructures and Bioimagines of C.N.R. During these years, Dr. Pedone carried out an active experimental research addressed to the structural and functional studies of : • Proteins involved in the peroxides detoxification (i.e. peroxiredoxins) and proteins involved in oxidative folding and redox homeostasis isolated from thermophilic microorganisms (i.e. thioredoxins, thioredoxin reductases, protein disulfide oxidoreductases) • Proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Resurrection Promoting Factors, an heparin binding hemagglutinin) • Proteins involved in the insurgence of tumors. i.e. the protein h-Prune and members belonging to the family of KCTD (K+ Channel Tetramerization Domains). The research has been focused on the understanding of their regulative mechanisms. Furthermore an innovative and promising approach by NMR to deeply study the amino acids and/or regions involved in the interaction between two proteins in cellular environment has been designed and optimized. Her research results are well documented by publication of more than 70 congress communications and more than 60 papers on international journals. Dott. Pedone was supervisor of several degree and PhD theses.