Assistant Professor
University of Trieste
Laboratory of Molecular Medicine
Born in Torino in 1970, Chiara Collesi obtained her degree in Molecular Biology in 1994 and her PhD in Biochemistry and Clinical Chemistry at the University of Torino Medical School in 2000, while at the Molecular Oncology Laboratory at the Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (IRCC), Candiolo, directed by Prof. Paolo M. Comoglio. In 2001, she was awarded a Fellowship from the Human Frontiers Science Program and joined to Pietro De Camilli’s Laboratory in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Ct, USA, as a post-doctoral fellow. She came back to Italy in 2005 and joined the Molecular Medicine Laboratory directed by Prof. Mauro Giacca at the ICGEB in Trieste. Since 2012 she is Assistant Professor in Molecular Biology at the University of Trieste Medical School.
Early in her scientific career, Chiara Collesi investigated the molecular features of the intracellular signaling of the Met and Ron tyrosine kinase receptors, primarily involved in the stimulation of cell scattering, invasion and protection from apoptosis. Moving from cancer to neurobiology, she joined the De Camilli Laboratory to exploit the use of mouse genetic models to unravel how the endocytic processes harmoniously coordinated with both neuronal transmission and cellular signaling. In the Molecular Medicine Laboratory at the ICGEB in Trieste, her research interests focus on the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating cardiac myocyte proliferation. Her findings have revealed the fundamental role of the Notch signaling pathway driving cardiomyocyte proliferation in neonatal hearts and more recently have provided a molecular explanation for the lack of effect of Notch activation in the adult heart, restricting its potential in driving cardiac regeneration after myocardial infarction or heart failure to a narrow window after birth.
Selected publications
Felician G, Collesi C, Lusic M, Martinelli V, Dal Ferro M, Zentilin L, Zacchigna S and Giacca M. Epigenetic modification at Notch responsive promoters blunts efficacy of inducing Notch pathway reactivation after myocardial infarction. Circ Res. 2014;115(7):636-49.
Collesi C, Zentilin L, Giacca M. Notch1 signaling stimulates proliferation of immature cardiomyocytes. J Cell Biol. 2008 October 6; 183(1): 117–128.
Milosevic I, Giovedi S, Lou X, Raimondi A, Collesi C, Shen H, Paradise S, O'Toole E, Ferguson S, Cremona O, Camilli PD. Recruitment of endophilin to clathrin-coated pit necks is required for efficient vesicle uncoating after fission. Neuron. 2011 Nov 17;72(4):587-601.
Ferguson SM, Brasnjo G, Hayashi M, Wölfel M, Collesi C, Giovedi S, Raimondi A, Gong LW, Ariel P, Paradise S, O’Toole E, Flavell R, Cremona O, Miesenböck G,Ryan TA, De Camilli P. A selective activity-dependent requirement for dynamin1 in synaptic vesicle endocytosis. Science. 2007 Apr 27; 316 (5824):570-4.
Collesi C, Santoro M, Gaudino G, and Comoglio PM. A splicing variant of the RON transcript induces constitutive tyrosine kinase activity and invasive phenotype. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 16, pp. 5518-5526, 1996.