Collaborations

Giovanni Longo is a first researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Rome, at the Istituto di Struttura della Materia. As an expert in scanning probe microscopies and high-resolution characterization techniques, he has focused on the interdisciplinary studies combining physics and biology for biomedical applications, employing AFM in innovative ways, and combining this technique with Raman or IR spectroscopy. Expanding on this background, he is among the main developers of the Nanomotion sensor, which he has applied to different experimental fields. Within the ERASE project he is responsible for the nanomotion experiments to study in real time the effect of iron depletion in Staphylococcus aureus and to assay the real-time response of these bacteria to the inhibitors developed within the project.

Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=23100186800
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2434-2155
Email:  longo@ism.cnr.it.it

Prof. Luisi has a long-term experience in both cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and X-ray crystallography, and his research topics of macromolecules has included studies of heme-containing proteins. Prof. Luisi and his group at the University of Cambridge (https://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/research/luisi ) are using Cryo-EM to study the structure of macromolecular complexes in isolation and also in situ using tomography. Cryo-EM is rapidly supplanting the conventional techniques of structural biology due to its ability to provide information on proteins and complexes, even of large dimensions, with a resolution now comparable with crystallography. The Luisi group has access to a facility with crystallization robots and automated scanning and image recording of the crystallization plates. The group also has frequent time allocation at Diamond light source for high resolution X-ray diffraction data collection. Within the ERASE project, we plan to solve the structure of Hb/hemophores complexes at different stages of heme extraction and transfer, elucidating the mechanistic details of the process (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116708119).

Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/autid/detail.uri?authorId=7004221679
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1144-9877
Email: bfl20@cam.ac.uk