Francesca Cutruzzolà

Francesca Cutruzzolà has a degree in biology and a ph.D. in Biochemistry. After working in the laboratory of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) and for shorter periods as a visiting scientist at the ETH in Zurich(CH) , the Department of Chemistry of Univ. California Davis (USA) and the Department of Chemistry of Leiden University (NL) she was enrolled by the University of Rome, Italy, as a researcher and, in 2000, as an Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine. The focus of Dr. Cutruzzolà research involves structure-function studies of metalloprotein by protein engineering, kinetics and crystallography. Recent topics include: NO metabolism and biofilm formation in human pathogens and modulation of reactivity in heme-globins. In particular she has been interested in the reactivity of hemeproteins with NO and other radicals; research is ongoing on enzymes, transcription factors and gas-binding proteins from different sources. More recently, a new project was started on proteins involved in bacterial biofilm formation and in the metabolism of cyclic-diGMP, an important second messenger in bacteria. Dr. Cutruzzolà authored over 60 peer-reviewed manuscripts, several reviews and book chapters. She is a member of the INBB (an Italian University Consortium) and of other national societies. She was elected in 2008 as a member of the Accademia Medica Romana. She was invited to give lectures in international meetings such as the 2004 N-Cycle Meeting, the 2006 Harden Conference on Nitric Oxide and the 2008 Biochemical Society Meeting on Transition Metals in Biochemistry.

Biography Updated on 17 November 2008

Personal Home Page

http://w3.uniroma1.it/bio_chem/sito_biochimica/personale/curricula/cvcutruzzola.html

Articles in Scholarly Journals [Incomplete List]

  1. Reaction of Aplysia limacina metmyoglobin with hydrogen peroxide
    Dalton Transactions, no. 8, p. 840, 2007
  2. Fast Dissociation of Nitric Oxide from Ferrous Pseudomonas aeruginosa cd1 Nitrite Reductase: A NOVEL OUTLOOK ON THE CATALYTIC MECHANISM
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 282, no. 20, pp. 14761–14767, 2007
  3. Histidine and not tyrosine is required for the Peroxide-induced formation of haem to protein cross-linked myoglobin
    IUBMB Life, vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 477–489, 2007
  4. Critical role of His369 in the reactivity of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase with oxygen
    FEBS Journal, vol. 273, no. 19, pp. 4495–4503, 2006
  5. N-oxide sensing and denitrification: the DNR transcription factors
    Biochemical Society Transactions, vol. 34, no. 1, p. 185, 2006
  6. N-oxide sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa: expression and preliminary characterization of DNR, an FNR–CRP type transcriptional regulator
    Biochemical Society Transactions, vol. 33, no. 1, p. 184, 2005
  7. An Obligatory Intermediate in the Folding Pathway of Cytochrome c552 from Hydrogenobacter thermophilus
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 280, no. 27, pp. 25729–25734, 2005
  8. 1H-NMR Study of the Effect of Temperature through Reversible Unfolding on the Heme Pocket Molecular Structure and Magnetic Properties of Aplysia limacina Cyano-Metmyoglobin
    Biophysical Journal, vol. 89, no. 6, pp. 4149–4158, 2005
  9. Biochemistry, vol. 43, no. 1, pp. 230–236, 2004
  10. Expression of a fully functional cd1 nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Pseudomonas stutzeri
    Protein Expression and Purification, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 42–48, 2003
  11. Construction and characterization of a chimeric myoglobin
    Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Proteins & Proteomics, vol. 1645, no. 2, pp. 139–145, 2003
  12. Electrochemical study of the intermolecular electron transfer to Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase
    Electrochimica Acta, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 1055–1064, 2003
  13. Parallel Pathways in Cytochrome c551 Folding
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 330, no. 5, pp. 1145–1152, 2003
  14. Cytochrome c551 as a model system for protein folding
    Biophysical Chemistry, vol. 100, no. 1-3, pp. 409–419, 2003
  15. Backbone dynamics and hydrogen exchange of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ferricytochrome c 551
    Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 8, no. 1-2, pp. 156–166, 2003
  16. Cyanide Binding to cd1 Nitrite Reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Role of the Active-Site His369 in Ligand Stabilization
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 291, no. 1, pp. 1–7, 2002
  17. Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome C551: probing the role of the hydrophobic patch in electron transfer
    Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, vol. 88, no. 3-4, pp. 353–361, 2002
  18. Biochemistry, vol. 40, no. 36, pp. 10774–10781, 2001
  19. Kinetics of CO binding and CO photodissociation in Pseudomonas stutzeri cd1 nitrite reductase: probing the role of extended N-termini in fast structural relaxation upon CO photodissociation
    Biochemical Journal, vol. 355, no. 1, p. 39, 2001
  20. Kinetics of CO binding and CO photodissociation in Pseudomonas stutzeri cd1 nitrite reductase: probing the role of extended N-termini in fast structural relaxation upon CO photodissociation
    Biochemical Journal, vol. 356, no. 3, p. 911, 2001
  21. Snapshots of protein folding. A study on the multiple transition state pathway of cytochrome c551 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa1
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 309, no. 5, pp. 1177–1187, 2001
  22. Domain Swing Upon His to Ala Mutation in Nitrite Reductase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa,
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 312, no. 3, pp. 541–554, 2001
  23. The nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Essential role of two active-site histidines in the catalytic and structural properties
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 98, no. 5, pp. 2232–2237, 2001
  24. Solution 1H NMR Study of the Influence of Distal Hydrogen Bonding and N Terminus Acetylation on the Active Site Electronic and Molecular Structure of Aplysia limacina Cyanomet Myoglobin
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 275, no. 2, pp. 742–751, 2000
  25. The role of cavities in protein dynamics: Crystal structure of a photolytic intermediate of a mutant myoglobin
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 97, no. 5, pp. 2058–2063, 2000
  26. Studies on Pseudomonas aeruginosa cd 1 Nitrite Reductase: The Association and Dissociation Reactions of the d 1 -heme
    Israel Journal of Chemistry, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 27–33, 2000
  27. A new folding intermediate of apomyoglobin from Aplysia limacina: stepwise formation of a molten globule
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 297, no. 5, pp. 1231–1244, 2000
  28. Engineering His(E7) Affects the Control of Heme Reactivity in Aplysia limacina Myoglobin
    Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 269, no. 1, pp. 58–63, 2000
  29. Folding mechanism of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome c551: role of electrostatic interactions on the hydrophobic collapse and transition state properties
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 289, no. 5, pp. 1459–1467, 1999
  30. Bacterial nitric oxide synthesis
    Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Bioenergetics, vol. 1411, no. 2-3, pp. 231–249, 1999
  31. Does picosecond protein dynamics have survival value?
    Trends in Biochemical Sciences, vol. 24, no. 7, pp. 253–255, 1999
  32. Biochemistry, vol. 38, no. 23, pp. 7556–7564, 1999
  33. Does the Reduction of c Heme Trigger the Conformational Change of Crystalline Nitrite Reductase?
    Journal of Biological Chemistry, vol. 274, no. 21, pp. 14997–15004, 1999
  34. Biochemistry, vol. 37, no. 40, pp. 13987–13996, 1998
  35. Equilibrium unfolding of a small bacterial cytochrome, cytochrome c551 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa
    FEBS Letters, vol. 425, no. 3, pp. 385–390, 1998
  36. Unfolding of apomyoglobin from Aplysia limacina: the effect of salt and ph on the cooperativity of folding
    Journal of Molecular Biology, vol. 275, no. 1, pp. 133–148, 1998
  37. N-terminal arm exchange is observed in the 2.15 p crystal structure of oxidized nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa
    Structure, vol. 5, no. 9, pp. 1157–1171, 1997
  38. Mutagenesis of nitrite reductase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: tyrosine-10 in the c heme domain is not involved in catalysis
    FEBS Letters, vol. 412, no. 2, pp. 365–369, 1997
  39. Haemoglobin Engineering: For fun and money
    Current Biology, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 462–465, 1995
  40. Selective oxidation of methionyl residues in the human recombinant secretory leukocyte proteinase inhibitor. Effect on the inhibitor binding properties
    Journal of Molecular Recognition, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 31–37, 1994
  41. Pseudomonas aeruginosa nitrite reductase (or cytochrome oxidase): An overview
    Biochimie, vol. 76, no. 7, pp. 641–654, 1994
  42. Engineering Ascaris hemoglobin oxygen affinity in sperm whale myoglobin: role of tyrosine B10
    FEBS Letters, vol. 352, no. 1, pp. 63–66, 1994
  43. Selective oxidation of Met-192 in bovine $alpha;-chymotrypsin. Effect on catalytic and inhibitor binding properties
    Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Protein Structure and Molecular Enzymology, vol. 1161, no. 2-3, pp. 201–208, 1993
  44. Crystal structure of a distal site double mutant of sperm whale myoglobin at 1.6 Å resolution
    FEBS Letters, vol. 320, no. 1, pp. 13–16, 1993
  45. Biochemistry, vol. 32, no. 23, pp. 6041–6049, 1993
  46. Control and recognition of anionic ligands in myoglobin
    FEBS Letters, vol. 282, no. 2, pp. 281–284, 1991
  47. Analysis of the mechanisms controlling the expression of the L1 ribosomal protein gene in Xenopus laevis
    Molecular Biology Reports, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 196–197, 1987
  48. Complementarity of conserved sequence elements present in 28S ribosomal RNA and in ribosomal protein genes of Xenopus laevis and Xenopus tropicalis
    Gene, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 371–376, 1986