Functional Proteomics

Proteome is the entire protein set that may be produced by an organism. The spatiotemporal plasticity of proteome in different physiopathological states makes its investigation one of the most puzzling challenges in Life Sciences.
Nonetheless, functional proteomics, by taking advantage of increasingly powerful bioinformatics resources, is rapidly giving new and more comprehensive insights into functions, interactions and pathways that the astonishing multiplicity of protein species act in biological systems.

The main research fields currently in progress are:

• Proteomic analysis of clinical specimens in different physio-pathological conditions such as breast, lung and bladder cancer, lung fibrosis, infectious and neurodegenerative diseases, acute phase, cellular differentiation and signaling, necrosis, apoptosis, etc.., toward the identification of specific molecular pathways and biomarkers.
• Functional proteomics investigations on in vivo and ex vivo samples from humans and animal models to evaluate: the effects of different pollutants and smoke-extracts from tobacco cigarette and alternative devices; the impact of pro- and postbiotic administration, as well as gut microbiota, in systemic pathological states; the efficacy and safety of nutraceutical compounds for therapeutic use; the effects of drug exposure in cell lines, tissue and body fluids.
• Delineation of proteomics nutritional profiles, for traceability, quality control, and nutritional relevance, of common or naturally enriched foods.
• Study of the immunoproteome in infectious diseases and in autoimmune and food allergy disorders.
• Functional proteomic investigation of rare diseases.
• Determination of nanoparticles and macrovesicles effects on different biological samples.
• Proteome characterization of post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation, oxidation, glycosylation, and acetylation.