RONG LI LABORATORY

biosketch

Giulia Rancati received her Degree in Biotechnology from the University of Milano-Bicocca in 2001 and her Ph.D. in Industrial Biotechnology from the same university in 2005. There she started out her career as a graduate student and then as a post-doc in Prof. Simonetta Piatti’s lab at the Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience. In 2006 she joined Prof. Rong Li’s group as a Postdoctoral Research Associate and currently works in her lab at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research, located in Kansas City, Missouri.

projects

When Giulia moved to Rong Li’s lab in 2006, she started two main projects using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism. In the first project, Giulia is exploring the use of cutting-edge fluorescence microscopy techniques to decipher the in vivo protein interactions in compact and complex cytoskeletal structures involved in cell division. This study will temporally and spatially characterize dynamic molecular interactions in live cell settings and will allow achievement of a quantitative understanding of the cell division machinery. In her main project, in collaboration with Dr. Norman Pavelka, Giulia studied the adaptive evolution of multiple yeast strains, all carrying the deletion of the gene encoding type II myosin, whose product is essential for normal cytokinesis. Using a combination of whole-genome analyses and yeast cell biology techniques, they showed that aneuploidy, i.e. the condition of possessing an unbalanced number of chromosomes, was underlying the transcriptional changes required for the evolved cytokinesis mechanisms.

contact

e-mail: gir {at} stowers {dot} org

publications

Eldakak A, Rancati G, Rubinstein B, Paul P, Conaway V, Li R. Asymmetrically inherited multidrug resistance transporters are recessive determinants in cellular replicative ageing. Nat Cell Biol. 2010; 12(8): 799-805. [Pubmed]

Pavelka N, Rancati G, Li R. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: role of aneuploidy in cellular adaptation and cancer. Curr Opin Cell Biol 2010; in press. [Pubmed]

Chiroli E, *Rancati G, *Catusi I, Lucchini G, Piatti S. Cdc14 inhibition by the spindle assembly checkpoint prevents unscheduled centrosome separation in budding yeast. Mol Biol Cell. 2009; 20(10): 2626-37. [Pubmed|Abstract|Full text|PDF]

*Rancati G, *Pavelka N, Fleharty B, Noll A, Trimble R, Walton K, Perera A, Staehling-Hampton K, Seidel CW, Li R. Aneuploidy underlies rapid adaptive evolution of yeast cells deprived of a conserved cytokinesis motor. Cell. 2008; 135(5): 879-93. [PubMed|Abstract|Full text|PDF|F1000|Preview|PaperClip]

Rancati G, Li R. Polarized cell growth: double grip by CDK1. Curr Biol. 2007; 17(15): R600-3. [PubMed|Abstract]

*Nezi L, *Rancati G, De Antoni A, Pasqualato S, Piatti S, Musacchio A. Accumulation of Mad2-Cdc20 complex during spindle checkpoint activation requires binding of open and closed conformers of Mad2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. J Cell Biol. 2006; 174(1): 39-51. [PubMed|Abstract|Full Text|PDF]

Mapelli M, Filipp FV, Rancati G, Massimiliano L, Nezi L, Stier G, Hagan RS, Confalonieri S, Piatti S, Sattler M, Musacchio A. Determinants of conformational dimerization of Mad2 and its inhibition by p31comet. EMBO J. 2006; 25(6): 1273-84. [PubMed|Abstract|Full Text|PDF]

Rancati G, Crispo V, Lucchini G, Piatti S. Mad3/BubR1 phosphorylation during spindle checkpoint activation depends on both Polo and Aurora kinases in budding yeast. Cell Cycle. 2005; 4(7): 972-80. [PubMed|Abstract|PDF]

(*equal contribution)