Paola Picotti
Born
Udine
Alma materUniversity of Padua
AwardsEMBO Gold Medal (2019)
Scientific career
FieldsProteomics
Systems biology
Protein aggregation
Mass spectrometry[1]
InstitutionsETH Zürich
Websiteimsb.ethz.ch/research/picotti/PeoplePicotti/paola-picotti.html

Paola Picotti (born 1977) is an Italian biologist who is Professor for Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zürich.[1][2] She is Deputy Head of the Institute for Molecular Systems Biology. Her research investigates how the conformational changes of proteins impact cellular networks. She was awarded the 2020 ETH Zürich Rössler Prize and the 2019 EMBO Gold Medal.

Early life and education

Picotti grew up in Udine. Her mother was a mathematics teacher and her father worked in an electronics company.[3] Picotti studied pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Padua, and graduated in 2001.[4] She then moved into biotechnology, working alongside Angelo Fontana on her doctoral research. She joined the laboratory of Ruedi Aebersold in the Institute for Molecular Systems Biology at ETH Zürich.[4] She was appointed a scientific advisor at Aebersold's spin-out company Biognosys.[5]

Research and career

In 2011, Picotti was appointed to the faculty at ETH Zürich, first as an assistant professor and subsequently as an associate professor in molecular systems biology. In particular, Picotti works in proteomics, the large scale analysis of thousands of proteins at a given moment. Whilst proteomics offers the potential for wide-reaching analysis, detail is lost because of a lack of information about the specific proteins themselves.[5]

Picotti pioneered the combination of limited proteolysis and mass spectrometry (so-called "LiP-MS"), which generates a structural barcode (a proteolytic fingerprint) for sentinel proteins.[6][5] Sentinel proteins are proteins whose biological markers change depending on the activation state of a cellular process.[7] By analysing literature for sentinels that were involved in diverse yeast pathways, Picotti identified a few hundred that she could measure using an assay.[5] She has shown that this technique can be used to unravel the thermosensitivity of proteins, as well as used it to realise a map of protein-metabolite interactions.[6] LiP-MS can monitor for the conformational change of proteins in complex environments, allowing for the visualisation of the dynamic 3D proteomes. She has since used LiP-MS to study protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease.[8]

Awards and honours

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 Paola Picotti publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. ↑ Paola Picotti publications from Europe PubMed Central
  3. ↑ "Heralding a new era in protein analytics". ethz.ch. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  4. 1 2 "Prof. Paola Picotti". HUPO 2021 World Congress. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Marx, Vivien (2014-10-01). "Paola Picotti". Nature Methods. 11 (10): 975. doi:10.1038/nmeth.3116. ISSN 1548-7105. PMID 25392876. S2CID 39576917.
  6. 1 2 3 "HUPO - HUPO Awards - 2021 Recipients". www.hupo.org. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  7. ↑ Soste, Martin; Hrabakova, Rita; Wanka, Stefanie; Melnik, Andre; Boersema, Paul; Maiolica, Alessio; Wernas, Timon; Tognetti, Marco; von Mering, Christian; Picotti, Paola (October 2014). "A sentinel protein assay for simultaneously quantifying cellular processes". Nature Methods. 11 (10): 1045–1048. doi:10.1038/nmeth.3101. ISSN 1548-7091. PMID 25194849. S2CID 26547560.
  8. 1 2 "List of Members". Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  9. ↑ "Paola in the Top 40 under 40". imsb.ethz.ch. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  10. ↑ "The Power List 2014". The Analytical Scientist. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  11. ↑ "Paola wins Robert J. Cotter New Investigator Award 2016". imsb.ethz.ch. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  12. ↑ "Friedrich-Miescher-Award for Paola". imsb.ethz.ch. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  13. ↑ "Juan Pablo Albar Protein Pioneer Award 2018". Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  14. ↑ "M. Madan Babu and Paola Picotti honoured with EMBO Gold Medal – Press releases – EMBO". 2019-06-05. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  15. ↑ "Paola Picotti receives ERC Consolidator Grant with EUR 2 Mio". imsb.ethz.ch. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  16. ↑ "Biologist Paola Picotti wins the Rössler Prize 2020 • ETH Zürich Foundation". ETH Zürich Foundation. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
  17. ↑ "Paola Picotti | Falling Walls". falling-walls.com. Retrieved 2022-07-16.
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