Prof. Silvia Morante

Contact Details

 

Office: Physics Department
Tel:     +39 06 72594554
Fax:    +39 06 2023507

Research Activity

 

• Folding versus misfolding: physiological and pathological role of metal

• The role of metals in neurodegenerative diseases – Alzheimer, BSE and Parkinson

• Structural studies of biomolecules by XAS (X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy)

• Numerical simulation based approaches (Molecular Dynamics, Monte Carlo, Car-Parrinello)

Recent Publications

 

[1] V. Minicozzi, S. Morante, G.C. Rossi, F. Stellato, K. Jansen, The role of metals in misfolding and aggregation processes: X-ray spectroscopy and numerical simulations, in From Computational Biophysics to System Biology (CBSB07), Proceedings of the NIC Workshop 2007, 36: 223

[2] S. Furlan, F. Guerrieri, G. La Penna, S. Morante, G.C. Rossi, Studying the Cu binding sites in the PrP N-terminal region. A test case for ab initio simulations, European Biophysics Journal, 36: 841-845 (2007)

[3] S. Furlan, G.La Penna, F. Guerrieri, S. Morante, G.C.Rossi, Ab initio simulations of Cu binding sites on the N-terminal region of PrP,  Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, 12(4), 571-583, (2007)

[4] S. Furlan, F. Guerrieri, G.La Penna, S. Morante, G.C. Rossi, Ab initio simulations of Cu binding sites in the N-terminal region of PrP, in From Computational Biophysics to System Biology, J. Meinke, O. Zimmermann, S. Mohanty, U.H.E.Hansmann (Editors) John von Neumann Institute for Computing, Juelich, NIC Series, 34, 153-156, (2006).

[5] S. Morante, G. C. Rossi, M. Testa, The stress tensor of a discrete system: an exercise in Statistical Mechanics, J. Chem. Phys., 125, 034101 (2006).

[6] F. Stellato, G. Menestrina, M. Dalla Serra, C. Potrich, R. Tomazzolli, W. Meyer-Klaucke, S. Morante, Metal binding in amyloids beta peptides shows both intra- and inter-peptide coordination modes, European Biophysics Journal, 35(4), 340 (2006).

[7] S. Morante, C. Poltrich, R. González-Iglesias, C. Meneghini,W. Meyer-Klaucke, G. Menestrina, M. A. Pajares, M. Gasset, Inter- and Intra-octarepeat Cu(II) Site Geometries in the Prion Protein. Implication in Cu(II) binding cooperativity and Cu(II)-mediated assemblies, J. Biol. Chem. 279, 11753 (2004).

[8] G. La Penna, S. Morante, A. Perico, G.C. Rossi, Designing generalized statistical ensembles for numerical simulations of biopolymers, J. Chem. Phys., 121, 10725 (2004).

[9] M. Benfatto, S. Della Longa, Z. Wu, Y. Qin, G. Pan, S. Morante, The role of Zn in the interplay among Langmuir-Blodgett Multi-Layer and Myelin Basic Protein: a quantitative analysis of XANES spectra, Biophysical Chemistry, 110, 191 (2004).

[10] G. La Penna, V. Minicozzi, S. Morante, G.C. Rossi, Tuning force-field parameters by pressure measurements in micro-canonical simulations, International Journal of Modern Physics C., 15, 205 (2004).

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