
Gaia Pigino
- Associate Head of Structural Biology Research Centre, Structural biology
- Research Group Leader, Pigino Group
Gaia Pigino is a biologist, currently Associate Head of the Structural Biology Center at Human Technopole, after 9 years as Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute CBG in Dresden. She collaborate with Alessandro Vannini to develop the Centre for Structural Biology. Gaia’s laboratory studies molecular mechanisms and principles of self-organisation in cilia and other subcellular structures that are of fundamental importance for human health and disease.
CURRENT POSITION
Since 2021 | Associate Head of the Structural Biology Center at Human Technopole, Milan, Italy |
Since 2012 | Research Group Leader at MPI-CBG, the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany |
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH
2010-2012 | Postdoctoral EMBO Long Term fellow Laboratory of Biomolecular Research (BMR), Department of Biology and Chemistry, Paul Scherer Institute (PSI) Switzerland. Supervisor: Prof. T. Ishikawa. |
2009-2011 | Postdoctoral researcher Institute for Molecular Biology and Biophysics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), Zurich, Switzerland. Supervisor: Prof. T. Ishikawa. |
2007-2009 | Postdoctoral MIUR research fellow Fellowship of the “Ministero Italiano dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca”. Laboratory of Cryotechniques for Electron Microscopy, Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena. Supervisor: Prof. P. Lupetti. |
2009 | Participant at the Physiology Course at MBL in Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole. Directors: Dyche Mullins and Claire Waterman. |
EDUCATION
2003-2007 | Ph.D. Student (Ph.D. Fellowship by the Italian government “Ministero Italiano dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca”). Department of Evolutionary Biology, University of Siena. Supervisor: Prof. F. Bernini and Prof. C. Leonzio. |
2002 | Diploma in Natural Science (Summa cum laude). University of Siena, Italy. Thesis supervisors: Prof. C. Leonzio and Prof. F. Bernini. |
OTHER POSITIONS
2003 | Research Associate. Department of Environmental Sciences G. Sarfatti, University of Siena. Advisor: Prof. C. Leonzio |
AWARDS and FUNDING
2022 | EMBO Member |
2019 | DFG Grant – GAČR-DFG Cooperation |
2018 | PoL starting fellowship (from the Dresden Excellence Cluster ‘Physics of Life’) |
2018 | Keith R. Porter Fellow Award for Cell Biology |
2018 | ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2018-COG N#819826 CiliaTubulinCode) |
2018 | Excellence Cluster ‘Physics of Life’, as a core Principal Investigator |
2010 | EMBO Long Term fellowship |
2009 | Scholarship from the Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, Massachusetts) MBL Physiology Course. |
2007 | Post-Doctoral Research fellowship from MIUR. |
2003 | Ph.D. Fellowship from MIUR. |
Fellowship to students and postdocs
2022 | EMBO Long Term Fellowship to Helen Foster |
2021 | EMBO Postdoc Fellowship to Nikolai Klena |
2019 | HFSP Postdoc Fellowship to Adrian Nievergelt |
2018 | EMBO Long Term Fellowship to Adrian Nievergelt |
2017 | Marie Curie Fellowship to Adam Schröfel (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016) |
2015 | DIGS-BB Fellowship to Guendalina Marini |
2012 | DIGS-BB Fellowship to Ludek Stepanek |
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Publications
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09/2022 - Current Biology
Conversion of anterograde into retrograde trains is an intrinsic property of intraflagellar transport
Cilia or eukaryotic flagella are microtubule-based organelles found across the eukaryotic tree of life. Their very high aspect ratio and crowded interior are unfavorable to diffusive transport of most components required for their assembly and maintenance. Instead, a system of intraflagellar transport (IFT) trains moves cargo rapidly up and down the cilium (Figure 1A).1, 2, 3 Anterograde IFT, from the cell body to the […]
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08/2022 - BioRxiv
The Molecular Structure of Anterograde Intraflagellar transport trains
Anterograde intraflagellar transport trains are essential for cilia assembly and maintenance. These trains are formed of 22 IFTA and IFTB proteins that link structural and signalling cargoes to microtubule motors for import into cilia. It remains unknown how the IFTA/B proteins are arranged into complexes and how these complexes polymerise into functional trains. Here, we […]
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07/2022 - Science
In situ architecture of the ciliary base reveals the stepwise assembly of intraflagellar transport trains
The cilium is an antenna-like organelle that performs numerous cellular functions, including motility, sensing, and signaling. The base of the cilium contains a selective barrier that regulates the entry of large intraflagellar transport (IFT) trains, which carry cargo proteins required for ciliary assembly and maintenance. However, the native architecture of the ciliary base and the […]
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07/2022 - BioRxiv
Efficient precision genome editing of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii with CRISPR/Cas
CRISPR/Cas genome engineering in the unicellular green algal model Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has until now only been applied to targeted gene disruption, whereas scar-less knock-in transgenesis has generally been considered infeasible. We have developed highly efficient homology-directed knock-in mutagenesis in cell-walled strains of Chlamydomonas. Our method allows scarless integration of fusion tags and sequence modifications of near arbitrary proteins […]
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04/2022 - Nano Lett
Fabrication of High Aspect Ratio Gold Nanowires within the Microtubule Lumen
Gold nanowires have great potential use as interconnects in electronic, photonic, and optoelectronic devices. To date, there are various fabrication strategies for gold nanowires, each one associated with particular drawbacks as they utilize high temperatures, toxic chemicals, or expensive compounds to produce nanowires of suboptimal quality. Inspired by nanowire fabrication strategies that used higher-order biopolymer […]