Andrea Ciliberto
Andrea Ciliberto
e-mail:
affiliation: IFOM-IEO Campus
research area(s): Computational Biology, Cell Biology
Course: Molecular Medicine: Molecular Oncology and Computational Biology
University/Istitution: Università di Milano, UNIMI-SEMM
Education
1995 Laurea in Biology (equivalent to Masters of Science), from the University of Florence with mark: 110/110 cum laude. Thesis title: 'Replication dynamics in a cell population. Experiments with a cellular automata model'.

2000 PhD in Genetics, from the University of Pavia. Advisors, Marcello Buiatti and John J. Tyson. Thesis title 'Experimental and modeling studies of mitotic patterns during early development of sea urchin embryos'.

Professional Experience
2000-2003 Research Associate, Dept. Biology, Virginia Tech (USA), in the laboratory of Dr. John Tyson.

2003 Junior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies Collegium Budapest.

2004-2005 Research Associate, research group "Molecular network dynamics and cell physiology" of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Group directed by Dr. Bela Novak.

May 2005 - present Group Leader in Computational Cell Biology at IFOM.
Our main interest lies in the analysis of the general principles of cell cycle control, with particular emphasis on the exit from mitosis. Normally, cells make sure that the two daughter cells born at the end of a cell cycle inherit one sister chromatid each, and thus are genetically equivalent to their mother cell. We are interested in understanding the molecular device (known as the Spindle Assembly Checkpoint or SAC) put in place by cells to avoid an unequal segregation of genetic material at the end of mitosis. The approach we follow combines computational tools and experimental approaches to isolate molecular circuits that are known to play important roles in the checkpoint. With this approach, we have recently shown that a positive feedback loop can ontribute to the establishment of the checkpoint [The influence of catalysis on mad2 activation dynamics. Simonetta M, Manzoni R, Mosca R, Mapelli M, Massimiliano L, Vink M, Novak B, Musacchio A, Ciliberto A. PLoS Biol. 2009 Jan 13;7(1):e10.], and we are further investigating how this circuit could contribute to the quick inactivation of the checkpoint before the metaphase-to-anaphase transition.
- Manzoni R., Montani F., Visintin C., Cudron F., Ciliberto A.*, Visintin R.*
Oscillations in Cdc14 release and sequestration reveal a circuit underlying mitotic exit.
J Cell Biol. 2010 Jul 26;190(2):209-22.
*corresponding authors
- Ciliberto A., Shah JV.
A quantitative systems view of the spindle assembly checkpoint.
EMBO J. 2009 Jul 23;28(15):2162-2173.
- Simonetta M., Manzoni R., Mosca R., Mapelli M., Massimiliano L., Vink M., Novak B., Musacchio A., Ciliberto A.
The influence of catalysis on mad2 activation dynamics.
PLoS Biol. 2009 Jan 13;7(1):e10.
- Sabouri-Ghomi M., Ciliberto A., Kar S., Novak B., Tyson JJ.
Antagonism and bistability in protein interaction networks.
J Theor Biol. 2008 Jan 7;250(1):209-18. Epub 2007 Sep 12.
- Ciliberto, A., Capuani, F. and Tyson J. J.
Modeling networks of coupled enzymatic reactions using the total quasi-steady state approximantion
PLoS Comput. Biol. 3(3), 2007.
No projects are available to students for the current accademic year.