{"id":1186,"date":"2020-10-20T22:46:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T22:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/?page_id=1186"},"modified":"2021-04-06T13:01:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T13:01:42","slug":"our-story","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pl-1186\"  class=\"panel-layout\" >\n<div id=\"pg-1186-0\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\"  data-style=\"{&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;lsow_dark_bg&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;bottom_margin&quot;:&quot;0px&quot;,&quot;gutter&quot;:&quot;0px&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\"  data-ratio=\"0.5\"  data-ratio-direction=\"left\" >\n<div id=\"pgc-1186-0-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\"  data-weight=\"0.33333333333333\" >\n<div id=\"panel-1186-0-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_nav_menu panel-first-child\" data-index=\"0\" data-style=\"{&quot;padding&quot;:&quot;0px 0px 0px 0px&quot;,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\" >\n<div class=\"panel-widget-style panel-widget-style-for-1186-0-0-0\" ><h3 class=\"widget-title\">Current Team Members:<\/h3><div class=\"menu-people-container\"><ul id=\"menu-people\" class=\"menu\"><li id=\"menu-item-77\" class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-77\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/sara-fortuna\/\">Sara Fortuna<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"menu-item-1465\" class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-1465\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/patricio-barletta\/\">Patricio Barletta<\/a><\/li>\n<li id=\"menu-item-1466\" class=\"menu-item menu-item-type-post_type menu-item-object-page menu-item-1466\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/theo-battista\/\">Theo Battista<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"panel-1186-0-0-1\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_media_image panel-last-child\" data-index=\"1\" data-style=\"{&quot;padding&quot;:&quot;0px 0px 0px 0px&quot;,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\" >\n<div class=\"panel-widget-style panel-widget-style-for-1186-0-0-1\" ><h3 class=\"widget-title\">Our First Team:<\/h3><a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"191\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Monalisa2014-300x191.png\" class=\"image wp-image-1217  attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Monalisa2014-300x191.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Monalisa2014.png 381w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"pgc-1186-0-1\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\"  data-weight=\"0.66666666666667\" >\n<div id=\"panel-1186-0-1-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_sow-editor panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"2\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\" >\n<div class=\"so-widget-sow-editor so-widget-sow-editor-base\">\n<div class=\"siteorigin-widget-tinymce textwidget\">\n<p>The Self-Assembly, Recognition, and Applications (SARA) Research Team was set-up in 2013 as the Theory section of the MOlecular NAnotechnology for LIfe Science Applications (MONALISA) group in the framework of ERC and AIRC projects led by Giacinto Scoles (Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton, US). At the time we were complementing the experimental activity of the MONALISA Biomedical Research Group, led by Daniela Cesselli, and the MONALISA AFM\/nanobiophysics section, led by Matteo Castronovo. All sections were hosted at the then Department of Medical and Biological Sciences, now DAME, at University of Udine, Italy. In 2016 the AFM\/nanobiophysics section moved to the University of Leeds UK), and in 2017 the Theory section moved to the University of Trieste (IT) where it matured into an independent multidisciplinary team aiming to provide solutions to problems of medical interest through the multiscale design of new molecular systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"pg-1186-1\"  class=\"panel-grid panel-no-style\"  data-style=\"{&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;,&quot;lsow_dark_bg&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;cell_alignment&quot;:&quot;flex-start&quot;}\" >\n<div id=\"pgc-1186-1-0\"  class=\"panel-grid-cell\"  data-weight=\"1\" >\n<div id=\"panel-1186-1-0-0\" class=\"so-panel widget widget_text panel-first-child panel-last-child\" data-index=\"3\" data-style=\"{&quot;background_image_attachment&quot;:false,&quot;background_display&quot;:&quot;tile&quot;}\" >\n<h3 class=\"widget-title\">Former Members and Guests:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"textwidget\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Nikola-Minovski\"><u>Nikola Minovski<\/u><\/a> joined our team in March 2020 in the framework of our <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/we-have-been-awarded-a-ardfs-annual-open-grant-from-the-alternatives-research-development-foundation-ardf\/we-have-been-awarded-a-ardfs-annual-open-grant-from-the-alternatives-research-development-foundation-ardf\/\">ARDF project<\/a>. He successfully optimised and characterised <em>in silico<\/em> a set of nanobodies. At he end of the project he moved back to the National Institute of Chemistry (Slovenia).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/hendrik-vondracek\/\"><u>Hendrik Vondracek<\/u><\/a> joined our <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/\">AIRC-MFAG<\/a> project in 2019. He worked on the generation of protein-based biosensors using AFM, hosted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elettra.trieste.it\/labs\/nanostructure\">NanoLab@Elettra<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/barbara-medagli\/\"><u>Barbara Medagli<\/u><\/a> joined our group in 2017 in the framework of our <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/\">AIRC-MFAG<\/a> project. She expressed <em>in silico<\/em> designed nanobodies in bacteria. She carried out her activity hosted in de Zorzi lab. In 2020 she moved on and joined the Geremia group.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/luciana-gneo\/\"><u>Luciana Gneo<\/u><\/a> joined our group in 2017 in the framework of our <a href=\"http:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/sara-fortuna-has-been-awarded-a-my-first-airc-grant-from-the-italian-association-for-cancer-research-airc\/\">AIRC-MFAG<\/a> project. She worked on the generation of protein-based biosensors using AFM, hosted in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elettra.trieste.it\/labs\/nanostructure\">NanoLab@Elettra<\/a>. In 2019 she moved to the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy with the University of Birmingham (UK<\/li>\n<li><u>Katja Pra\u010dek<\/u>, from the University of Primorska (Koper, Slovenia), joined our team in 2017 to work towards her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famnit.upr.si\/files\/zakljucna_dela_repo\/651\">bachelor thesis in Bioinformatics<\/a>. She computationally characterized a set of antibody fragments capable of interfering with the association of P53 and Twist, proteins involved in cancer progression.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\/?q=cedrix-dongmo\"><u>Cedrix Dongmo<\/u><\/a> joined us in 2014 as an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ictp.it\/tril.aspx\">ICTP-TRIL<\/a> predoctoral fellow. His key contribution to our team relies in the screening of computational designed peptides. He then successfully undertook his PhD in the Fogolari group (Udine, Italy) and in 2018 he joined the laboratory of Biomolecular Interactions and Transport at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan and the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw (Poland).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\/?q=miguel-soler\"><u>Miguel Soler<\/u><\/a> joined our team in 2014 working on peptides design. In 2016 he moved to SISSA (Trieste, Italy) where he became the main developer of <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/migsoler\/BINDesignER\">BINDesignER<\/a>. He is a key collaborator of our team and currently works at the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT, Genoa, Italy).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\/?q=abimbola-adedeji\"><u>Abimbola Adedeji<\/u><\/a> worked with us in the framework of <a href=\"http:\/\/web.units.it\/dottorato\/nanotecnologie\/en\/content\/adedeji-abimbola-feyisara\">her PhD program in nanotechnology<\/a> at the University of Trieste (Italy). As part of the atomic force microscopy (AFM) group, she was working on the generation of protein-based biosensors using AFM, she showed that computational designed peptides can be successfully employed as biosensors. In 2016 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=4&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj5z6rD_aDjAhWNMewKHY6pCwcQFjADegQIABAC&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Farts.units.it%2Fretrieve%2Fhandle%2F11368%2F2908142%2F187411%2FAbimbola%2520Feyisara%2520Adedeji.%2520Final%2520PhD.%2520thesis.pdf&amp;usg=AOvVaw0RmWUABb69IIvrvjhe4_5U\">she successfully defended her PhD<\/a> thesis and, together with the AFM group, moved to the University of Leeds (UK).<\/li>\n<li><u>Aristeo Madera Rejon<\/u> visited us from CINESTAV (Mexico) with a three-months fellowship awarded by the National Council for Science and Technology (Conacyt, Mexico).<\/li>\n<li><u>Cristina Vargas<\/u>, from CINESTAV (Mexico), spent a sabbatical year with us. Togheter we worked on evolving a set of <em>ex novo<\/em> designed peptides.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\/?q=anna-russo\"><u>Anna Russo<\/u><\/a> worked with us in the framework of <a href=\"http:\/\/Genetics, Oncology and Clinical Medicine\">her PhD in Genetics, Oncology and Clinical Medicine<\/a> at the University of Siena (Italy). Her work with us focused on the experimental characterization of computational designed peptides for protein recognition. She successfully defender her PhD thesis in 2014, then moved to the University Federico II of Naples (Italy).<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Giacinto_Scoles\"><strong><u>Giacinto Scoles<\/u><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/dof.princeton.edu\/about\/clerk-faculty\/emeritus\/giacinto-scoles\">Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton, US<\/a>) <strong>is our scientific father and mentor<\/strong>. <strong>His motto, summarized as: &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\/?q=giacinto-scoles\">COLLABORATE, COLLABORATE, COLLABORATE!!!<\/a>&#8220;, inspires us and guides us through our research as well as in our life<\/strong>. He seeded and mentored our team within the European Grant, 7FP, Ideas, ERC Advanced Grant \u201dMolecular Nanotechnology For Life Science Application (<a href=\"http:\/\/monalisa.uniud.it\">MONALISA<\/a>): QUantitative Interactomics for Diagnostics, Proteomics and QUantitative Oncology (Quidroquo, proposal n. 269025, 2011-2016, PI: G. Scoles). In 2016, when the junior MONALISA teams he seeded reached independence, he moved to the CNR-NANOTECH (Lecce, Italy) to guide and inspire a new generation of researchers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Self-Assembly, Recognition, and Applications (SARA) Research Team was set-up in 2013 as the Theory section of the MOlecular NAnotechnology for LIfe Science Applications (MONALISA) group in the framework of ERC and AIRC projects led by Giacinto Scoles (Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton, US). At the time we were complementing the experimental activity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":20,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.9.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Story - SARA (Fortuna) Research Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Story - SARA (Fortuna) Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Self-Assembly, Recognition, and Applications (SARA) Research Team was set-up in 2013 as the Theory section of the MOlecular NAnotechnology for LIfe Science Applications (MONALISA) group in the framework of ERC and AIRC projects led by Giacinto Scoles (Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton, US). At the time we were complementing the experimental activity [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SARA (Fortuna) Research Team\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-06T13:01:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/\",\"name\":\"Our Story - SARA (Fortuna) Research Team\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-20T22:46:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-06T13:01:42+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"People\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/\",\"name\":\"SARA (Fortuna) Research Team\",\"description\":\"Self-Assembly, Recognition, and Applications\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our Story - SARA (Fortuna) Research Team","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.units.it\/sarafortuna\/index.php\/people\/our-story\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Our Story - SARA (Fortuna) Research Team","og_description":"The Self-Assembly, Recognition, and Applications (SARA) Research Team was set-up in 2013 as the Theory section of the MOlecular NAnotechnology for LIfe Science Applications (MONALISA) group in the framework of ERC and AIRC projects led by Giacinto Scoles (Donner Professor of Science, Emeritus, at Princeton, US). 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