Anna Tramontano (14 July 1957 – 10 March 2017) was an Italian computational biologist and chair professor of

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome (), formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", abbreviated simply as Sapienza ('Wisdom'), is a Public university, public research university located in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1303 and is ...

. From 2011 to 2014 she was a member of the Scientific Council of the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

(ERC). She was an associate editor for the journal ''

Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...

'' from 2005 until 2016 editing papers in the area of structural bioinformatics.

Education

Tramontano originally trained as a physicist, gaining her PhD from the

University of Naples Federico II The University of Naples Federico II (; , ) is a public university, public research university in Naples, Campania, Italy. Established in 1224 and named after its founder, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, it is the oldest public, s ...

in 1980. She was later drawn to the field of

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...

and carried out postdoctoral studies at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

where she developed the molecular graphics package InsightII. She later joined the biocomputing programme at the

European Molecular Biology Laboratory The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to molecular biology research and is supported by 29 member states, two prospect member states, and one associate member state. EMBL was created in ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

to work with Arthur Lesk on analysis and modelling of

antibodies An antibody (Ab) or immunoglobulin (Ig) is a large, Y-shaped protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily which is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize antigens such as bacteria and viruses, including those that caus ...

Awards and honours

Tramontano served as vice-president of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB), and was elected a Fellow of the ISCB in 2016. She served on the ISCB Board of Directors since its beginning, and was a Senior Member of the ISCB for many years.

Capacity building in Computational Biology

Tramontano actively engaged in

capacity building particularly for developing countries. She supported capacity building efforts of one of the regional student groups (RSG Eastern Africa) affiliated to the ISCB Student Council (ISCBSC) by giving a 3-day course. She traveled to Nairobi, Kenya and sponsored students from the neighboring region (Uganda and Tanzania) to attend a 3-day Proteomics course that she taught. In addition, she connected students from Africa interested in Bioinformatics to various labs in Europe, including her own, for internships or advanced study . She later went on to assist in securing a King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) funding for a large number of travel fellowships that were awarded to students from Africa to attend the ISCB Africa ASBCB Conference on BioinformaticsASBCB
"Joint ISCB Africa ASBCB Conference, 2009"
''Joint ISCB Africa ASBCB Conference'', 2009 held in Bamako, Mali in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tramontano, Anna 1957 births 2017 deaths Italian bioinformaticians Fellows of the International Society for Computational Biology Scientific computing researchers Italian women computer scientists Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome University of Naples Federico II alumni Members of the ERC Scientific Council Scientists from Naples