Fabrizio Chiti (born in
Florence, 7 July 1971) is an Italian
biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...
noted for his work on
Protein aggregation and
amyloid.
Education
Chiti is a graduate in
Biological Sciences of the
University of Florence (Italy).
He attained a
PhD degree (
D.Phil
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
) in
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
in 2000 at the
University of Oxford in UK.
He then worked as a
postdoctoral researcher at the
University of Florence, Italy, with Giampietro Ramponi as a supervisor (2000–2002) and at the
University of Cambridge, UK, under the supervision of
Chris Dobson (2002).
Research and career
He was appointed as an
Associate (2002) and then
Full Professor (2010) at the
University of Florence in
Biochemistry.
Chiti provided contributions in the field of
misfolding and
aggregation
Aggregation may refer to:
Business and economics
* Aggregation problem (economics)
* Purchasing aggregation, the joining of multiple purchasers in a group purchasing organization to increase their buying power
* Community Choice Aggregation, the ...
, particularly in the field of
amyloid He rationalized how
amino acid mutations
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, mi ...
induce protein aggregation and edited an equation to predict the effect of mutations on the aggregation of an unfolded protein, which led to a search by many investigators of algorithms with predictive power on essential aspects of protein aggregation. He also correlated the toxicities of abnormal protein oligomers with specific structural properties of them. His 2006 review with
Chris Dobson on protein misfolding, amyloid formation and human disease, later updated as a new report, is a reference paper in the field of amyloid and received, as of October 2019, more than four thousands citations in scientific publications.
Awards and honors
* Election to
EMBO Young Investigator program,
European Molecular Biology Organization, 2005
* Election to member of
Academia Europaea, 2015
* Jean-Francois LeFèvre Lecture,
École supérieure de biotechnologie Strasbourg
The French École supérieure de biotechnologie Strasbourg, also called European School of Biotechnology, Strasbourg (ESBS) is a scientific college situated in Illkirch (Greater Strasbourg). It was founded in 1982 as an autonomous institute within ...
, 2003
* Maria Teresa Messori Roncaglia ed Eugenio Mari Award,
Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, 2010
References
External links
Fabrizio Chiti's homepage at University of Florence
Department of Biomedical Experimental and Clinical Sciences at University of Florence
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chiti, Fabrizio
Members of Academia Europaea
Italian biochemists
Living people
Scientists from Florence
1971 births