AFFILIATION:
Magnetic Resonance Center and Department of Chemistry
University of Florence

ADDRESS:
Via L. Sacconi 6
50019 Sesto Fiorentino, (FI) 
Italy

CONTACTS:
Tel: +39 055 4574296
e-mail: luchinat[at]cerm.unifi.it; claudio.luchinat[at]unifi.it

RESEARCH PROFILES:
ORCID_ID profile
Google scholar profile
University of Florence page

Full Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florence, co-founder and former Director of the Center of Magnetic Resonance (CERM), co-founder and present Director and President of the Interuniversity Consortium on Magnetic Resonance of Metallo Proteins (CIRMMP).
His research interests include bioinorganic chemistry, structural biology, development of NMR-based structural methodologies in solution and in the solid state, metalloproteins and metalloenzymes, spectroscopy, theory of electron and nuclear relaxation, NMR of paramagnetic species, relaxometry, contrast agents and NMR-based analytical methods in general. Particularly worth mentioning are his recent studies on the integration of structural techniques, where he has shown that simultaneous refinement of X-ray and NMR data can lead to i) a significant increase of accuracy of the resulting structural data and ii) a robust strategy to assess if structural differences exist for a biomolecule between solution and crystalline state. He has also significantly contributed to the theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP), both in solids and in liquids. DNP is a promising strategy to enhance the sensitivity of the NMR experiment, possibly transforming NMR into a completely new technique for the investigation of biological systems in ways that would have been unconceivable only a few years ago.
Starting from 2008, his research has been also directed towards metabolomics, aiming at obtaining the metabolic profiles of biological fluids such as urines and blood using NMR spectroscopy; defining procedures for sample preparation and for the acquisition of NMR spectra; developing statistical methods for the analysis of the data; and correlating the metabolic profiles with pathophysiological characteristics of the subjects studied. The results of this research, published in international journals, have been cited several times not only in specialized literature but also in other sectors, in books, websites and also in non-specialist press. Claudio Luchinat has become one of the international reference points for metabolomics, and is invited to give plenary lectures on the topic at conferences both specialized and in other sectors. He is invited as a keynote speaker from research laboratories in various countries around the world, and invited to inaugurate new research centers and research infrastructures.

Full CV

RESEARCH FIELDS:

Structural Biology, Theoretical developments, metabolomics, relaxometry.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Bellomo, G., Paciotti, S., Concha-Marambio, L. et al. Cerebrospinal fluid lipoproteins inhibit α-synuclein aggregation by interacting with oligomeric species in seed amplification assays. Mol Neurodegeneration, 2023, 18, 20. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-023-00613-8 (IF 18.897)

Rizzo D, Cerofolini L, Giuntini S, Iozzino L, Pergola C, Sacco F, Palmese A, Ravera E, Luchinat C, Baroni F, Fragai M. Epitope Mapping and Binding Assessment by Solid-State NMR Provide a Way for the Development of Biologics under the Quality by Design Paradigm. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c03232. J Am Chem Soc. 2022,144, 10006-10016. (IF 16.383)

Meoni G, Tenori L, Schade S, Licari C, Pirazzini C, Bacalini MG, Garagnani P, Turano P; PROPAG-AGEING Consortium, Trenkwalder C, Franceschi C, Mollenhauer B, Luchinat C. Metabolite and lipoprotein profiles reveal sex-related oxidative stress imbalance in de novo drug-naive Parkinson's disease patients doi: 10.1038/s41531-021-00274-8. NPJ Parkinsons Dis. 2022; 8, 14. (IF. 9.304).

Parigi G, Ravera E, Luchinat C. Paramagnetic effects in NMR for protein structures and ensembles: Studies of metalloproteins. Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2022, 102386. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102386. (IF 7.786)

Wang Z, Pisano S, Ghini V, Kadeřávek P, Zachrdla M, Pelupessy P, Kazmierczak M, Marquardsen T, Tyburn J-M, Bouvignies G, Parigi G, Luchinat C, Ferrage F, Detection of metabolite-protein interactions in complex biological samples by high-resolution relaxometry: towards interactomics by NMR, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 143, 9393–9404, 2021.

Ravera E, Gigli L, Suturina EA, Calderone V, Fragai M, Parigi G, Luchinat C, A high-resolution view of the coordination environment in a paramagnetic metalloprotein from its magnetic properties, Angew. Chem.-Int. Edit. 60, 14960-14966, 2021.

Rathner P, Fahrner M, Cerofolini L, Grabmayr H, Horvath F, Krobath H, Gupta A, Ravera E, Fragai M, Bechmann M, Renger T, Luchinat C, Romanin C, and Müller, Interhelical interactions within the STIM1 CC1 domain modulate CRAC channel activation. Nat. Chem. Biol. 17, 196-204, 2021.

Parigi G, Ravera, E, Fragai, M, Luchinat C, Unveiling protein dynamics in solution with field-cycling NMR relaxometry, Prog. NMR Spectr. 124, 85-98, 2021.

Ghini V, Abuja PM, Polasek O, Kozera L, Laiho P, Anton G, Zins M, Klovins J, Metspalu A, Wichmann HE, Gieger C, Luchinat C, Zatloukal K, Turano P. Metabolomic Fingerprints in Large Population Cohorts: Impact of Preanalytical Heterogeneity. Clin. Chem. 67, 1153-1155, 2021.

McLeod S.M., Robison L., Parigi G., Olszewski A., Drout R.J., Gong X., Islamoglu T., Luchinat C., Farha O.K., Meade T.J., Maximizing Magnetic Resonance Contrast in Gd(III) Nanoconjugates: Investigation of Proton Relaxation in Zirconium Metal−Organic Frameworks, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 12, 41157-41166, 2020.

Lang, L, Ravera, E.; Parigi, G.; Luchinat, C.; Neese, F, Solution of a Puzzle: High-Level Quantum-Chemical Treatment of Pseudocontact Chemical Shifts Confirms Classic Semiempirical Theory, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 11, 8735–8744, 2020.

Bruno F, Francischello R, Bellomo G, Gigli L, Flori A, Menichetti L, Tenori L, Luchinat C, Ravera E. Multivariate Curve Resolution for 2D Solid-State NMR spectra, Anal. Chem. 92:4451-4458, 2020.

Vignoli, A.; Muraro, E.; Miolo, G.; Tenori, L.; Turano, P.; Di Gregorio, E.; Steffan, A.; Luchinat, C.; Corona, G. Effect of Estrogen Receptor Status on Circulatory Immune and Metabolomics Profiles of Her2-Positiv Breast Cancer Patients Enrolled for Neoadjuvant Targeted Chemotherapy, Cancers 12, 314, 2020.

Li H, Parigi G, Luchinat C, Meade TJ. Bimodal Fluorescence-Magnetic Resonance Contrast Agent for Apoptosis Imaging, J.Am.Chem.Soc., 141, 6224-6233, 2019.

Vignoli A, Tenori L, Giusti B, Takis PG, Valente S, Carrabba N, Balzi D, Barchielli A, Marchionni N, Gensini GF, Marcucci R, Luchinat C, Gori AM. NMR-based metabolomics identifies patients at high risk of death within two years after acute myocardial infarction in the AMI-Florence II cohort, BMC Med., 17, 3, 2019.

Vignoli A, Ghini V, Meoni G, Licari C, Takis PG, Tenori L, Turano P, Luchinat C. High-Throughput Metabolomics by 1D NMR, Angew.Chem.Int.Ed., 58, 968-994, 2019.

Rezaei-Ghaleh, N., Parigi, G., Soranno,A., Holla, A., Becker, S., Schuler, B., Luchinat, C., Zweckstetter, M. Local and Global Dynamics in Intrinsically Disordered Synuclein, Angew.Chem.Int.Ed., 57, 15262-15266, 2018.

Rumpel S, Ravera E, Sommer C, Reijerse E, Farès C, Luchinat C, Lubitz W, 1H NMR Spectroscopy of [FeFe] Hydrogenase: Insight into the Electronic Structure of the Active Site, J.Am.Chem.Soc., 140, 131-134, 2018.

Bellomo G, Bologna S, Gonnelli L, Ravera E, Fragai M, Lelli M, Luchinat C. Aggregation kinetics of the Aβ1-40 peptide monitored by NMR, Chem.Commun. (Camb), 7601-7604, 2018.

Liu, G., Levien, M., Karschin, N., Parigi, G., Luchinat, C., and Bennati, M., One-thousand fold enhancement of high field liquid nuclear-magnetic resonance signals at room temperature, Nat.Chem., 9, 676-680, 2017.

Takis, PG; Schaefer,H.; Spraul, M.; Luchinat,C.; Deconvoluting interrelationships between concentrations and chemical shifts in urine provides a powerful analysis tool, Nat.Comm., 8, 1662, 2017.

Giuntini, S., Balducci, E., Cerofolini, L., Ravera, E., Fragai, M., and Berti, F., Luchinat,C., Characterization of conjugation pattern in large polysaccaride-protein conjugates by NMR, Angew.Chem.Int.Ed., 56, 14997-15001, 2017.

Lal, P., Cerofolini, L., D'Agostino, VG, Zucal, C., Fuccio, C., Bonomo, I, Dassi, E., Giuntini, S., Di Maio, D., Vishwakarma, V., Preet, R., Williams, SN, Fairlamb, MS, Munk, R, Lehrmann, E, Abdelmohsen, K, Elezgarai, SR, Luchinat, C., Novellino, E., Quattrone, A., Biasini, E, Manzoni, L, Gorospe, M, Dixon, DA, Seneci, P, Marinelli, L., Fragai, M., and Provenzani, A., Regulation of HuR structure and function by dihydrotanshione-I, Nucleic Acids Res., 45, 9514–9527, 2017.

Andralojc, W., Hiruma, Y., Liu, W.-M., Ravera, E., Nojiri, M., Parigi, G., Luchinat, C., and Ubbink, M., Identification of productive and futile encounters in an electron transfer protein complex, Proc.Natl.Acad.Sci.USA, 114, E1840-E1847, 2017.

Rammohan, N., MacRenaris, K. W., Moore, L., Parigi, G., Mastarone, D. J., Manus, L. M., Lilley, L., Preslar, A., Waters, E. A., Filicko, A., Luchinat, C., Ho, D. and Meade, T.J., Nanodimond-gadolinium(III) aggregates for tracking cancer growth in vivo at high field, Nano Letters, 16: 7551–7564, 2016.

Carlon, A., Ravera, E., Hennig, J., Parigi, G., Sattler, M. and Luchinat, C., Improved accuracy from joint X-ray and NMR refinement of a protein-RNA complex structure, J.Am.Chem.Soc., 138: 1601-1610, 2016.

Ravera, E., Ciambellotti, S., Cerofolini, L., Martelli, T., Kozyreva, T., Bernacchioni, C., Giuntini, S., Fragai, M., Turano, P. and Luchinat, C., Solid-state NMR of PEGylated proteins, Angew.Chem.Int.Ed., 55: 1-5, 2016.

Benda, L., Mareš, J., Ravera, E., Parigi, G., Luchinat, C., Kaupp, M., and Vaara, J., Pseudo-contact NMR shifts over a paramagnetic metalloprotein (CoMMP-12) from first principles, Angew.Chem.Int.Ed., 55, 14713-14717, 2016.

Complete list of publications