AFFILIATION:
Magnetic Resonance Center and Department of Chemistry

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

CONTACTS:
Tel: +39 055 4574245
e-mail: eluchinat[at]cerm.unifi.it
enrico.luchinat[at]unifi.it

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

Enrico Luchinat was born in 1985. He graduated in 2007 with a B.Sc. in Chemistry cum laude and in 2009 with a M.Sc. in Chemistry of Biological Molecules cum laude at the University of Florence. In 2013, he obtained a Ph.D. in the International Doctorate of Mechanistic and Structural Systems Biology at the same University, under the supervision of Prof. Lucia Banci. He has been Postdoctoral fellow (2013-2019) at the Department of Experimental and Clinical Biochemical Sciences and Research fellow at NEUROFARBA Department (2020-2021). In 2022, he joined the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Technologies at the Bologna University as RTDa Junior Assistant Professor, and in 2024 he joined the Chemistry Department of the University of Florence as Tenure-track Assistant Professor (RTDb).
His research focuses on the development and application of in-cell NMR spectroscopic tools to study protein structure, dynamics and interactions at the atomic level inside intact, living cells. During his Ph.D., he contributed to pioneer an approach based on the direct expression of isotope-labeled proteins in cultured human cells, which allows studying protein folding and maturation processes at the residue-level. He contributed to develop a modular flow NMR bioreactor capable of preserving cell viability for several days, and applied it to monitor intracellular events in real time. He is currently focusing on the study of intracellular protein-ligand interactions, both by protein- and ligand-observe in-cell NMR approaches. He is currently developing novel labeling schemes for human cells, based on the incorporation of fluorinated amino acids and the use of labelled amino acid precursors. Combined together, these tools provide unique structural and mechanistic insights in a highly physiological cellular setting.

He has co-authored more than 45 peer-reviewed publications and has been invited as speaker at more than 30 international conferences and virtual events. In 2020, he was awarded the GIDRM Under-35 Award for the development of innovative in-cell NMR approaches.

Full CV

RESEARCH FIELDS:

In-cell NMR; protein structure; folding and maturation; metalloproteins; protein-ligand interactions.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:

Rosati, M.; Barbieri, L.; Hlavac, M.; Kratzwald, S.; Lichtenecker, R. J.; Konrat, R.; Luchinat, E.; Banci, L. Towards Cost-Effective Side-Chain Isotope Labelling of Proteins Expressed in Human Cells. J Biomol NMR 2024, 78 (4), 237–247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10858-024-00447-6.

Luchinat, E.; Barbieri, L.; Davis, B.; Brough, P. A.; Pennestri, M.; Banci, L. Ligand-Based Competition Binding by Real-Time ¹⁹F NMR in Human Cells. J. Med. Chem. 2024, 67 (2), 1115–1126. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c01600.

Pham, L. B. T.; Costantino, A.; Barbieri, L.; Calderone, V.; Luchinat, E.; Banci, L. Direct Expression of Fluorinated Proteins in Human Cells for ¹⁹F In-Cell NMR Spectroscopy. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145 (2), 1389–1399. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.2c12086.

Luchinat, E.; Barbieri, L.; Cremonini, M.; Pennestri, M.; Nocentini, A.; Supuran, C. T.; Banci, L. Determination of Intracellular Protein-Ligand Binding Affinity by Competition Binding in-Cell NMR. Acta Crystallogr. D Struct. Biol. 2021, 77 (Pt 10), 1270–1281. https://doi.org/10.1107/s2059798321009037.

Luchinat, E.; Barbieri, L.; Cremonini, M.; Nocentini, A.; Supuran, C. T.; Banci, L. Drug Screening in Human Cells by NMR Spectroscopy Allows the Early Assessment of Drug Potency. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2020, 59 (16), 6535–6539. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201913436.

Luchinat, E.; Barbieri, L.; Campbell, T. F.; Banci, L. Real-Time Quantitative In-Cell NMR: Ligand Binding and Protein Oxidation Monitored in Human Cells Using Multivariate Curve Resolution. Anal. Chem. 2020, 92 (14), 9997–10006. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c01677.

Luchinat, E.; Barbieri, L.; Rubino, J. T.; Kozyreva, T.; Cantini, F.; Banci, L. In-Cell NMR Reveals Potential Precursor of Toxic Species from SOD1 fALS Mutants. Nat Commun 2014, 5, 5502. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6502.

Banci, L.; Barbieri, L.; Bertini, I.; Luchinat, E.; Secci, E.; Zhao, Y.; Aricescu, A. R. Atomic-Resolution Monitoring of Protein Maturation in Live Human Cells by NMR. Nat. Chem. Biol. 2013, 9 (5), 297–299. https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.1202.