Curriculum: Biomedical

Supervisor: Nicole Grandi

Co-Supervisor: Enzo Tramontano

Curriculum Vitae

Claudia graduated with honours in Biology at the University of Cagliari on February 26th 2019, discussing a bachelor thesis titled “Use of microdialysis applied to metabolomics studies for the analysis of neurochemical variations in specific brain areas”, under the supervision of Prof. Laura Dazzi.

She graduated with honours in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Cagliari on November 17th 2021, discussing a master thesis titled “Study of the effect of SARS-CoV-2 protein N on the innate immune response such as possible pharmacological target”, under the supervision of Prof. Enzo Tramontano. During her internship in the laboratory of Molecular Virology, she worked on the luciferase assay. In particular, this assay was used to evaluate the inhibitory action of the N protein of SARS-CoV-2 on the interferon system, specifically on the production cascade mediated by the promoter implicated in the synthesis of IFN, or on the cascade activated by the interferon signal mediated by the promoter ISRE.

Thanks to the Erasmus+ Traineeship Programme, after the graduation she spent 3 months (01/03/22 – 31/05/22) in Leuven at the Laboratory of Virology and Chemotherapy – Rega Institute-, where she worked on Human Cytomegalovirus (HCMV) and Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) type 1 and 2, members of the human herpesviruses and she used CRISPR/Cas9 to introduce different mutations to study drug-resistance when the virus is put under antiviral pressure.

In December 2022 she won a seven-months research fellowship “Isolation of cellular populations from peripheral blood of Multiple Sclerosis patients and healthy controls, RNA extraction, and next generation sequencing” at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (Supervisor: Doc. Nicole Grandi).

Subsequently, in July 2023, she won another research fellowship “Implementation of an omics platform for the study of the cellular responses to viral infections” at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (Supervisor: Prof. Enzo Tramontano).

She is currently attending the XXXIX cycle of PhD in Life, Environmental and Drugs Sciences (Biomedical Curriculum) under the supervision of Doc. Nicole Grandi with a project focused on the HERV (Human Endogenous Retrovirus) and their protein expression in Drosophila melanogaster model.

Research Topic

Evaluation of the effect of Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) Envelope proteins in a Drosophila Melanogaster model

Abstract

Claudia Cabiddu's research project aims to evaluate the effect of Human Endogenous Retrovirus (HERV) envelope proteins using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. Although most HERVs have lost their replicative capacity, they encode proteins that have been associated with various pathological states, including inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, cancer, and the cellular aging process. Specifically, HERV Env proteins have been observed to be significantly overregulated in certain tumors, suggesting their potential as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets.

The main objective is to identify how these selected HERV Env proteins can induce phenotypic modifications in Drosophila melanogaster, a simple yet effective model for studying complex mechanisms with a short life cycle. The methodology involves a literature review to select characterized HERV Env proteins, codon optimization, and plasmid synthesis to express these proteins. Subsequently, transgenic Drosophila melanogaster lines will be generated, and their mutated phenotype will be observed and characterized at a molecular level, identifying altered biological pathways and evaluating their effects on relevant human cell lines.

This study aims to confirm the contribution of selected HERV Env proteins to the development of pathologies or morphological alterations in the model. The characterization of the underlying molecular mechanisms is crucial to lay the groundwork for their future study as diagnostic biomarkers and innovative therapeutic targets.

Publications

IRIS: https://iris.unica.it/cris/rp/rp76993

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5069-469X