Curriculum: Biomedical

Supervisor: Angela Corona

Co-Supervisor: Nicole Grandi

Curriculum Vitae

Sara received her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with honors in 2021, presenting a thesis titled “Genetic Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Sequences Circulating in the Nosocomial Context”, under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Grandi. She subsequently completed her Master’s degree in Advanced Cellular Studies, graduating with honors in 2023. Her thesis, also supervised by Prof. Grandi, was entitled “Differential Expression Analysis of HERVs in RNA-seq of Patients Affected by Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia at Diagnosis and After TKI Therapy.” During her Master’s studies, she participated in the Erasmus Traineeship program at the University of Copenhagen, collaborating with Prof. Claus Desler. There, she worked on the project “Characterization of HERV-K Expression in Induced Senescence by qPCR, Western Blot, and Cell Surface Flow Cytometry (in order of appearance depending on progress rate), with the potential analysis of ERV-K in Induced Cancer Models Based on p53 Gain-of-Function.”

Following her graduation in 2024, she was awarded a research fellowship on the project “Implementation of an Omics Platform for Studying Cellular Responses Against Various Viral Infections,” under the supervision of Prof. Nicole Grandi and Prof. Enzo Tramontano, at the Laboratory of Molecular Virology, Department of Life and Environmental Sciences.

She is currently a PhD student in the PhD Program in Life, Environmental and Drug Sciences, under the supervision of Prof. Angela Corona and co-supervision of Prof. Nicole Grandi. Her PhD project focuses on characterizing the impact of West Nile Virus (WNV) infection on cellular processes, with a focus on mitochondrial metabolism.

Research Topic

Impact of the West Nile Virus (WNV) infection in the human cell, focusing on mitochondria metabolism

Abstract

Sara Piras's PhD project investigates the impact of West Nile Virus (WNV) infection on cellular metabolism, with a particular focus on mitochondria. WNV, a flavivirus, modulates host metabolism to enhance its replication, but the detailed mechanisms remain unclear. The research centers on analyzing nine specific metabolites identified as modulated in WNV-infected BEAS-2B cells.

The objective is to explore the role of these metabolites in viral infection and the interactions between cellular and viral proteins. Mitochondria are recognized as crucial for cellular physiology and antiviral innate immune response. The project aims to characterize the morphological and metabolic modifications induced by the virus in this organelle.

The methodology includes a bioinformatic research phase to outline the state of the art in Flavivirus metabolomics and mitochondrial role, predicting protein interactions. Subsequently, the in vitro phase involves overexpression and knockout experiments of target proteins to determine if metabolite modulation plays an antiviral or proviral role. Mitochondrial bioenergetics analyses will be conducted. Interaction between selected viral and cellular proteins will be verified via immunoprecipitation. This study aims to provide a deep understanding of WNV infection mechanisms and to contribute to the discovery of new targets for the development of antiviral therapies.

Publications

IRIS: https://iris.unica.it/cris/rp/rp71321

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0347-5930

Conference Contributions

> 2024

Piras S., Monne M., Piras G., Cusano R., Uras A., Murineddu M., Murgia A., Palmas A.D., Tramontano E., Grandi N. – 7th Summer School on Innovative Approaches for the Identification of Antiviral Agents- September 2024.

Poster title “Differential Expression Analysis of HERVs in RNA-seq of Patients Affected by Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Chronic Myeloid Leukemia at Diagnosis and After TKI Therapy.”