Clocks & Rhythms with Paolo Sassone-Corsi interviewed by Jan Witkowski

Paolo Sassone-Corsi is Distinguished Professor and the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of... » More

Paolo Sassone-Corsi is Distinguished Professor and the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine. Before his move to California in 2006, he was Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS, Strasbourg, France. After graduating in Genetics at the University of Naples, Italy, he went on to two post-doctoral trainings, the first at the Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France and then at The Salk Institute, San Diego, California. Sassone-Corsi's major interest is concentrated on the mechanisms of signal transduction able to modulate nuclear functions and, in particular gene expression, chromatin remodeling and epigenetic control. The stimulation of intracellular pathways and the activation of specific protein kinases lead to transcriptional regulation by changes in the phosphorylation state of nuclear factors. These act as final targets of different pathways and modulate expression from specific regulatory sites. The strength of these studies is particularly evident within physiological settings, specifically the molecular control of circadian rhythms and the differentiation of male germ cells. The recent finding that a central element of the mammalian circadian system, the protein CLOCK, has histone acetylatransferase activity establishes an important link between the circadian clock, chromatin remodeling and cellular metabolism. Sassone-Corsi has received many awards, including the EMBO Gold Medal, the Charles-Leopold Mayer Prize of the Academie des Sciences (France) and the Edwin B. Astwood Award of the Endocrine Society (USA). « Hide