Topic outline

  • General information about the course

    The seminar is an introduction to the field of lipidomics which is the discipline dedicated to lipids in living organisms with a dynamic approach, following the changes of structures and functions occurring during metabolism in health and disease conditions. The course will be dedicated to fatty acids, which are constitutive elements of the majority of lipids, first explaining their structures and functions and their importance as essential elements for the cells, from the formation of cell membranes to their transformations under different metabolic and stress conditions, together with the role of nutrition.

    The seminar will cover the following topics:

    -       structure and functions of lipids;

    -       the reactivity of fatty acids under cellular stress and trans fatty acids developed as free radical biomarkers;

    -       development of fatty acid-based membrane lipidomics;

    -       membrane lipidomics as an integrated biomarker in molecular diagnostics.

    Lipids, commonly known as “fats”, occur naturally in bewildering chemical complexity. They are main components of oils, fuels and bio-membranes in living organisms and are also widely used as lubricants and detergents. Mass spectrometry has become a powerful approach for systems level scale analysis of lipids (lipidomics).

    The key objective of this training course is to provide an effective primer to mass spectrometry based lipidomics. The format is intensive (1 day with lectures on the morning of the first day followed by practical demonstrations in the afternoon of the second day), integrated (entire workflow from sample preparation to data interpretation), interactive (small groups, 3 tutors/10-12 participants).

    Click here to download CLASS SCHEDULE

    CHATGILIALOGLU CHRYSSOSTOMOS

    Research Director

    Istituto per la sintesi organica e la fotoreattività

    e-mail: chrys@isof.cnr.it



    ABOUT

    Chryssostomos Chatgilialoglu was born in 1952 in Nikea (Greece) where he grew up and went to school until the age of 18. He went to Italy for University studies and received a doctorate degree in chemistry from the University of Bologna in 1976. In 1977, he moved to England for two years postdoctoral appointment at York University (1977- 1979, Professor R.O.C. Norman) and in 1999 he moved to Canada for three years as research associate at the National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa (1980-1982, Professor K.U. Ingold). In 1983, he joined the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Bologna (Italy) where he has been Research Director since 1991. In March 2014 he was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at the NCSR “Demokritos” in Athens (Greece) and from May 2015 he served as the vice-President of the NCSR “Demokritos”. In June 2016 he moved back to Bologna, to his Research Director position at the ISOF institute, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. He is Co-Founder and President of the spin-off company Lipinutragen.


    RESEARCH ACTIVITY

    The Chatgilialoglu’s research group is active in the field of free radical chemistry addressed to applications in life sciences. In the recent years, he developed biomimetic chemistry of radical stress and related biomarkers. The discovery of endogenous formation of trans-lipids, research on cyclopurine DNA lesions and fatty acid-based lipidomics attracted worldwide attention. He is responsible for introducing tris(trimethylsilyl)silane (TTMSS) as radical-based reducing agent and for this he was the winner of the Fluka Prize “Reagent of the Year 1990”.

    He had responsible functions within international projects, including Director of two NATO Advanced Study Institute on Sulfur-Centered Reactive Intermediates in Chemistry and Biology (June 1989) and on Chemical Synthesis: Gnosis to Prognosis (May 1994); Chairman of the COST Action CM0603 on Free Radicals in Chemical Biology (2007–2011) and of the COST Action CM1201 on Biomimetic Radical Chemistry (2013–2016); Principal Investigator in various Framework Programs of the European Commission, comprising Horizon 2020 projects: ClickGene (2015–2018); Supervisor of more than 15 PhD students and more than 30 Postdoctoral fellows, including three Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships and three Marie Curie Research Training Networks.

    He was invited as Guest-Editor for Special Issues in several scientific journals and invited speaker over 240 times at congresses and institutions.


    PUBBLICATIONS

    He is the author or co-author of more than 260 publications in peer-reviewed journals (From Web of Science: over 9,000 citations, h-index 46), 34 book chapters, 6 patents, and 7 books (3 as author and 4 edited); Author of the monograph Organosilanes in Radical Chemistry, Wiley 2004; Co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Radicals in Chemistry, Biology and Materials (4 volumes), Wiley 2012; Co-author of the Membrane Lipidomics for Personalized Health, Wiley 2015.

    For the list of publications in peer-reviewed journals, view ORCID

    For the list of all publications, view ResearcherID



    CARLA FERRERI

    Laurea degree in Medicinal Chemistry and a post-graduate specialty in Hospital Pharmacy, started working in the field of organic synthesis joining in 1983 the group of Prof. E. Wenkert at the University of San Diego, California. In 1984 she was appointed as permanent staff (researcher; assistant professor) in the Organic and Biological Chemistry Department at the University of Napoli until 2001, when she moved to the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bologna. At present, she is Senior Researcher at ISOF, CNR, Bologna and her present research interests are in the fields of free radical chemistry, biomimetic chemistry of stress conditions affecting the main biological molecules (lipids, DNA, proteins), membrane lipidomics, biomarker discovery and novel nanotechnology development with application in life sciences, nutrition and molecular medicine. She is responsible of the CNR research project on lipidomics and nutraceuticals, co-founder and Scientific Director of the spin-off company in Italy LIPINUTRAGEN, consultant for companies and for AZTI, a Spanish organization in the TechnoPark of Bilbao, on nutra-innovation. She won the 2010 pize for the Best Woman Innovetor in Italy. She is author of more than 170 papers, 2 books and 3 patents.




  • Session 1 - The lipid classes and fatty acids as principal components: an overview of structures, functions and the main physiological /pathological roles

  • Session 2 - Fatty acid-based membrane lipidomics: the concept of membrane remodeling applied to molecular diagnostics