Felice Tirone, Laurea (1979) and PhD (obtained in 1987)

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Felice Tirone at the beginning of his career has performed studies of neurochemistry at the University of Milan, Department of Pharmacology, during his experimental thesis for the degree in Biological Sciences and for a period as Ph.D student, in the laboratory of A.Groppetti. During this period he has contributed to clarify issues concerning the function of neuronal dopaminergic and serotoninergic circuits of central nervous system.

Since 1986 he has developed the interest for gene regulation during the development of the nervous system, a topic that he investigated for three and half years (end 1985 to beginning 1989) in the laboratory of Eric Shooter, at the Dept. of Neurobiology della Stanford University, USA.

During that period and after 1989 in Italy, in his own laboratory in the new Institute founded by Rita Levi-Montalcini at the National Research Council in Rome, he has isolated several new immediate early genes, namely PC4/IFRD1, PC1/Egr1, PC3/BTG2/TIS21, and PC3B, and others, induced at the onset of neuronal and muscle differentiation. F.Tirone and his laboratory have extensively investigated the role of these genes in several neuronal and non-neuronal cellular models, defining their regulatory function in cellular differentiation and cell cycle control.
Achievements of F.Tirone laboratory are the identification of a novel checkpoint of the cell cycle G1 phase, represented by the gene PC3/Tis21, which acts by inhibiting pRb through down-regulation of cyclin D1 transcription. And, more recently, the demonstration of the functional and molecular role of PC3/Tis21 during neurogenesis, as positive regulator of the maturation of neuroblasts of the neural tube as well as of precursors of cerebellar granule neurons, through a combined control of cell cycle and of the proneural gene Math1. Corollaries of the antiproliferative cyclin D1-mediated and pro-differentiative actions of PC3 on neural progenitors, are the finding that PC3/Tis21 protects from apoptosis mature neurons deprived of trophic factors, and also the important recent finding that PC3/Tis21 acts as physiological tumor-suppressor of medulloblastoma - the tumor of cerebellum - by controlling the proliferation of cerebellar progenitors. The present interest is the adult neurogenesis and its mechanisms.
F.Tirone and his laboratory have moreover shown that the gene IFRD1/PC4 is the prototype member of a novel family of genes and that its expression is required for the differentiation of the muscle cell, identifying the mechanism by which IFRD1/PC4 acts - through the control of a specific step in the cascade of myogenic factors controlled by MyoD.

Further information on F. Tirone scientific activity and publications is available at the web site: http://www.inmm.cnr.it/tirone/


EDUCATION/TRAINING:
1972 Graduated from High School
1973-79 Degree in Biological Sciences, University of Milan (cum laude). Thesis: "Effect of intracerebroventricular administration of Met- and Leu-Enkephalin on the electroencephalographic activity of the rat." Cum laude.
1981-83 Diploma of Specialization in Pharmacology, University of Milan (cum laude). Thesis: "Effect of opiates on the adenylate cyclase activity in the rat striatum."
1983-87 Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxycology, University of Milan and Stanford University.


Publications with Eric Shooter:

Tirone F, Shooter EM. 1989. Early gene regulation by nerve growth factor in PC12 cells: induction of an interferon-related gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 86:2088-2092.

Bradbury A, Possenti R, Shooter EM, Tirone F. 1991. Molecular cloning of PC3, a putatively secreted protein whose mRNA is induced by nerve growth factor and depolarization. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 88:3353-3357.

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Mean distance: 15.79 (cluster 11)

Cross-listing: Chemistry Tree - Cell Biology Tree