by PAOLO SASSONE-CORSI
Lecture
Since a very young age, Paolo Sassone-Corsi was fascinated by nature, concentrating his attention into astronomy and biology. He ended up favoring biology. The ‘DNA revolution’ was ongoing and the field of molecular biology that was beginning to be unraveled appeared to embody all fundamental facets of cellular and organismal physiology. Along his career PSC focused on understanding how genes work. All organisms adapt to the environment by readjusting their physiology and metabolism. This property, called “plasticity“, is based on changes in the activity of genes. Several studies by PSC and others have shown that there is much more to the genome than DNA sequence, permitting plasticity beyond the double helix. PSC has unraveled the intimate molecular connections that exist between cellular metabolism and gene function. Specifically, our biological clock governs all physiological rhythms, dictating the sleep-wake cycles, the timing of eating, hormonal oscillations and insurgence of a variety of pathological conditions. PSC has unraveled the molecular structure of the biological clock, tackling exciting questions off the beaten path, generating studies that explore fundamental questions in biology. These findings have extensive implications for endocrinology, pharmacology and therapeutic intervention.
Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Ph. D.
Paolo Sassone-Corsi is an internationally recognized leader in the field of genetics and cell biology. His research has elucidated a remarkable variety of biological mechanisms highly relevant to the fields of endocrinology, neuroscience, metabolism and cancer. After the Genetics Ph.D. in Italy, he moved to France where he became Director of Research and began his independent research career. In 2006 moved to the University of California as Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacology. He is an endowed Donald Bren Professor and Director of the Center for Epigenetics and Metabolism. He is also Member of the Max-Planck Institute, the most prestigious scientific society in Germany. He has been awarded many prizes, including the EMBO Gold Medal, the highest recognition for a European molecular biologist. He has been also awarded the Charles-Leopold Meyer Prize od the Academie des Sciences (Paris), the Edwin Astwood Award and the Roy O. Greep Award of the Endocrine Society (USA), the CNRS Medal (France), the Grand Prix Bettencourt for Medical Research and the Endocrine Prize of the Ipsen Foundation. In 2013 he authored the book ‘Ti sembra il Caso?’ (Feltrinelli), an exchange of letters with his friend Erri de Luca, a highly influential Italian writer.