The indian doctor Pratiksha Kavade was selected for the oral presentation of her PhD project in Translational Medicine and, following the presentation, she has been awarded both the prize for the best research reserved to PhD students from abroad, assigned by the examining faculty committee, and the one assigned directly by her fellow PhD students of the Translational Medicine course at the Vanvitelli University. The award ceremony took place on December 17, at the University headquarters in Naples, during the PhD Day, an event of discussion and sharing of knowledge and experiences among PhD students.
Specifically, the awarded research project aims to discover the molecular mechanisms through which the CBX2 gene influences organogenesis in zebrafish, a small freshwater fish, which is an excellent model for such studies. Through the inactivation of the CBX2 transcript, Dr. Kavade was able to demonstrate in vivo how a key epigenetic regulator such as CBX2 specifically controls gene expression during the early stages of development.
The applications of this work, carried out at the Biogem Epigenetics laboratory, directed by professors Lucia Altucci and Vincenzo Carafa, are expected to be far-reaching. In fact, an advancement of knowledge in developmental biology and the identification of congenital disorders linked to dysfunctions of the CBX2 gene are at stake.
<<More generally – outlines professor Altucci – this study could make it possible to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of our body epigenetic regulation, both in good health and in disease>>.
Pratiksha Kavade, who has been daily engaged in the Biogem laboratories for over two years, has had the scientific support of professor Concetta Ambrosino, head of the Genetically Modified Animal and Cellular Models research area, and of the staff of the area that she coordinates. A fundamental contribution that confirms the ‘choral’ value of the main studies carried out in the Ariano research center, increasingly attracting brains from every corner of the world.
