Raffaele Ronca

Background

About Raffaele Ronca

My scientific formation began in when I first joined the laboratory of Genetics, led by Prof G La Mantia at the University of Naples Federico II working on a project aimed to study the protein-protein interaction between a tumor suppressor and a regulative subunit of the proteasome. Three years later, I moved to the laboratory of Biochemistry led by Prof Simonetta Bartolucci where I carried out my Ph.D research in Biotechnological Science. The topic of my thesis was focused on the identification and characterization of a detoxification pathway from aromatic compounds in the extremophile microorganism S. solfataricus. All the acquired know-how was fundamental for the research project I joined in 2007 as Postdoctoral fellow. I devoted in fact my research interest to the study of salivary proteins of the malaria vector Anopheles gambiae. From May to Dicember 2011 I had a consultancy contract with the Imperial College of London. In the biennium 2013 - 2015 I shifted my attention to the field of biological risk assessment. In fact, during this period my scientific interest was to get a deeper insight on the effects that organophosphate pesticides exposure can induce on human health. In September 2015 I joined again the biochemistry laboratory of prof. Bartolucci, where I worked on expression, characterization and directed evolution of new cellulolytic enzymes for the production of biofuels and fine chemicals from vegetative biomass. My research results are well documented by more than 20 publications and communications at Congress and 21 research papers on peer reviewed international journals (6 as first author). During my scientific career, I supervised the thesis of several graduated and undergraduate students. The interdisciplinary background I have acquired during my research activity, allows me to interface with scientist with different expertise, finally, a good predisposition to teamwork complete my scientific and technical background.