Giuseppe Nicastro

Giuseppe Nicastro graduated in Chemistry at the University of Florence (Italy) and received a PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Padua (Italy). Afterwards he has been: a postdoc at the Division of Structural Biology in the NMR Laboratory of Pharmacia & UpJohn, Nerviano-Milan (Italy) and at the University of Parma (Italy); visiting scientist at EMBL-Heidelberg (Germany); post-doc and investigator scientist in the Division of Molecular Structure of  NIMR-MRC (London-UK) that became part of the Francis Crick Institute in 2015. He is based at the Francis Crick Institute in the Ian Taylor lab as Senior Laboratory research scientist. His research interests are mainly related to the applications of NMR spectroscopy to the study of the structure and function of viral proteins and their interactions.

RESEARCH FIELDS:

NMR; structural biology; biophysics; RNA binding-proteins; protein-protein interactions

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Acton O, Grant T, Nicastro G, Ball NJ, Goldstone DC, Robertson LE, Sader K, Nans A, Ramos A, Stoye JP, Taylor IA, Rosenthal PB. Structural basis for Fullerene geometry in a human endogenous retrovirus capsid. Nat Commun. 2019 Dec 20;10(1):5822. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13786-y.

Nicastro G, Candel AM, Uhl M, Oregioni A, Hollingworth D, Backofen R, Martin SR, Ramos A. Mechanism of b-actin mRNA Recognition by ZBP1. Cell Rep. 2017 18(5):1187-1199.

Ball NJ, Nicastro G, Dutta M, Pollard DJ, Goldstone DC, Sanz-Ramos M, Ramos A, Müllers E, Stirnnagel K, Stanke N, Lindemann D, Stoye JP, Taylor WR, Rosenthal PB, Taylor IA. Structure of a Spumaretrovirus Gag Central Domain Reveals an Ancient Retroviral Capsid. PLoS Pathog. (2016) ;12(11):e1005981.

Nicastro G, García-Mayoral MF, Hollingworth D, Kelly G, Martin SR, Briata P, Gherzi R, Ramos A. Non-canonical G recognition mediates KSRP regulation of let-7 biogenesis. Nat Struct Mol Biol. (2012), 19(12):1282-6.

Nicastro G., Sokol V. Karaca TE, Bonvin A M J J., Paulson HL, and Pastore A. Understanding the Role of the Josephin Domain in the PolyUb Binding and Cleavage Properties of Ataxin-3. PLoS ONE (2010) 5(8) e12430 doi:10.1371

Nicastro G., Masino L., Esposito V., Menon R.P., A. De Simone, F. Fraternali and Pastore A. The josephin domain of ataxin-3 contains two distinct ubiquitin binding sites. Biopolymers (2009) 91(12), 1203-1214.

Nicastro G., Habeck M., Masino L., Svergun D., and Pastore A. Structure validation of the Josephin domain of ataxin-3: Conclusive evidence for an open conformation Journal of Biomolecular NMR, (2006) 34, 267-277.

Nicastro G., Menon R.P., Masino L., Knowles P.P., McDonald N.Q. and Pastore A. The solution structure of the Josephin domain of ataxin-3: structural determinants for molecular recognition Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2005), 102, 10493-10498.