Education

2002
Doctor of Philosophy inMolecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
University of Colorado at Boulder _ Boulder, CO (USA)
Dissertation: NeuroD interaction with HAP1 and MLK2: Huntingtin as a scaffold for NeuroD signalling.

1996
CSHL Course: Early Development of Xenopus lævis
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory _ Cold Spring Harbor, NY (USA)

1995
Dottore in Scienze Biologiche, Valedictorian
University of Pavia _ Pavia, PV (ITA)
Dissertation: N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide: A potent inducer of apoptosis in human neuroblastoma cells.

1994
EU Course: Developmental and Functional Aspects of Human Brain
University of Udine _ Udine, UD (ITA)

1992
Erasmus Course: Molecular Approaches to Genetic Analysis
University of Paris VII _ Paris (FRA)

Research experience

2008-Present Senior Research Fellow
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)
Concentration: Generation and initial phenotypic characterization of a novel mouse
model to study the effects of wild-typeHuntingtin gene inactivation in the adult brain

2003-2008 Postdoctoral Scholar
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)
Supervisor: Prof. Mary B. Kennedy
Concentration: Normal function of Huntingtin in synapses; defective synapse-tonucleus
transport of NF-_B in the molecular pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease.

1996-2002 Graduate Student Researcher
University of Colorado at Boulder _ Boulder, CO (USA)
Supervisor: Prof. Jackie E. Lee
Concentration: NeuroD protein-protein interactions; post-translation control ofNeuroD
activity; NeuroD signaling and Huntington’s disease.

1995-1996 Research Scholar
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center _ Denver, CO (USA)
Supervisor: Prof. Jackie E. Lee
Concentration: NeuroD expression pattern in the developing and adult mouse.

1993-1995 Undergraduate Student Researcher
University of Pavia _ Pavia, PV (ITA)
Supervisor: Prof. Giuliano Della Valle
Concentration: Use of retinoids for the treatment of neuroblastoma.

Teaching experience

2008 Mentor
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)
Course: Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
Student: Martina DeSalvo (UC Berkeley)
Project: Generation and initial phenotypic characterization of a novel mouse model to study the effects of wild-type Huntingtin gene inactivation in the adult brain.

2007 Mentor
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)
Course: Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
Student: Martina DeSalvo (UC Berkeley)
Project: Development of a novel synapse-to-nucleus transport assay to probe the normal function of Huntingtin and its role in the etiology of Huntington’s disease.

2006 Mentor
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)
Course: Caltech Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
Student: John Yong (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Project: Development of a Huntingtin knock-down model in primary neuronal cultures to study wild-type Huntingtin function.

2001-2002 Mentor
University of Colorado at Boulder _ Boulder, CO (USA)
Course: MCDB Departmental Undergraduate Honors Program (UROP)
Student: ZhiMao (CU Boulder)
Project: Generation of a Huntingtin-associated protein 1 (HAP1) mouse knock-out model by gene targeting.

1997 Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor
University of Colorado at Boulder _ Boulder, CO (USA)
Course: Developmental Biology, MCDB Undergraduate Program
Lecturer: Prof. William B.Wood

1997 Teaching Assistant and Lab Instructor
University of Colorado at Boulder _ Boulder, CO (USA)
Course: Cell Biology, MCDB Undergraduate Program
Lecturer: Prof. Bradley B. Olwin

Professional experience

1989-1993 Director, Computer Operations and Software Development
Plastovacuum _ Varese, VA (ITA)
Concentration: Management of computer, networking, database, and backup systems;
development of office automation and accounting software.

Grants and awards

2008 High Q Discovery Initiative Research Grant (investigator)
High Q Foundation _ New York, NY (USA)
Project: Generation and initial phenotypic characterization of a novel mouse model to study the effects of wild-type Huntingtin gene inactivation in the adult brain.

2007 HDSA Research Grant (co-investigator)
Huntington’s Disease Society of America _ New York, NY (USA)
Project: NF-_B signaling from synapse to nucleus in Huntington’s Disease.

2005-2006 E. S. Gosney Postdoctoral Fellowship (recipient)
California Institute of Technology _ Pasadena, CA (USA)

2003-2004 MiltonWexler Award (recipient)
Hereditary Disease Foundation _ New York, NY (USA)

2003-2004 John J.Wasmuth Postdoctoral Fellowship (recipient)
Hereditary Disease Foundation _ New York, NY (USA)
Project: Normal function of Huntingtin in synapses.

Selected publications

2008 Marcora E, Kennedy MB
A novel function of Htt in the transport of active NF-_B from the synapse to the nucleus is impaired in Huntington’s Disease.
Nature Neuroscience (in review)

2008 Marcora E, Carlisle HJ, Kennedy MB
The role of the postsynaptic density and the spine cytoskeleton in synaptic plasticity.
Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, Elsevier, edited by Byrne JH, Eichenbaum H,Menzel R, Roediger H and Sweatt D ISBN: 0123705045 (in press)

2008 Carlisle HJ,Manzerra P,Marcora E, Kennedy MB
SynGAP regulates steady-state and activity-dependent phosphorylation of cofilin.
Journal of Neuroscience 28(50):13673-13683

2008 Kennedy MB,Marcora E, Carlisle HJ
Scaffold proteins in the postsynaptic density.
Structural and Functional Organization of the Synapse, Springer, edited by Hell JW and Ehlers MD ISBN: 0387772316

2005 Marcora E, Jamitzky F
Implementing an ImageJ plugin in Jython.
PythonCookbook, 2nd ed., O’Reilly, edited byMartelli A, Ravenscroft A and AscherD ISBN: 0596007973

2005 Itkin-Ansari P,Marcora E,Geron I, Tyrberg B,Demeterco C,Hao E, Padilla C, Ratineau C, Leiter A, Lee JE, Levine F
NeuroD1 in the endocrine pancreas: localization and dual function as an activator and repressor.
Developmental Dynamics 233(3):946–53

2005 Dufton C, Marcora E, Chae JH, McCullough J, Eby J, Hausburg M, Stein GH, Khoo S, Cobb MH, Lee JE
Context-dependent regulation of NeuroD activity and protein accumulation.
Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience 28(4):727-36

2003 Marcora E and Lee JE
NeuroD interaction with HAP1 and MLK2: Huntingtin as a scaffold for NeuroD signalling.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100(16):9578–83

1999 Sharma A,Moore M,Marcora E, Lee JE, Qiu Y, Samaras S, Stein R
The NeuroD1/BETA2 sequences essential for insulin gene transcription colocalize with those necessary for neurogenesis and p300/CREB binding protein binding.
Molecular and Cellular Biology 19(1):704-13

1997 Marcora E and Lee JE
The expression pattern of NeuroD suggests it plays a role in the development of neural, endocrine, and neuroendocrine structures.
Developmental Biology 186(300):A220

1994 Mariotti Ax,Marcora Ex, Bunone G, Costa A, Veronesi U, Pierotti MA and Della Valle G x equal contribution
N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)retinamide: A potent inducer of apoptosis in human neuroblastoma cells.
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 86(16):1245-7

Invited talks

2008 Biology Department Seminar Series, Penn State
University Park, PA (USA)

2008 Neuroscience 2008, 38th AnnualMeeting of the Society for Neuroscience
Washington, DC (USA)

2008 Neuroscience Research Colloquia, The Brain Research Centre, University of British
Columbia Vancouver, BC (CA)

2008 41st Winter Conference on Brain Research
Snowbird, UT (USA)

2007 11th Annual HDSA Coalition/ScientificMeeting
Boston, MA (USA)

2007 TheMountain School of Arts: Topics in Science and Technology
Los Angeles, CA (USA)

2006 TheMountain School of Arts: Topics in Science and Technology
Los Angeles, CA (USA)

2005 Gordon Research Conference: CAG Triplet Repeat Disorders
Mount Holyoke, MA (USA)

2004 HD 2004: Changes, Advances, and Good News (CAG)n
Cambridge, MA (USA)

2003 HDF Electrophysiology and NMDAWorkshop
Playa del Rey, CA (USA)

2002 HD 2002: Changes, Advances, and Good News (CAG)n
Cambridge, MA (USA)

Professional affiliations and activities

Affiliations Society for Neuroscience (SfN)

International Brain Research Organization (IBRO)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Ad Hoc Reviewer Journal of Neurochemistry

Professional skills

Molecular and Cellular Biology Preparation and analysis of DNA (plasmid, genomic, viral and cDNA); PCR (analytical, cloning, genotyping, quantitative, real-time, and RT-PCR); enzymatic manipulation of DNA and molecular cloning; preparation and analysis of RNA; RNA interference (RNAi); construction and screening of genomic and cDNA libraries; sitedirected mutagenesis of DNA.

Preparation and analysis of proteins; design and preparation of viral particles; bacterial and insect cell protein expression; affinity protein purification; HPLC; antibody production and characterization; analysis of protein phosphorylation; analysis of protein- protein interactions (yeast two-hybrid system, coimmunoprecipitation, ELSA); in vitro kinase activity assays; transcription factor activity assays (EMSA, ELISA).

Bacterial, yeast and mammalian cell culture and transfection (including primary neuronal cultures and establishment of stable cell lines); subcellular fractionation by differential and density gradient centrifugation; immunocytochemistry; wide-field and laser confocal microscopy (including live cell imaging, photomanipulation, and image processing and analysis).

Developmental and Organismal Biology Gene targeting in mouse ES cells; injection of mRNA in Xenopus l_vis embryos; in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry (sections and whole-mount); anatomical analysis of gene expression patterns in the developing and adult mouse.

Programming Languages MSVisual Basic and ASP.NET; Java; Python/Jython; Ruby/JRuby; HTML/XML; CSS; JavaScript; JQuery; AJAX;Google App Engine; Amazon AWS; RubyOn Rails; Zope/ Plone; SQL; LATEX; ImageJ; MATLAB; GNU R.

Programming Projects (partial list)

ImageJ-Python/Ruby interface to script ImageJ (a scientific image processing and analysis tool) using Jython/JRuby ;
Plone-based LIMS for the management of transgenic mouse colonies;
Ruby-based personal web server application for the procurement, management and full-text search of scientific article reprints ;
Ruby on Rails-based LIMS (Ze Brein) for biology laboratory information management based on a directed acyclic graph of networked content nodes metaphor;
Social web application (PubMed On Steroids) for the online management, annotation and peer-review of biomedical articles in the PubMed database, based on Mozilla Firefox Extension, jQuery and AJAX technologies (client) and Google App Engine-based RESTful web service (server).

Operating Systems and Software Applications DOS/Windows; Macintosh OS; Unix/XWindows; Vax/VMS; MSOffice/OpenOffice; image processing and analysis tools (ImageJ, AutoQuant, Adobe Photoshop, and others); mathematical and statistical tools (MATLAB, Graph- Pad, GNU R, and others); bioinformatics tools (Omiga, Vector NTI, Lasergene, EMBOSS, BioPython, BioRuby, and others); relational and object database tools (MS SQL, MySQL, ZODB, Google Datastore); web server tools (MS IIS, Apache, Mongrel, Nginx, Google Application Engine, and others); development tools (Emacs, Eclipse, SVN, Git, and others).

Scientific and TechnicalWriting Author of successfully funded fellowship and grant applications; author of scientific and technical book chapters (Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, Elsevier, 2008 and Python Cookbook, O’Reilly, 2005) and scientific journal articles.

Additional Information

Leadership President of the Caltech Italian Club (2004–2007)

Hobbies Flying helicopters, riding motorbikes.

Developing open-source software for the biomedical scientific community.

Designing and building integrated hardware-software solutions to common problems.

Languages Italian, English, Spanish