Tommaso Zanocco Marani
Tommaso Zanocco Marani
e-mail:
affiliation: Università di Modena-Reggio Emilia
research area(s): Cell Biology, Cancer Biology
Course: Molecular and Regenerative Medicine
University/Istitution: Università di Modena-Reggio Emilia
December 2005- Researcher, Faculty of Medicine, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia.

2003-2005 Borsa triennale AIRC Fellowship “Mario e Valeria Rindi” for Cancer Research.

1999 - 2003 Ph.D. program at the university of Modena in “Biotechnologies and Molecular Medicine”. Role of c-Fes proto-oncogene in hematopoietic differentiation.

1997 - 1999 Postdoctoral Fellow, Kimmel Cancer Institute, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA.Study of the biological role of granulin-epithelin precursor.

1993 - 1997 Internship in Molecular Biology , Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Modena.

July/August 1993 Summer student, Kimmel Cancer Institute, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA
A growing body of evidence shows that post-transcriptional regulation, which controls translation and stability of mRNAs, underlies many biological processes. Our research aims to describe the role of the mRNA binding proteins belonging to the Tristetraprolin family (TTP family) in selected cancer models.
The members of the TTP family (ZFP36, ZFP36L1 and ZFP36L2) are able to bind ARE II elements in the 3'UTR of specific mRNAs, thereby determining their de-adenylation and subsequent degradation. We showed that, in human, ZFP36 and ZFP36L1 are able to bind Stat5b mRNA's 3'UTR thereby inducing its degradation. Since the constitutive activity of the STAT5-JAK2 pathway dependent on the JAK2 V617F mutation is one of the key alterations causing the myeloproliferative syndrome polycythemia vera, we hypothesized that ectopic expression of TTP family members might decrease STAT5b expression, thereby impairing JAK2V617F constitutive phosphorylation activity. On these premises, we are studying the effect of the ectopic expression of TTP family members in JAK2 V617F carrying cells and are testing the effect of drugs able to induce the expression of TTP family members in cells derived from patients
affected by polycythemia vera.
Since we believe that the TTP family is relevant to a number of diseases and that it is capable of displaying a real tumor suppressor activity by targeting several oncogenes simultaneously, in a distinct project we plan to characterize new targets and to verify if the mechanisms described above can be observed in glioma and glioblastoma, a different group of malignancies where the Stat family of transcription factors plays a pivotal role.
1. Zanocco-Marani T. TIS11/TTP gene family: It's never too late for tumor suppressors. Cell Cycle. 2010 Dec 15;9(24).
2. Vignudelli T, Selmi T, Martello A, Parenti S, Grande A, Gemelli C, Zanocco-Marani T, Ferrari S. ZFP36L1 negatively regulates erythroid differentiation of CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells by interfering with the Stat5b pathway. Mol Biol Cell. 2010 Oct;21(19):3340-51.
3. Tommaso Zanocco-Marani, Tatiana Vignudelli, Sandra Parenti, Claudia Gemelli, Fabrizio Condorelli, Andrea Martello, Tommaso Selmi, Claudia Orlandi, Alexis Grande, Sergio Ferrari. TFE3 transcription factor regulates the expression of MAFB during macrophage differentiation. Exp Cell Res. 2009 Jul 1;315(11):1798-808.
4. Gemelli C, Orlandi C, Zanocco Marani T, Martello A, Vignudelli T, Ferrari F, Montanari M, Parenti S, Testa A, Grande A, Ferrari S. The vitamin D3/Hox-A10 pathway supports MafB function during the monocyte differentiation of human CD34+ hemopoietic progenitors. J Immunol. 2008 Oct 15;181(8):5660-72.
5. Zanocco-Marani T, Vignudelli T, Gemelli C, Pirondi S, Testa A, Montanari M, Parenti S, Tenedini E, Grande A, Ferrari S. Tfe3 expression is closely associated to macrophage terminal differentiation of human hematopoietic myeloid precursors. Exp. Cell Res. 2006. Dec 10;312(20):4079-89.
6. Tagliafico E, Tenedini E, Manfredini R, Grande A, Ferrari F, Roncaglia E, Bicciato S, Zini R, Salati S, Bianchi E, Gemelli C, Montanari M, Vignudelli T, Zanocco-Marani T, Parenti S, Paolucci P, Martinelli G, Piccaluga PP, Baccarani M, Specchia G, Torelli U, Ferrari S. Identification of a molecular signature predictive of sensitivity to differentiation induction in acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia. 2006 Oct;20(10):1751-8. Epub 2006 Aug 17.
7. Gemelli C, Montanari M, Tenedini E, Zanocco Marani T, Vignudelli T, Siena M, Zini R, Salati S, Tagliafico E, Manfredini R, Grande A, Ferrari S. Virally mediated MafB transduction induces the monocyte commitment of human CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells. Cell Death Differ. 2006 Oct;13(10):1686-96. Epub 2006 Feb 3.
8. Montanari M., Gemelli C., Tenedini E., Zanocco-Marani T., Vignudelli T., Siena M., Zini R., Salati S., Chiossi G., Tagliafico E., Manfredini R., Grande A. and Ferrari Se..“Correlation between differentiation plasticity and mRNA expression profiling of CD34+ derived CD14- and CD14+ human normal myeloid precursors”. Cell Death and Differentiation, 2005 Jun 10.
9. Manfredini R., Zini R., Salati S., Siena M., Tenedini E., Tagliafico E., Montanari M., Zanocco-Marani T., Gemelli C., Vignudelli T., Fogli M., Rossi L., Fagioli M.E., Catani L., Lemoli R.M. and Ferrari Se.. “The kinetic status of hemopoietic stem cell (HSC) subpopulations underlies a differential expression of genes involved in self-renewal, commitment and engraftment”. Stem cells, 2005 Apr;23(4):496-506.
10. Manfredini R., Tenedini E., Siena M., Tagliafico E., Montanari M., Grande A., Zanocco-Marani T., Poligani C., Zini R., Gemelli C., Bergamaschi A., Vignudelli T., De Rienzo F., De Benedetti P.G., Menziani M.C., Ferrari Se. Development of an IL-6 antagonist peptide that induces apoptosis in IL-6 dependent 7TD1 cells. Peptides. 2003 Aug;24(8):1207-20.
11. Cortesi L, Turchetti D, Bertoni C, Zanocco-Marani T, Vinceti M, Silvestri C, Federico M, Silingardi V, & Ferrari S; Italian Family with Two Independent Mutations: 3358T/A in BRCA1 and 8756delA in BRCA2 genes. Eur J Hum Genet. 2003 Mar;11(3):210-4.
12. Tagliafico E, Siena M, Zanocco-Marani T, Manfredini R, Tenedini E, Montanari M, Grande A, and Ferrari S; Requirement of the Coiled Coil Domains of p92c-Fes for Nuclear Localization in Myeloid Cells upon Induction of Differentiation. Oncogene, 2003 Mar 20;22(11):1712-23.
13. Grande A., Montanari M., Tagliafico E., Manfredini R., Zanocco-Marani T., Siena M., Tenedini E., Gallinelli A., and Ferrari Se. Physiological levels of 1a, 25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 induce the monocytic commitment of CD34+ hematopoietc progenitors. Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 2002, April (71), 641-651.
14. Grande A., Montanari M., Manfredini R., Tagliafico E., Zanocco-Marani T., Trevisan F., Ligabue G., Siena M., Ferrari St. & Ferrari Se. A functionally active RARa nuclear receptor is expressed in retinoic acid non responsive early myeloblastic cell lines. Cell Death and Differentiation . Cell Death Differ. 2001 Jan;8(1):70-82.
15. Valentinis. B., Navarro, M., Zanocco-Marani, T., Edmonds, P., McCormick, J., Morrione, A., Sacchi, A., Romano, G., Reiss, K., and Baserga, R. Insulin Receptor Substrate-1, p70S6K and Cell Size in Transformation and Differentiation of Hemopoietic Cells. J. Biol. Chem. June 8, 2000.
16. Zanocco-Marani, T., Bateman, A., Romano, G., Valentinis, B., Zhi-Heng, He., and Baserga, R. Biological Activities and Signaling Pathways of the Granulin/Epithelin precursor. Cancer Research. 59, 5331-5340, 1999.
No projects are available to students for the current accademic year.