ACCADEMIC POSITION: Full Professor of Molecular Biology: 1990 – present - University of Palermo
PRESENT: DIRECTOR OF THE DEPT SCI TECH MOL BIOMOL (STEMBIO)
POST DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
1972-1974. Italian National Research Council fellow and British Muscular Distrophy Epigenetic at the Department of Animal Genetics - University of Edinburgh.
1976-1978. EMBO long term at the Institute of Molecular Biology II - University of Zurich.
1980, 1983 and 1984. EMBO short term and MPI at the EMBL (Heidelberg)

Research interests
Role of insulator element in the regulation of sea urchin histone gene expression and chromatin dynamic. Mechanism of insulator function in erythroid cells and development of retroviral vector bearing insulator elements for gene therapy. Homeobox genes in pattern formation and cell specification, and gene regulatory network for ectoderm specification and skelotogenesis in the sea urchin embryo.

1. Cavalieri V, Guarcello R. and Spinelli G. 2011 Specific expression of a TRIM-containing factor in ectoderm cells affects the skeletal morphogenetic program of the sea urchin embryo Development : revised manuscript submitted
2. Cavalieri V, Melfi R, and Spinelli G. 2009. Promoter activity of the sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) nucleosomal H3 and H2A and linker H1 {alpha}-histone genes is modulated by enhancer and chromatin insulator. Nucleic Acids Res. Dec;37(22):7407-15
3. Cavalieri V, Bernardo M, Spinelli G. 2009;
.Functional studies of regulatory genes in the sea urchin embryo. Methods Mol Biol. 518:1-14.
4. M. Pellicanò, P. Picone, V. Cavalieri, R. Carrotta d, G. Spinelli, M. Di Carlo 2009. The sea urchin embryo: A model to study Alzheimer’s beta amyloid induced toxicity Arch Biochem Biophys 483: 120-126
5. Danilo D’Apolito, Elena Baiamonte, Mariella Bagliesi, Rosalba Di Marzo, Roberta Calzolari, Vito Franco, Giovanni Spinelli, Aurelio Maggio and Santina Acuto. 2009.
The sea urchin sns5 insulator protects retroviral vectors from chromosomal position effects by maintaining active chromatin structure. Molecular Therapy 17 8, 1434–1441.
6. Cavalieri V, Di Bernardo M, Anello L, Spinelli G. 2008.cis-Regulatory sequences driving the expression of the Hbox12 homeobox-containing gene in the presumptive aboral ectoderm territory of the Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin embryo. Dev Biol. 321 455–469
7. Romancino DP, Montana G, Cavalieri V, Spinelli G, Di Carlo M. 2008. EGFR signalling is required for Paracentrotus lividus endomesoderm specification. Arch Biochem Biophys. Jun 1;474(1):167-74.
8. Maria Concetta Faniello*, Maddalena Di Sanzo*, Barbara Quaresima*, Francesco Baudi*, Valentina Di Caro†, Giovanni Cuda*, Giovanni Morrone*, Giannino Del Sal, Giovanni Spinelli†, Salvatore Venuta, Francesco Costanzo 2008: p53-mediated downregulation of H ferritin promoter transcriptional efficiency via NF-Y The Int J Biochem Cell Biol 40: 2110–2119
9. Cavalieri V., Di Bernardo, M. D. & Spinelli, G. 2007. Regulatory sequences driving expression of the sea urchin Otp homeobox gene in oral ectoderm cells. Gene Expr Patterns 7, 124-130.
10. Di Caro, V., Cavalieri, V., Melfi, R. & Spinelli, G. 2007. Constitutive Promoter Occupancy by the MBF-1 Activator and Chromatin Modification of the Developmental Regulated Sea Urchin alpha-H2A Histone Gene. J Mol Biol. 365, 1285-97.

No projects are available to students for the current accademic year.