Education
1984 Degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Pavia (110/110 with honours)
1987 Specialization in Toxicology, University of Milano (70/70 with honours)
1990 Short term EMBO Fellow at the IRSC-CNRS, Villejuif, France.
1991 PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology, University of Pavia

Position and Employment
1992-2001 CNR Researcher at the Institute of Biochemical and Evolutionary Genetics, CNR, Pavia
2001-present Senior CNR Researcher at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, CNR Pavia

Professional Experience
1994 Visiting Researcher at the Institut de Recherches Scientifiques sur le Cancer (IRSC) CNRS, Villejuif, France. In the frame of the Researcher Exchange Program between CNR and CNRS
1995 Visiting Researcher at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London (UK). Lab. Prof. Tomas Lindahl in the frame of the European Community Concerted Action on DNA repair and Cancer.
2009-present “Professore a Contratto” of Molecular Biology of the Cell, Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia
2015 Member of the Group of Evaluation Experts for Biological Science for the Italian National Agency for the evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (VQR 2011-2014)
2016 Member of the Comitato di Selezione PRIN 2015 Life Sciences LS1

Reviewer of Research Grants applications for the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (2017-2020); Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (2015-2018); Dutch Cancer Society, Amsterdam, The Nederland (2013); Austrian Science Fund FWF, Wien, Austria (2013); Italian Ministry of Health (2010); The Wellcome Trust, UK (2000).

Recipient of Research Grants from
- AIRC (Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro)
- CARIPLO Foundation
- Italian Ministry of University and Research
- Italian National Research Council (CNR)
- Lombardy Region, Italy

Most of the work of Alessandra Montecucco has led to the characterization of human DNA ligase I and of the signalling pathways affected by LIG1 hypomorphic mutations. She described the motif responsible for the recruitment of replicative enzymes to replication factories, the nuclear domains where DNA replication takes place, and its regulation during cell cycle. She also showed that DNA ligase I-deficiency leads to replication stress, elicits the activation of ATM checkpoint pathway and triggers phosphorylation of histone variant H2AX. Her lab applied OMICS approaches to investigate the impact of replication stress on chromatin organization and gene expression. More recently she studied the events activating the DNA damage response in terminally differentiated cells, evaluating the response of neurons to endogenous sources of DNA damage caused by mitochondrial dysfunction and fatty acids that mimic hypercaloric diet.

The total number of publication on international journal is 66. The current H-index is 25 (Scopus)

56) Leva V, Giuliano S, Baroni A, Camerini S, Crescenzi M, Lisa A, Biamonti G, Montecucco A. Phosphorylation of SRSF1 is modulated by replicational stress. Nucleic Acids Res 40:1106-1117 (2012).

57) Carpignano F, Silva G, Surdo S, Leva V, Montecucco A, Aredia F, Scovassi AI, Merlo S, Barillaro G, Mazzini G. A new cell-selective three-dimensional microincubator based on silicon photonic crystals. PLoS One 7(11):e48556 (2012)

58) Montecucco A, Biamonti G. Pre-mRNA processing factors meet the DNA damage response. Front. Genet. 4:102 doi: 10.3389/fgene.2013.00102 (2013)

59) Cremaschi P, Rovida S, Sacchi L, Lisa A, Calvi F, Montecucco A, Biamonti G, Bione S, Sacchi G. Correlagenes: a new tool for the interpretation of the human transcriptome. BMC Bioinformatics 15(Suppl 1):S6. (2014)

60) Biamonti G, Catillo M, Pignataro D, Montecucco A, Ghigna C. The alternative splicing side of cancer. Semin Cell Dev Biol. 32:30-6 (2014)

61) Montecucco A, Zanetta F, Biamonti G. Molecular mechanisms of etoposide. EXCLI J. 14:95-108 (2015)

62) Cremaschi P, Oliverio M, Leva V, Bione S, Carriero R, Mazzucco G, Palamidessi A, Scita G, Biamonti G, Montecucco A. Chronic replication problems impact cell morphology and adhesion of DNA ligase I defective cells. PLoS One 10(7):e0130561. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130561 (2015)

63) Montecucco A, Biamonti G. Editorial: DNA and RNA metabolism meet at chromatin to control genome stability. Front. Genet. 7:67 (2016)

64) Pignataro D, Francia S, Zanetta F, Brenna G, Brandini S, Olivieri A, Torroni A, Biamonti G, Montecucco A. A missense MT-ND5 mutation in differentiated Parkinson Disease cytoplasmic hybrid induces ROS-dependent DNA Damage Response amplified by DROSHA. Sci Rep. 7(1):9528. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09910-x (2017)

65) Biamonti G, Maita L, Montecucco A. The Krebs Cycle Connection: Reciprocal Influence Between Alternative Splicing Programs and Cell Metabolism Front. Oncol. 8:408. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2018.00408 (2018)

66) Magni M, Buscemi G, Maita L, Peng VL, Chan SY, Montecucco A, Delia D, Zannini L. TSPYL2 is a novel regulator of SIRT1 and p300 in response to DNA damage. Cell Death Differ. 26:918-931 (2019)

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