Francesco Chiani

Research Areas: Murine models

Monterotondo Scalo – Campus “A.Buzzati Traverso”
+39 06 90091308
francesco.chiani@cnr.it
francesco.chiani@emma.cnr.it

Research FocusCurriculumKey PubblicationsResearch GroupPrograms & Resources Press & Media

Transgenic Facility

NR-IBC/IBCN Monterotondo’s mutant strain production unit (MMP), from 2008 partecipated in EUCOMM (European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis) project, that is a cornerstone of the International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC). Under the prof. Glauco P. Tocchini-Valentini scientific supervision, they produced about 106 mutant mouse lines from that date, by ESC blastocyst injection, feeding of mutant mice, the large scale mouse phenotyping projects EUMODIC (European Mouse Desease Clinic), and IMPC (International Mouse Phenotype Consortium). They was also member of EUCOMM Tools project in which they produced as requested from their work package up to 50 (53) mouse mutants CRE drivers line, as well as dissection from these lines to detect the effective tissue specific CRE expression of the mutants produced. These line are already crypreserved in EMMA and ready for distribution, to the scientific community. The actual production capability of this team is about 20-35 mutant lines per years. Thanks to the involvement in IMPC CRISPR/CAS9 discussion and pilot, they actually obtain this innovative technology, that is now part of the active mutant mouse production

Education 

  • 2006- pHD In Genetics and Molecular Biology – University “La Sapienza” of Rome – 32 A. Moro pl. Rome
  • 2002- Specialist degree of Molecular Biology – University “La Sapienza” of Rome – 32 A. Moro pl. Rome

 Positions

  • 2012- present -TD Technologist IIIrd LV – Head Manager High Throughtput mutant mouse production CNR-IBCN Campus Buzzati-Traverso – 32 Ramarini st. 00015 Monterotondo.
    Production of new mutant mouse model from EU (FP7) projects EUCOMMTools and IMPC, Head Manager Quality Control and mutant mouse colony. High throughtput mutant mouse production by ES cells blastocyst injection, pronuclear zygotes DNA injection, zygotes CRISPR/CAS9 injection technology. Perfusion and dissection as requested from EUCOMMTools project. Imit’s (International microinjection tracking system) database steering committers.
    More than 200 new mouse line already generated see: https://www.infrafrontier.eu/
  • 2009-Research Fellowship CNR-IBCN Campus Buzzati-Traverso – 32 Ramarini st. 00015 Monterotondo.
    Research fellowship from European Commission FP7 contract Grant Ageement n° 227490 (EMMA Service) for: Preparation and blastocyst injection od geneticaly modified mouse ES cells, cryoconservation and phenotipic and genotyping analisys of the obtained mutant mouse strains. CNR Monterotondo Mouse production Head IT
  • 2007-Postdoctoral Research FellowshipUniversity “La Sapienza” of Rome – 32 A. Moro pl.00185 Rome.
    Ionizing radiation influence research on human Cells (HUVEC) and tyroid biopsy cells by realtime PCR, Microarrays trasncription factor binding, and lucipherase assay analisys for the M.O.M.A. project ASI (Italian Space Agency). Steering Committers of the Datatabase “RADIATION GENES in collaboration with C.A.S.P.U.R.
    Research in MicroRNA role of human tissue and cells submitted to low dose ionizioìng radiation and neutron exposion.

1: Chiani F, et al. Functional loss of Ccdc1 51 leads to hydrocephalus in a mouse model of primary ciliary dyskinesia. Dis Model Mech. 2019 Aug 2;12(8). doi: 10.1242/dmm.038489.  

2: Dickinson ME, et al., High-throughput discovery of novel developmental phenotypes. Nature. 2016 Sep 22;537(7621):508-514. doi: 10.1038/nature19356.  

3: de Angelis MH, et al. Analysis of mammalian gene function through broad-based phenotypic screens across a consortium of mouse clinics. Nat Genet. 2015 Sep;47(9):969-978. doi: 10.1038/ng.3360.  

4: Vincenti S, et al., HUVEC respond to radiation by inducing the expression of pro-angiogenic microRNAs. Radiat Res. 2011 May;175(5):535-46. doi: 10.1667/RR2200.1. Epub 2011 Mar 1.  

5: Chiani F, et al.,T. Radiation Genes: a database devoted to microarrays screenings revealing transcriptome alterations induced by ionizing radiation in mammalian cells.
Database (Oxford). 2009;2009:bap007.

  • Marie-Christine Birling, et al., A resource of targeted mutant mouse lines for 5,061 genes doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/844092 Bioxriv November 22, 2019.
    Olga Ermakova, Tiziana Orsini, Paolo Fruscoloni, Francesco Chiani, Alessia Gambadoro, Sabrina Putti, Maurizio Cirilli, Alessio Mezzi, Saulius Kaciulis, Marcello Raspa, Ferdinando Scavizzi, Glauco P. Tocchini-Valentini. X-ray 3D imaging of gene expression in whole-mount murine brain by microCT, implication for functional analysis of tRNA endonuclease 54 gene mutated in pontocerebellar hypoplasia doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2019.12.19.882688 Bioxriv December 20, 2019
  • Francesco Chiani*, Tiziana Orsini*, Alessia Gambadoro Miriam Pasquini, Sabrina Putti, Maurizio Cirilli, Olga Ermakova and Glauco P. Tocchini-Valentini. Functional loss of Ccdc151 leads to hydrocephalus in a mouse model of primary ciliary dyskinesia. Disease Models and Mechanisms 12(8):dmm038489 · August 2019 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.038489
  • First person -Francesco Chiani and Tiziana OrsiniArticle (PDF Available) in Disease Models and Mechanisms 12(8) · August 2019 DOI: 10.1242/dmm.041442.
  • Moore BA et al., Identification of genes required for eyedevelopment by high-throughput screening of mouse knockouts. Commun Biol. 2018 Dec 21;1:236. doi: 10.1038/s42003-018-0226-0. eCollection 2018. Commun Biol. 2019 Mar 7;2:97.
  • Ziraldo G, Buratto D, Kuang Y, Xu L, Carrer A, Nardin C, Chiani F, Salvatore AM, Paludetti G, Lerner RA, Yang G, Zonta F, Mammano F. A Human-Derived Monoclonal Antibody Targeting Extracellular Connexin Domain Selectively Modulates Hemichannel Function. Front Physiol. 2019 Jun 11;10:392. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00392. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31263420; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6584803.
  • Rozman J, et al., Identification of genetic elements in metabolism by high-throughput mouse phenotyping. Nat Commun. 2018 Jan 18;9(1):288. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01995-2. PubMed PMID: 29348434; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5773596.
  • Ermakova O, Orsini T, Gambadoro A, Chiani F, Tocchini-Valentini GP. Three-dimensional microCT imaging of murine embryonic development from immediate post-implantation to organogenesis: application for phenotyping analysis of early embryonic lethality in mutant animals. Mamm Genome. 2018 Apr;29(3-4):245-259. doi: 10.1007/s00335-017-9723-6. Epub 2017 Nov 23. PubMed PMID: 29170794; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5887010.
  • Genome wide conditional mouse knockout resources. Kaloff, C.; Anastassiadis, K.; Ayadi, A.; Baldock, R.; Beig, J.; Birling, M. C.; Bradley, A.; Brown, S. D.M.; Bürger, A.; Bushell, W.; Chiani, F.; Collins, F. S.; Doe, B.; Eppig, J. T.; Finnell, R. H.; Fletcher, C.; Flicek, P.; Fray, M.; Friedel, R. H.; Gambadoro, A.; Gates, H.; Hansen, J.; Herault, Y.; Hicks, G. G.; Hörlein, A.; Hrabé de Angelis, M.; Iyer, V.; de Jong, P. J.; Koscielny, G.; Kühn, R.; Liu, P.; Lloyd, K. C.K.; Lopez, R. G.; Marschall, S.; Martínez, S.; McKerlie, C.; Meehan, T.; von Melchner, H.; Moore, M.; Murray, S. A.; Nagy, A.; Nutter, L. M.J.; Pavlovic, G.; Pombero, A.; Prosser, H.; Ramirez-Solis, R.; Ringwald, M.; Rosen, B.; Rosenthal, N.; Rossant, J.; Ruiz Noppinger, P.; Ryder, E.; Skarnes, W. C.; Schick, J.; Schnütgen, F.; Schofield, P.; Seisenberger, C.; Selloum, M.; Smedley, D.; Simpson, E. M.; Stewart, A. F.; Teboul, L.; Tocchini Valentini, G. P.; Valenzuela, D.; West, A. P.; Wurst, W.
    Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models, Vol. 20, 02.02.2016, p. 3-12.
  • Meehan TF et al., 2017. Disease model discovery from 3,328 gene knockouts by The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium.Nat Genet. 2017 Jun 26. doi: 10.1038/ng.3901.
  • M. Dickinson, et al 2016. High-throughput discovery of novel developmental phenotypes. Nature 2016 Sep 14;537(7621):508-514. doi: 10.1038/nature19356
  • M.H.de Angelis, et al 2015. Deciphering mammalian gene function through broad based phenotypic screens across a consortium of mouse clinics. Nature Genetics 2015 Sep;47(9):969-78. doi: 10.1038/ng.3360. Epub 2015 Jul 27
  • Sara Vincenti*, Nadia Brillante, Vincenzo Lanza, Irene Bozzoni, Carlo Presutti, Francesco Chiani*, Marilena Paola Etna and Rodolfo Negri. (2010) HUVEC cells respond to radiation by inducing the expression of pro-angiogenic microRNAs. *These authors contributed equally to this work. Radiat Res. 2011 May;175(5):535-46
  • Francesco Chiani; Camilla Iannone; Rodolfo Negri; Daniele Paoletti, Mattia D’Antonio;Paolo D’Onorio De Meo and Tiziana Castrignanò. (2009) Radiation Genes: a database devoted to microarrays screenings of transcriptional modulation induced by ionizing radiation in mammalian cells. Database, Vol. 2009, Article ID bap007
  • Di Felice F, Chiani F, Camilloni G. (2008) Nucleosomes represent a physical barrier for cleavage activity of DNA topoisomerase I in vivo. Biochem J. 2008 Feb 1;409(3):651-6.
  • Cioci F, Di Felice F, Chiani F, Camilloni G.(2007).DNA protein interactions at the rRNA of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Ital J Biochem. 2007 Jun;56(2):81-90. Review.
  • Francesco Chiani, Francesca Di Felice and Giorgio Camilloni. (2006) SIR2 modifies histone H4-K16 acetylation and affects superhelicity in the ARS region of plasmid chromatin in S. cerevisiae. Nucl Ac Res 34:5426-37.
  • A.Mai, S.Massa, S.Lavu, R.Pezzi, S.Simeoni, R.Ragno, F.R.Mariotti, F. Chiani, G.Camilloni, and D.A. Sinclair. Design syntesis, and biological evaluation of Sirtinol analogues as class III histone/protein deacetylase (Sirtuin) Inhibitors. J. Med. Chem. 2005, 48, 7789-7795

PhD student:
Miriam Pasquini Miriam.pasquini@emma.cnr.it

  • Gruppi di Ricerca 2020 POR FESR LAZIO 2014-2020 
  • Attività internazionale afferente all’area di Monterotondo – (Dip. Scienze Biomediche, Ist. di Biologia Cellulare e Neurobiologia)
    Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: IBCN/MIUR
  • EUCOMMTOOLS – Tools for Functional Annotation of the Mouse Genome
    Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: FP7-HEALTH – Specific Programme “Cooperation”: Health European Union
  • EUCOMM-The European Conditional Mouse Mutagenesis Program
  • Development of mouse mutant resources for functional analyses of human diseases – Enhancing the translation of research into innovation – INFRAFRONTIER-I3
    Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES Importo totale finanziamento 915,399.38 EU Riferimenti (contratto INFRA-CT2012-312325) Protocollo 0002112 del 13/06/2018
  • INFRAFRONTIER Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: Contratto INFRA-CT2008-211404
  • CNR Progetto di interesse strategico INVECCHIAMENTO
    Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice DSB.AD009.001 sottoprogetto DSB.AD009.001.004 / INVECCHIAMENTO IBCN
  • Towards enduring mouse resources and services advancing research into human health and disease- INFRAFRONTIER2020 Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: H2020
    Riferimenti: Protocollo 0002112 del 13/06/2018 contratto INFRADEV-03-2016-730879
  • Research Infrastructures for Phenotyping, Archiving and Distribution of Mouse Disease Models – IPAD-MD Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice H2020
  • “ARCH” AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN HEMATOPOIESIS
    Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice H2020 (call accettata grant EU ETN)
    Ruolo Pianificazione workshop
  • Large-scale, high-throughput automated systems for phenotyping mouse models of human disease – PHENOSCALE Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice EU FP7
  • The European Mouse Disease Clinic-EUMODIC Ente/Istituzione finanziatrice: EU FP6