Simone Ciofi Baffoni è professore associato di Chimica Generale e Inorganica all'Università di Firenze. La sua attività di ricerca è principalmente dedicata all'NMR in Life Sciences. Simone Ciofi Baffoni si è dedicato fin dai suoi studi di dottorato alla determinazione della struttura in soluzione NMR di proteine e complessi proteici e allo sfruttamento degli osservabili NMR per definire in modo univoco la posizione di uno ione metallico/cofattore nella struttura di una proteina. Dal 2002 è stato coinvolto in progetti europei di genomica strutturale (Structural Proteomics in Europe - SPINE e SPINE2-Complexes) rivolti alla determinazione della struttura di proteine e complessi proteina-proteina e proteina-ligando rilevanti per la salute umana, sfruttando la spettroscopia NMR in soluzione. Grazie a questo percorso, Simone Ciofi Baffoni ha acquisito conoscenze e competenze all'avanguardia nella biologia strutturale e nell'interazione metallo-proteina mediante spettroscopia NMR in soluzione. L'attività di ricerca scientifica di Simone Ciofi Baffoni riguarda principalmente la biologia strutturale applicata allo studio di: i) meccanismi cellulari che controllano la concentrazione e la distribuzione intracellulare degli ioni rame e le relative patologie umane, ii) meccanismi di folding ossidativo di proteine nello spazio intermembrana mitocondriale e iii) meccanismi cellulari responsabili della biogenesi delle proteine Fe/S nell'uomo e le relative patologie umane.
Date of birth: 25 October 1971
Place of birth: Florence (ITALY)
Nationality: Italian
Affiliations: Department of Chemistry “Ugo Schiff”, University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia 3,
50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
Present position: Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence and Faculty Member at the Magnetic Resonance Center (CERM)
Higher Education
- June 1996 Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry “110/110 cum laude” at the University of Florence;
- November 1996-March 2000 PhD Degree in Chemical Sciences at the University of Florence;
Positions
- July 2000-June 2004: Postdoctoral researcher (Assegno di Ricerca) at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence; field of interest: Structural Biology and Solution NMR;
- July 2004-June 2005: Postdoctoral researcher at the “Consorzio Interuniversitario Risonanze Magnetiche di Metalloproteine Paramagnetiche - CIRMMP”, Florence; field of interest: Structural Biology and Solution NMR on metalloproteins;
- July 2005-December 2011: Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence; field of interest: Molecular basis of copper trafficking/homeostasis in humans and related human diseases, and of oxidative protein folding in mitochondria;
- January 2012-present: Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence; field of interest: Molecular basis of metal trafficking and Fe/S protein biogenesis in humans.
Honors and Awards
- December 2012 and 2019: Simone Ciofi Baffoni has been judged to be eligible to become Full Professor in a national selection by the Italian Ministry of the Education, University and Research ("Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale-MIUR; Settore Concorsuale: 03/B1").
- Arturo Leone Young Investigator Award - Year 2014. International award given to young researchers that fundamentally contributed with their research to the “copper in biology” field. Assigned by the Awards Committee of the biannual "International Copper meeting".
- Co-author of 95 publications and author of 2 book chapters, resulting in an H-index of 44 (Scopus).
- Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry-JBIC.
- Member of the International History Board of the biannual International Copper Meeting, the most relevant conference in “the copper in biology” field.
- Member of the Academic Board of the International Doctorate in Structural Biology of the University of Florence from 2008 to 2018, and from 2021 to 2023.
- Faculty member of CERM, a center for research, knowledge transfer, and higher education of the University of Florence from July 2005 until now.
- Member of the Editorial Board of Antioxidants (MDPI)
- Member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences (Frontiers).
- Member of the Editorial Staff of Substantia, an International Journal of the History of Chemistry (Firenze University Press)
- The article published on Structure (Balatri E, Banci L, Bertini I, Cantini F, Ciofi-Baffoni S. Structure, 2003, 11:1431) presenting the first structure of Sco1, a crucial protein involved in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase, has been presented and commented in a preview by Prof. Dennis Winge (Structure, 2003, 11:1313).
- Included in 2023 World Online Ranking of Best Scientists in Chemistry that has been published here: https://research.com/scientists-rankings/chemistry
Scientific Conference Talks
“First International Meeting of the Institute of Metals in Biology of Grenoble, Homeostasis of Metals” at Villard de Lans (FRANCE), 2004; (Invited Speaker)
“Congresso della Divisione di Chimica dei Sistemi Biologici della Società Chimica Italiana” at Belvedere di San Leucio (ITALY), 2004; (Invited Speaker)
“EMBO BioXAS Practical course on metalloproteins and organism tissue” at EMBL Hamburg (GERMANY), 2005; (Invited Speaker)
“XXXV National Congress on Magnetic Resonance” at Monte Porzio Catone (ITALY), 2005; (Invited Speaker)
“SPINE2- First Annual Congress” at Prague (CZECH REPUBLIC), 2007; (Invited Speaker)
“FASEB Summer Research Conference - Assembly of the Mitochondrial Respiratory Chain” at Tucson (USA), 2007; (Invited Speaker)
Gordon Research Conference “Cell Biology of Metals - Metal Metabolism And Disease” at Newport (USA), 2009; (Invited Speaker)
“SGM Autumn Conference” at Nottingham (UK), 2010; (Invited Speaker)
“International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology” Alghero (ITALY), 2010; (Invited Speaker)
“Eurasia 2012” at Corfu (GREECE), 2012; (Plenary Speaker)
“International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology” Alghero (ITALY), 2012; (Invited Speaker)
“XLI Congresso Nazionale di Chimica Inorganica” at Parma (ITALY), 2013; (Invited Speaker)
“Strategic pipeline planning: from sample preparation to 3D structure determination with bio SAXS & other biophysical techniques” at Athens (GREECE), 2014; (Invited Speaker)
“12th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC 12) at Zurich (SWITZERLAND), 2014; (Invited Speaker)
“XLIII National Congress GIDRM” at Bari (ITALY), 2014; (Invited Speaker)
“9th International Copper Meeting-Copper 2014” at Vico Equense (ITALY), 2014; (Invited Speaker)
“FeSBioNet Meeting” at Patras (GREECE), 2016; (Invited Speaker)
“First All Hands Meeting of iNEXT (iNEXT AHM 2016)” at Madrid (SPAIN), 2016; (Invited Speaker)
“XXIII Biotechnology Summer School” at Gdansk (POLAND), 2017; (Invited Speaker)
“XXVI Congresso Nazionale della Società Chimica Italiana” at Paestum (ITALY), 2017; (Plenary Speaker at the Divisione di Chimica dei Sistemi Biologici)
“Copper 2018 - 11th International Copper Meeting” at Sorrento (ITALY), 2018; (Invited Speaker)
“4th FESBIONET COST meeting” at Gdansk (POLAND), 2019; (Invited Speaker)
Online seminars on “Iron-sulfur protein biogenesis” 2021/2; (Invited Speaker)
16th European Biologic Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC-16) at Grenoble (FRANCE), 2022; (Keynote Speaker)
44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC) at Rimini (ITALY), 2022; (Invited Speaker)
International Copper Meeting, bridging clinical and fundamental science at Sorrento (ITALY), 2022; (Invited Speaker)
16th International Symposia on Applied Bioinorganic Chemistry (16th ISABC) at Ioannina (GREECE), 2023; (Invited Speaker)
Organization of Conferences and Workshops
“SPINE2 Workshop - NMR for characterizing protein-protein complexes” (April 16-18, 2008), organizer
“Worldwide Magnetic Resonance Conference 2010” (July 4-9, 2010), member of the organizing committee
“8th International Copper Meeting, Copper in Biology” (September 30-October 5, 2012), member of the organizing committee
“9th International Copper Meeting” (October 5-10, 2014), member of the organizing committee
“10th International Copper Meeting” (September 27- 30, 2016), member of the finance and history committee
“11th International Copper Meeting” (September 23-28, 2018), member of the finance and history committee
Principal Investigator in the following Research Project:
Research project financed by Fondazione Telethon “Mitochondrial myopathy associated to FDX2 mutations: a crossroad of FeS protein biogenesis and Coenzyme Q biosynthesis”
Duration: 31/07/2022-1/08/2024
Grant/research team: € 223000,00
Research project financed by Fondo di beneficienza di Intesa San Paolo “Innovative strategy to block coronavirus infections by specific degradation of viral proteins"
Duration: 1/02/2022-31/01/2023
Grant/research team: € 94300,00
Research project financed by Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze" “Molecular determinants of multiple mitochondrial dysfunctions syndromes"
Duration: 1/06/2020-1/06/2021
Grant/research team: € 65000,00
Research project financed by Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze"Structural characterization of iron proteins as potential targets for the development of new vaccines"
Duration: 1/07/2014-1/1/2016
Grant/research team: € 70000,00
Participant in the following Networking/Infrastructure Projects:
Cost Action CA15133 “CA21115- Iron-sulphur (FeS) clusters: from chemistry to immunology (FeSImmChemNet)”
Duration: 19/09/2022- 18/09/2026
Cost Action CA15133 “The Biogenesis of Iron-sulfur Proteins: from Cellular Biology to Molecular Aspects (FeSBioNet)”
Duration: 15/04/2016-14/04/2020
EU Grant: € 445000,00
iNEXT “Infrastructure for NMR, EM and X-ray crystallography for translational research”
Duration: 01/09/2015-31/08/2019
EU Grant: € 740.696,00
IMPATTO “IMPlementazione di procedure per un’infrastruttura A sostegno del Trasferimento tecnologico e della creazione d’impresa in aree sottoutilizzate della Toscana nell’ambito delle scienze della vita”
Duration: 13/06/2012-30/11/2014
Grant from the Ministero Sviluppo Economico: € 133.946,00
Participant in the following Research Projects:
MEDINTECH “Tecnologie convergenti per aumentare la sicurezza e l’efficacia di farmaci e vaccini”
Duration: 01/01/2014-30/06/2018
MIUR Grant: € 666.175,00
Progetti Competitivi – FFO2016 “Sviluppo di metodologie NMR per le scienze sperimentali”
Duration: 14/06/2017-13/06/2018
MIUR Grant: € 228.793,00
POR Biovax “Vaccini biotecnologici da genomica strutturale”
Duration: 01/01/2011-12/09/2014
Regione Toscana Grant: € 1.000.502,40
PRIN09 “Biologia strutturale meccanicistica: avanzamenti metodologici e biologici”
Duration: 17/10/2011-17/10/2013
MIUR Grant: € 280.000,00
FIRB “Rete Nazionale per lo studio della Proteomica Umana (Italian Human ProteomeNet)”
Duration: 24/09/2008-24/06/2013
MIUR Grant: € 1.415.240,00
PRIN 2007 - “Gli ioni metallici nelle interazioni proteina-proteina”
Duration: 22/09/2008-22/09/2010
MIUR Grant: € 416.000,00
FIRB "Piattaforme NMR per lo studio dell’interazione proteine-leganti di interesse farmacologico"
Duration: 12/09/2005-12/09/2010
MIUR Grant: € 1.803.000,00
SPINE II “From Receptor to Gene: structures of complexes from signalling pathways linking immunology, neurobiology and cancer"
Duration: 01/07/2006 – 30/06/2010
EC Grant: € 600.500,80
Mentoring
PhD supervisor of students in the International Doctorate in Structural Biology (1) or in the Doctorate in Chemical Sciences (2) at the University of Florence:
1. XXI Cycle: Hadjiloi Theodoros, PhD thesis on: “Metal cofactor insertion in cytochrome-c oxidase” (1)
2. XXII Cycle: Chiara Cefaro, PhD thesis on: “Redox and copper pathways in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase” (1)
3. XXIV Cycle: Sharma Vaishali, PhD thesis on: “Molecular mechanisms of iron-sulfur protein maturation” (1)
4. XXV Cycle: Riccardo Peruzzini, PhD thesis on: “The role of zinc in mitochondrial protein import and molecular mechanisms of its compartmentalization and detoxification” (1)
5. XXIX Cycle: Riccardo Muzzioli, PhD thesis on: “Molecular aspects of iron-sulfur protein maturation” (2)
Post-doc supervisor:
Deborah Grifagni (01/2023-present)
L'attività di ricerca di Simone Ciofi Baffoni si svolge nell'ambito della biologia strutturale di metalloproteine e delle loro interazioni con proteine e DNA, sfruttando la Risonanza Magnetica Nucleare in soluzione. Simone Ciofi Baffoni ha pertanto dedicato gran parte delle sue energie alla relazione tra le informazioni derivanti dalla Risonanza Magnetica Nucleare e le proprietà molecolari delle metalloproteine allo scopo di caratterizzare la loro struttura e le loro interazioni con macromolecole biologiche. L'uso della risonanza magnetica nucleare per lo studio di interazioni proteina-proteina e proteina-DNA che coinvolgono metalli è quindi una parte fondamentale della sua attività di ricerca. La caratterizzazione strutturale e le interazioni di metalloproteine coinvolte in processi cellulari di trasporto di metalli, con particolare riguardo a proteine contenenti ioni rame, zinco e ferro, e lo studio di processi di folding di metalloproteine sono gli argomenti maggiormente trattati nei suoi più recenti studi. I risultati ottenuti in questi ambiti di ricerca hanno permesso a Simone Ciofi Baffoni di dare un contributo fondamentale a livello internazionale nella disciplina “Chimica bioinorganica: metalli in biologia”. Questo apporto è testimoniato dalla sua pubblicazione su Nature, la quale rappresenta un svolta fondamentale nella “Systems Biology” del trasporto del rame nelle cellule eucariotiche, dalle numerose pubblicazioni in collaborazione con gli scienziati più rinomati nella disciplina suddetta (Prof. Thomas O’ Halloran Northwestern University, USA; Prof. Nigel J. Robinson University of Duhram, UK; Prof. Dennis Winge, University of Utah, USA), dal suo coinvolgimento nell’organizzazione di numerose edizioni del congresso internazionale “8th International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology”, la più rinomata conferenza nell’ambito della chimica del rame in biologia, e dalla sua partecipazione nel ruolo di relatore a congressi internazionali nei suddetti ambiti (Gordon Research Conference “Cell Biology of Metals - Metal Metabolism And Disease”, Newport, USA, August 9-14, 2009; International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology Alghero, Sardinia, Italy, October 16-20, 2010; First International Meeting of the Institute of Metals in Biology of Grenoble, “Homeostasis of Metals” Villard de Lans, France, Settembre 6-8, 2004; Eurasia 2012, Corfu, Greece, April 16-21 etc.).
Legenda
Simone Ciofi Baffoni is an associate professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Florence. His research activity is mainly devoted to NMR in Life Sciences. Simone Ciofi Baffoni has devoted himself since his doctoral studies to the determination of the structure in solution NMR of proteins and protein complexes and to the exploitation of NMR observables to uniquely define the position of a metal ion/cofactor in the structure of a protein. Since 2002, he has been involved in European structural genomics projects (Structural Proteomics in Europe - SPINE and SPINE2-Complexes) aimed at determining the structure of proteins and protein-protein and protein-ligand complexes relevant to human health by exploiting NMR spectroscopy in solution. Through this pathway, Simone Ciofi Baffoni has acquired state-of-the-art knowledge and skills in structural biology and metal-protein interaction using NMR spectroscopy in solution. Simone Ciofi Baffoni's scientific research activity mainly concerns structural biology applied to the study of (i) cellular mechanisms controlling the concentration and intracellular distribution of copper ions and related human pathologies, (ii) oxidative protein folding mechanisms required for the import and assembly of proteins in the mitochondrial intermembrane space, and (iii) cellular mechanisms responsible for Fe/S protein biogenesis in humans and related human pathologies.
“16th European Biologic Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC-16)” at Grenoble (FRANCE), 2022; (Keynote Speaker)
“44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry (ICCC)” at Rimini (ITALY), 2022; (Invited Speaker)
“International Copper Meeting, bridging clinical and fundamental science” at Sorrento (ITALY), 2022; (Invited Speaker)
“16th International Symposia on Applied Bioinorganic Chemistry (16th ISABC)” at Ioannina (GREECE), 2023; (Invited Speaker)
Research project financed by Fondazione Telethon “Mitochondrial myopathy associated to FDX2 mutations: a crossroad of FeS protein biogenesis and Coenzyme Q biosynthesis”.
4. XXV Cycle: Riccardo Peruzzini, PhD thesis on: “The role of zinc in mitochondrial protein import and molecular mechanisms of
its compartmentalization and detoxification” (1)
Simone Ciofi Baffoni's research activity is in the area of structural biology of metalloproteins and their interactions with proteins and DNA, exploiting Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in solution. Simone Ciofi Baffoni has therefore devoted much of his energies to the relationship between information derived from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and the molecular properties of metalloproteins in order to characterize their structure and their interactions with biological macromolecules. The use of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to study protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions involving metals is therefore a key part of his research activity. Structural characterization and interactions of metalloproteins involved in cellular metal-transport processes, with particular emphasis on proteins containing copper, zinc, and iron ions, and the study of metalloprotein folding processes are the topics most frequently addressed in his most recent studies. The results obtained in these areas of research have enabled Simone Ciofi Baffoni to make a fundamental contribution at the international level in the discipline of "Bioinorganic chemistry: metals in biology." This contribution is evidenced by his publication in Nature, which represents a fundamental breakthrough in the "Systems Biology" of copper transport in eukaryotic cells, by his numerous publications in collaboration with the most renowned scientists in the said discipline (Prof. Thomas O' Halloran Northwestern University, USA; Prof. Nigel J. Robinson University of Duhram, UK; Prof. Dennis Winge, University of Utah, USA), by his involvement in the organization of several editions of the international conference "International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology," the most renowned conference in the field of copper chemistry in biology, and by his participation in the role of speaker at international conferences in the above fields (Gordon Research Conference "Cell Biology of Metals - Metal Metabolism And Disease," Newport, USA, August 9-14, 2009; International Copper Meeting: Copper in Biology Alghero, Sardinia, Italy, October 16-20, 2010; First International Meeting of the Institute of Metals in Biology of Grenoble, "Homeostasis of Metals" Villard de Lans, France, September 6-8, 2004; Eurasia 2012, Corfu, Greece, April 16-21 etc. ).
