Antonio Giordano

Antonio Giordano (born October 11, 1962), is an Italian-American molecular biologist, best known as the discoverer of Rb2/p130, a tumor suppressor
gene. Giordano is the President and Founder of the Sbarro Health Research Organization, which conducts research to diagnose, treat and cure cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses. He is a Professor of Molecular Biology at Temple University in Philadelphia and a 'Chiara fama' Professor of Pathology at the University of Siena, in Siena, Italy. He is also the Director of the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine and the Center for Biotechnology at Temple's College of Science & Technology. He is a founder and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Human Health Foundation Onlus (HHF), an Italian charity for basic medical research supported by the Banca Popolare di Spoleto, located in Terni, Umbria. He also serves as President of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Centro di Ricerche Oncologiche di Mercogliano (CROM), Mercogliano, Italy.

Biography

Giordano was born in Naples, Italy, on October 11, 1962. He received his medical degree from the University of Naples, Italy, and his doctorate in Pathology from the University of Trieste Medical School. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York and at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CHSL) in Cold Spring, New York, where he studied under Nobel Laureate James Watson.

Discoveries

At 26, while a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, Giordano made significant contributions to the field of cancer research. His work led to the recognition that an identical protein species occurs in complexes with both a virus and with the cell cycle regulatory kinase cdc2. Later, this protein species was identified as protein cyclin A, a substance that regulates growth in the cell cycle. This work helped set the stage for subsequent discovery in several other laboratories.

Giordano went on to discover Rb2/p130 in the early 1990s while serving as a member of Temple's School of Medicine faculty and as a researcher at the Fels Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Biology. Since that time, Giordano and SHRO researchers have established links between Rb2/p130 and its expression with the regression of cancer in the lungs, the aggression of cancer in the liver and ovaries, the effectiveness of drug therapies against breast cancer, and as a potential prognosticator of prostate cancer.

Giordano also discovered Cdk9 and Cdk10, genetic substances that must be activatedto guarantee proper progression through the cell cycle. Research has subsequentlyshown that Cdk9 is a multifunctional protein that plays a critical role in cell differentiation, particularly in muscles, HIV transcription, and the inception of tumors. Recent research has focused on the role of Cdk9-55 in helping to regenerate muscle tissue in cases of muscle wasting from disease or aging.

In 2004, Giordano discovered [Novel Structure Proteins (NSPs)] , a new family of structure proteins with a possible role in nuclear dynamics during cell division. One form of the gene, the isoform [NSP5a3a] , is highly expressed in some tumor cell lines and could be very useful as a tumor marker. A protein isoform is a version of a protein with only small differences to another isoform of the same protein.

Isoforms from Novel Structure Proteins (NSP), a new family of genes could be involved in apoptosis or programmed cell death.

Giordano also played a major role in studying the cyclin-dependent-kinase inhibitor p27 which serves as the prognosticator factor in cancer patients.

Giordano's early investigation and findings on the cell cycle has contributed to a new series of drugs currently in clinical trials.

An International Model

In 1993, Giordano founded the Sbarro Institute with a donation from Mario Sbarro of the Sbarro restaurant chain, following Dr. Giordano’s discovery of the tumor suppressor gene pRb2/p130. Initially named the Sbarro Institute, the research center was located at Thomas Jefferson University, where Giordano was a professor.

When Giordano moved to Temple University in 2002, he and twenty fellow scientists forged a new, three-year alliance with Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Under the new arrangement, the original Sbarro Institute was renamed the Sbarro Health Research Organization, Inc. , which includes the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine. SHRO funds a program in the University of Siena.

In 2006, Giordano founded the Human Health Foundation (HHF) with the Banca Popolare di Spoleto. The charitable organization raises funds to support biomedical research and health education in Italy.

Patents and Publications

Since 1992, Giordano has been awarded twelve patents, with eight patents pending. He has published over 300 papers on his work in the fields of cell cycle, gene therapy and the genetics of cancer. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of professional journals including "Cancer Therapy, Current Cancer Therapy Reviews, International Journal of Oncology, The Open Cancer Journal", and "The Women’s Oncology Review" (Editor-USA). His work is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants, as well as individual and program project grants from SHRO. He is most recently co-editor of a major oncology textbook entitled, "Molecular Pathology of Gynecologic Cancer (Current Clinical Oncology)" (Humana) published in 2007.

Awards

Giordano has been named a Knight of the Republic of Italy for outstanding achievements in cancer research. He has been honored by The National Association of Italian American Women for his achievements in the fields of cell cycles, gene therapy, and the genetics of cancer.

External links

[http://www.shro.org Sbarro Health Research Organization]

[http://www.hhfonlus.com Human Health Foundation (in Italian)]

[http://www.bpspoleto.it/ Banca Popolare di Spoleto (in Italian)] Copyright (c) 2007 IRush30. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".