Senior Technologist
Research Infrastructures for marine biological resources Department

Tel. +39 081 5833453
Fax: +39 081 7641355
e-mail pasquale.deluca(at)szn.it

Curriculum Vitae

Research interests

Dr De Luca’s activity is mainly dedicated to protocol development to favour the access to the technologies in the facility. Specifically, he supports design, management and realization of dedicated projects with Real Time PCR and digital PCR for transcriptomics or copy number variation analyses; polymorphism identification by SNP and fragment analysis; development of high throughput screening processes for medium-to-high productivity projects, as nucleic acids purification, preparation of multiwell plates for all the PCR applications, cherry picking, regridding, replica plates, etc. He collaborates to the identification and cloning of genes with potential biotechnological applications on demand, for functional genomics or heterologous protein expression. He manages the development of new technologies dedicated to massive parallel sequencing of small genomes (with the Nanopore MinION), gene expression profiles and metabarcoding (with the ION Torrent technology). He is involved in the management of Sanger DNA sequencing projects with capillary electrophoresis. Dr De Luca offers technical-scientific consulting, achieves scientific collaboration and feasibility studies for new services development together with the area coordinator, dr Biffali. He is an active participant to students’ education (he coordinated 32 master’s degree theses to date), PhD students (lessons for the SZN PhD courses and personalized practical training) and for anyone approaching molecular biology for the first time. He also takes part to scientific culture spreading ventures, like the school-work turnover for high school students or the participation to Futuroremoto.
He is part of different projects coordinated by SZN researchers and is co-author of 38 peer reviewed publications and of a high number of congress abstracts.

Selected Publications

Russo MT, Vitale L, Entrambasaguas L, Anestis K, Fattorini N, Romano F, Minucci C, De Luca P, Biffali E, Vyverman W, Sanges R, Montresor M, Ferrante MI (2018) MRP3 is a sex determining gene in the diatom Pseudo-nitzschia multistriata. Nature Communications 9: 5050.

Annona G, Caccavale F, Pascual-Anaya J, Kuratani S, De Luca P, Palumbo A, D’Aniello S. Nitric Oxide regulates mouth development in amphioxus. Scientific Report Aug 16;7(1):8432. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08157-w (2017)

Liso A, Castellani S, Massenzio F, Trotta R, Pucciarini A, Bigerna B, De Luca P, Zoppoli P, Castiglione F, Palumbo MC, Stracci F, Landriscina M, Specchia G, Leon Bach, Falini B. Human monicyte-derived dendritic cells exposed to hyperthermia show a distinct gene expression profile and selective upregulation of IGFBP6. Oncotarget, Jun 1;8(37):60826-60840. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.18338. eCollection 2017 Sep 22 (2017).

Iacomino G, Russo P, Stilitani I, Lauria F, Marena P, Ahrens W, De Luca P, Siani A. Circulating microRNAs are deregulated in overweight/obese children: preliminary results of the I. Family study. Gene and Nutrition 11:7 (2016).

Cozzolino M, Cicatelli A, Fortino V, Guarino F, Tagliaferri R, Castiglione S, De Luca P, Napolitano F, Celia G, Iannotti S, Raiconi G, Rossi K, Rossi E. The Mind-Body Healing Experience (MHE) Is associated with Gene Expression in Human Leukocytes. International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences, 5, 1-31, ISSN: 2249-5894 (2015).

Cozzolino M, Tagliaferri R, Castiglione S, Fortino V, Cicatelli A, Guarino F, Napolitano F, Raiconi G, Celia G, De Luca P, Fusco F, Rossi K, Rossi E, Iannotti S. The Creative Psychosocial and Cultural Genomic Healing Experience: A new top-down epigenomic psychotherapeutic protocol. The International Journal of Psychosocial and Cultural Genomics, Consciousness & Health Research, 1, 18-26, ISSN: 2421-2199 (2015).

Porreca I, D’Angelo F, Gentilcore D, Carchia E, Amoresano A, Affuso A, Ceccarelli M, De Luca P, Esposito L, Guadagno FM, Mallardo M, Nardone A, Maccarone S, Pane F, Scarfò M, Sordino P, De Felice M. & C. Ambrosino. Cross-species toxicogenomic analyses and phenotypic anchoring in response to groundwater low-level pollution. BMC Genomics 15: 1067 (2014)

Dattolo E, Ruocco M, Brunet C, Lorenti M, Lauritano C, D'Esposito D, De Luca P, Sanges R, Mazzuca S & G. Procaccini. Response of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica to different light environments: Insights from a combined molecular and photo-physiological study. Mar Environ Res. Aug 1. pii: S0141-1136(14)00137-8. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2014.07.010 (2014).

Marotta P, Amendola E, Scarfò M, De Luca P, Zoppoli P, Amoresano A, De Felice M & R. Di Lauro. The paired box transcription factor Pax8 is essential for function and survival of adult thyroid cells. Mol Cell Endocrinol. Aug 12;396(1-2):26-36 (2014).

Granese B, Scala I, Spatuzza C, Valentino A, Coletta M, Vacca RA, De Luca P & G. Andria. Validation of microarray data in human lymphoblasts shows a role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system and NF-kB in the pathogenesis of Down syndrome. BMC Medical Genomics 5, 6-24 (2013).

Barra L, Aiese Cigliano R, Cremona G, De Luca P, Zoppoli P, Bressan R, Consiglio FM, Conicella C. Transcription profiling of laser microdissected microsporocytes in Arabidopsis mutant (Atmcc1) with enhanced histone acetylation. J. Plant Biology 55, 281-289 (2012).