Cosma, Maria Pia – ICREA Memoir 2021

Pia Cosma

Centre de Regulació Genòmica

Life & Medical Sciences

ICREA Research Professor and Senior Scientist at Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), since Sep. 2010. From 2009-2015 Honorary Associate Investigator at CNR. 2003-2010 Associate Investigator at TIGEM, Naples. 2004-2010 Lecturer at European School of Molecular Medicine. 1997-2000 Marie Curie Postdoc at IMP, Vienna. PhD in Cellular and Molecular Genetics, Univ. Federico II of Naples, 2000. Visiting Scientist in many Universities in USA. Awarded several prizes including: EMBO Young Investigator (YIP), 2003; Marie Curie Excellence Award, 2005; "Vanguardia de la Ciència" prize, 2014; City of Barcelona prize, 2015. She is Order of Merit of the Italian Republic: Knight, 2007. ERC Starting Grant awardee, 2009 and HFSP Grant awardee, 2010. EMBO Member since 2010. Coordinator of H2020 FET-Open, Cellviewer, since 2016 and Launchpad. La Caixa Health Reacher Award in 2018. Coordinator of H2020 FET-Open, EcaBox, 2021

Research interests

Main interests of Cosma’s group are to dissect mechanisms and factors controlling somatic cell reprogramming and tissue regeneration in mammals. We showed that activation of the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling pathway enhances reprogramming of somatic cells after their fusion with embryonic stem cells. We are dissecting gene networks and reprogramming factors controlled by the activation of Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. Furthermore, by using super resolution microscopy we are investigating on the remodelling and looping of the chromatin fiber during the reprograming process. The activation of Wnt pathway controls regeneration in response to damage in lower and higher vertebrates. We found that the Wnt/ß-catenin signalling is also key to control cell-fusion-mediated regeneration in mammals. We recently showed that in vivo reprogramming of neurons and hepatocytes after fusion with hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells is a mechanism for tissue regeneration.

Selected publications

– Neguembor MV, Martin L, Castells-Garcia A, Aurelio Gomez-Garcia P, Vicario C, Carnevali D, Abed JA, Granados A, Sebastian-Perez R, Sottile F, Solon J, Wu C-T, Lakadamyali M & Cosma MP 2021, ‘Transcription-mediated supercoiling regulates genome folding and loop formation’, Molecular Cell, 81, 15, 3065.

– Martin L, Vicario C, Castells-García A, Lakadamyali M, Neguembor MV & Cosma MP 2021 ‘A protocol to quantify chromatin compaction with confocal and super-resolution microscopy in culture cells’. Star Protocols, ;2(4):100865.

– Portillo-Ledesma S, Tsao LH, Wagley M, Lakadamyali M, Cosma MP & Schlick T 2021, ‘Nucleosome clutches are regulated by chromatin internal parameters’. Journal of Molecular Biology, 433(6):166701

– Pesaresi M, Bonilla-Pons SA, Sebastian-Perez R, Di Vicino U, Alcoverro-Bertran M, Michael R & Cosma MP 2021, ‘The chemokine receptors, Ccr5 and Cxcr6, enhance the integration of mesenchymal stem cells into the degenerating retina‘. Molecular Therapy, 29, 2, 804-821.

– Aurelio Gomez-Garcia P, Portillo-Ledesma S, Victoria Neguembor MV, Pesaresi M, Oweis W, Rohrlich T, Wieser S, Meshorer E, Schlick T, *Cosma MP & *Lakadamyali M 2021, ‘Mesoscale Modeling and Single-Nucleosome Tracking Reveal Remodeling of Clutch Folding and Dynamics in Stem Cell Differentiation’, Cell Reports, 34, 2, 108614. co-corresponding authors

Selected research activities

Invited talks:

– FEBS Danube Epigenetics, Budapest, Hungary, 20 May 2021;
– Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (SIBCB), Shanghai, China, 16th of August 2021;
– Westlake University, Hangzhou, China 24th of August 2021;
– Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 30th of August 2021;
– SUSTech, Shenzhen, China, 20th October 2021;
– Tsinghua University, 8th International Symposium on 3D Genomics, Beijing, China, 19^th-21^st of November 2021.