Publications by authors named "Max Fornasiero"

To unravel the complexity of biological processes, it is necessary to resolve the underlying protein organization down to single proteins. Here, we present a protocol for secondary label-based unlimited multiplexed DNA-PAINT (SUM-PAINT), a DNA-PAINT-based super-resolution microscopy technique that is capable of resolving virtually unlimited protein species with single-protein resolution. We describe the steps to prepare neuronal cultures, troubleshoot and conduct SUM-PAINT experiments, and analyze the resulting feature-rich neuronal cell atlases using unsupervised machine learning approaches.

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DNA points accumulation for imaging in nanoscale topography (DNA-PAINT) is a super-resolution fluorescence microscopy technique that achieves single-molecule 'blinking' by transient DNA hybridization. Despite blinking kinetics being largely independent of fluorescent dye choice, the dye employed substantially affects measurement quality. Thus far, there has been no systematic overview of dye performance for DNA-PAINT.

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To understand biological processes, it is necessary to reveal the molecular heterogeneity of cells by gaining access to the location and interaction of all biomolecules. Significant advances were achieved by super-resolution microscopy, but such methods are still far from reaching the multiplexing capacity of proteomics. Here, we introduce secondary label-based unlimited multiplexed DNA-PAINT (SUM-PAINT), a high-throughput imaging method that is capable of achieving virtually unlimited multiplexing at better than 15 nm resolution.

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Recently, biologists have gained access to several far-field fluorescence nanoscopy (FN) technologies that allow the observation of cellular components with ~20 nm resolution. FN is revolutionizing cell biology by enabling the visualization of previously inaccessible subcellular details. While technological advances in microscopy are critical to the field, optimal sample preparation and labeling are equally important and often overlooked in FN experiments.

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Purpose: To evaluate the independent and combined effects of hypoxia (FiO2 = 13.5%) and cold (- 20 °C) on physiological and perceptual responses to endurance exercise.

Methods: 14 trained male subjects ( O: 64 ± 5 mL/kg/min) randomly performed a discontinuous maximal incremental test to exhaustion on a motorized treadmill under four environmental conditions: Normothermic-Normoxia (N), Normothermic-Hypoxia (H), Cold-Normoxia (C) and Cold-Hypoxia (CH).

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In mammals, spatial orientation is synaptically-encoded by sensory hair cells of the vestibular labyrinth. Vestibular hair cells (VHCs) harbor synaptic ribbons at their presynaptic active zones (AZs), which play a critical role in molecular scaffolding and facilitate synaptic release and vesicular replenishment. With advancing age, the prevalence of vestibular deficits increases; yet, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood and the possible accompanying morphological changes in the VHC synapses have not yet been systematically examined.

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Imaging of living synapses has relied for over two decades on the overexpression of synaptic proteins fused to fluorescent reporters. This strategy alters the stoichiometry of synaptic components and ultimately affects synapse physiology. To overcome these limitations, here a nanobody is presented that binds the calcium sensor synaptotagmin-1 (NbSyt1).

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This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of recreational football performed once (LOW) vs. twice (MOD) a week on cardiovascular risk factors in healthy, sedentary men. Body composition, resting blood pressure, blood lipid profile and maximal oxygen consumption (VOmax) were measured at baseline, after a 12-week control and training period, using an interrupted time-series study (study 1,  = 18:  = 8, LOW and  = 10, MOD) nested in a randomized parallel trial (study 2,  = 34:  = 18 LOW and  = 16 MOD).

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Aging is a prominent risk factor for neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs); however, the molecular mechanisms rendering the aged brain particularly susceptible to neurodegeneration remain unclear. Here, we aim to determine the link between physiological aging and NDDs by exploring protein turnover using metabolic labeling and quantitative pulse-SILAC proteomics. By comparing protein lifetimes between physiologically aged and young adult mice, we found that in aged brains protein lifetimes are increased by ~20% and that aging affects distinct pathways linked to NDDs.

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Nano secondary ion mass spectrometry (nanoSIMS) imaging is a rapidly growing field in biological sciences, which enables investigators to describe the chemical composition of cells and tissues with high resolution. One of the major challenges of nanoSIMS is to identify specific molecules or organelles, as these are not immediately recognizable in nanoSIMS and need to be revealed by SIMS-compatible probes. Few laboratories have generated such probes, and none are commercially available.

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Protein production and degradation are tightly regulated to prevent cellular structures from accumulating damage and to allow their correct functioning. A key aspect of this regulation is the protein half-life, corresponding to the time in which half of a specific protein population is exchanged with respect to its initial state. Proteome-wide techniques to investigate protein half-lives in vivo are emerging.

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Mitochondria possess a small genome that codes for core subunits of the oxidative phosphorylation system and whose expression is essential for energy production. Information on the regulation and spatial organization of mitochondrial gene expression in the cellular context has been difficult to obtain. Here we devise an imaging approach to analyze mitochondrial translation within the context of single cells, by following the incorporation of clickable non-canonical amino acids.

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Article Synopsis
  • Synaptic transmission involves the release of neurotransmitters from synaptic vesicles (SVs) triggered by the influx of calcium ions when the presynaptic membrane is depolarized.
  • Phosphorylation of synaptic proteins, which alters in response to depolarization, is crucial for understanding the mechanisms behind SV cycling and other presynaptic functions.
  • Using rat synaptosomes treated with botulinum neurotoxins to block exocytosis, the study found significant changes in the synaptic phosphoproteome response to depolarization, highlighting the distinction between calcium-dependent phosphorylation and SV-cycling-dependent phosphorylation.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study talks about how cells in the eye, called retinal cells, don't grow back once they're fully developed, so they have to manage their proteins very carefully.
  • Researchers used special imaging methods to see how proteins break down and get replaced in different parts of these retinal cells and found that the speed of this process isn’t the same everywhere or in every type of cell.
  • They discovered that proteins made when a mouse is an embryo can still be found in the retinal cells even two months after the mouse is born, but the process of replacing proteins is stronger in some areas, especially where the cells connect with each other.
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Very little is known about talent development and selection processes in young cross-country skiers. (1) to analyze the effect of age on anthropometric and physiological parameters in medium-to-high level cross-country skiers during the late teenage period; (2) to describe parameters' trend in selected talents after the late teenage period; (3) to define which characteristics during the late teenage period could discriminate against further talent selection. We found 14 male (M) and nine (F) athletes in our database, identified as talents by regional teams during the late teenage period, who performed the same diagonal-stride roller-skiing incremental test to exhaustion at 17 and 18 years old.

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Many proteins involved in synaptic transmission are well known, and their features, as their abundance or spatial distribution, have been analyzed in systematic studies. This has not been the case, however, for their mobility. To solve this, we analyzed the motion of 45 GFP-tagged synaptic proteins expressed in cultured hippocampal neurons, using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching, particle tracking, and modeling.

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Aggregation and spreading of α-Synuclein (αSyn) are hallmarks of several neurodegenerative diseases, thus monitoring human αSyn (hαSyn) in animal models or cell cultures is vital for the field. However, the detection of native hαSyn in such systems is challenging. We show that the nanobody NbSyn87, previously-described to bind hαSyn, also shows cross-reactivity for the proteasomal subunit Rpn10.

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The cellular and the molecular mechanisms by which long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) may regulate presynaptic function and neuronal activity are largely unexplored. Here, we established an integrated screening strategy to discover lncRNAs implicated in neurotransmitter and synaptic vesicle release. With this approach, we identified , a neuron-specific nuclear lncRNA conserved from rodents to humans.

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Proteins are continually produced and degraded, to avoid the accumulation of old or damaged molecules and to maintain the efficiency of physiological processes. Despite its importance, protein turnover has been difficult to measure in vivo. Previous approaches to evaluating turnover in vivo have required custom labeling approaches, involved complex mass spectrometry (MS) analyses, or used comparative strategies that do not allow direct quantitative measurements.

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The homeostasis of the proteome depends on the tight regulation of the mRNA and protein abundances, of the translation rates, and of the protein lifetimes. Results from several studies on prokaryotes or eukaryotic cell cultures have suggested that protein homeostasis is connected to, and perhaps regulated by, the protein and the codon sequences. However, this has been little investigated for mammals in vivo.

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The turnover of brain proteins is critical for organism survival, and its perturbations are linked to pathology. Nevertheless, protein lifetimes have been difficult to obtain in vivo. They are readily measured in vitro by feeding cells with isotopically labeled amino acids, followed by mass spectrometry analyses.

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Aged proteins can become hazardous to cellular function, by accumulating molecular damage. This implies that cells should preferentially rely on newly produced ones. We tested this hypothesis in cultured hippocampal neurons, focusing on synaptic transmission.

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Investigations into brain function and disease depend on the precise classification of neural cell types. Cells of the oligodendrocyte lineage differ greatly in their morphology, but accurate identification has thus far only been possible for oligodendrocyte progenitor cells and mature oligodendrocytes in humans. We find that breast carcinoma amplified sequence 1 (BCAS1) expression identifies an oligodendroglial subpopulation in the mouse and human brain.

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Control over faceting in nanocrystals (NCs) is pivotal for many applications, but most notably when investigating catalytic reactions which occur on the surfaces of nanostructures. Anatase titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) is one of the most studied photocatalysts, but the shape dependence of its activity has not yet been satisfactorily investigated and many questions still remain unanswered. We report the nonaqueous surfactant-assisted synthesis of highly uniform anatase TiO(2) NCs with tailorable morphology in the 10-100 nm size regime, prepared through a seeded growth technique.

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