Curriculum Vitae

Loredana Vaccaro

Education:

2002-present

DPhil student at Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford.

Research on bactirial multidrug efflux transporter AcrAB/TolC.; supervisor Prof. M. S. P. Sansom (Oct 2003-).
Synthesis and research on Vpu HIV-1 membrane peptide by biophysical techniques: conductance measurment of ion channel activity, MD simulations and solid state NMR; supervisor Prof. A. Watts (Apr. 2003-Aug.2003).
Research in Molecular Dynamics of E. coli H⁺F₀F₁ ATP Synthase c subunit; supervisor Prof. M. S. P. Sansom (Dec. 2002-Mar. 2003).

2001-2002

Visiting student at National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London (UK), Division of Mathemathical Biology, directed by Dr. W. Taylor (Nov. 2001-Oct2002).

Research in Molecular Dynamics of Influenza Hemagglutinin Fusion Peptide, supervisor Dr. F. Fraternali.

1992-2000

Italian Laurea in Chemistry obtained with full marks (110/110) at Università di Salerno, Dipartimento di Chimica.

Degree thesis title:"Polymerization mechanism of 4-methyl-1,3-pentadiene and (Z)-1,3-pentadiene by Ziegler-Natta catalyst CpTiCl₃/MAO", supervisor Prof. A. Peluso.

Publications:

"Flexibility in a Drug Transport Accessory Protein: Molecular Dynamics Simulations of MexA."

Vaccaro L., Koronakis, V., Sansom, M. S. P.
Biophysical Journal 91: 558-564 (2006) online

"Plasticity of Influenza Haemagglutinin Fusion Peptides and their Interaction with Lipid Bilayers."

Vaccaro L., Cross K. J., Kleinjung J., Straus S. K., Thomas D. J., Wharton S. A., Skehel J. J., Fraternali F.
Biophysical Journal 88: 25-36 (2005) online

"Aspect of the fusogenic activity of influenza haemagglutinin peptides by molecular dynamics simulations."
Vaccaro L., Cross K. J., Wharton S. A., Skehel J. J., Fraternali F.
Viral membrane proteins: structure, function, and drug design Ed.Wolfgang B. Fisher, in Series "Protein Reviews" Vol. 1 Ed. Z. Atassi Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers (2004)

Meetings, courses and workshop:

2006

Biophysical Society Annual Meeting (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, February 18^th - 22^nd).

2005

Biomolecular Simulations (Bordeaux, France, September 2^nd - 3^rd).

15^th IUPAB, 5^th EBSA International Biophysics Congress (Montpellier, France, August 27^th - September 1^st).

Membranes and Membrane Proteins Conference (Oxford, UK, April 4^th-6^th).

Course "Building a business" at Oxford Science Enterprise Centre, Said Business School, Oxford, UK.

2004

Speaker at the MGMS Young Modellers' Forum (London, UK, December 3^rd).

2003

2^nd International Conference on Structure, Dynamics and Function of Proteins in Biological Membranes (Ascona, Switzerland, October 5^th-10^th).

2002

Blue Gene 2002, IBM and NeSC workshop on Protein Science (Edinburgh, UK, March 15^th-16^th).

2001

Course "Controllo, Assicurazione e Gestione della Qualità nell'Industria Agro-Alimentare", at Università di Salerno.

1999

XXV International Congress of Theoretical Chemists of Neolatin Languages, XXV ChiTEL (Naples, Italy, Sep. 13^th-18^th).

XIV Convegno Italiano di Scienza e Tecnologia delle Macromolecole (Salerno, Italy).

Conference presentations:

"Multidrug resistance in bacteria" Loredana Vaccaro and M. S. P. Sansom; Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 2006, Poster.

"Multidrug resistance in bacteria" Loredana Vaccaro and M. S. P. Sansom; International Biophysics Congress,Montpellier, France, 2005, Poster.

"Multidrug resistance in bacteria" Loredana Vaccaro and M. S. P. Sansom; Biomolecular Simulations, Bordeaux, France, 2005, Poster.

"Multidrug resistance in bacteria" Loredana Vaccaro and M. S. P. Sansom; Membranes and Membrane Proteins Conference, Oxford, UK, 2005, Poster.

"Multidrug resistance in bacteria: simulation studies of the AcrAB/TolC system and related proteins" Loredana Vaccaro; MGMS Young Modellers' Forum; London, UK, 2004. Talk.

"Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Escherichia coli H⁺F₀F₁ ATP Synthase Transmembrane c Subunit" Loredana Vaccaro and M. S. P. Sansom; 2^nd International Conference on Structure, Dynamics and Function of Proteins in Biological Membranes, Ascona, Switzerland, 2003. Poster.

"Anchoring Mode and Assembly of Influenza Haemagglitinin Fusion Peptides in Lipid Bilayers by MD Simulations" F. Fraternali, L. Vaccaro, K. Cross, S. A. Wharton and J. J. Skehel; 2^nd International Conference on Structure, Dynamics and Function of Proteins in Biological Membranes, Ascona, Switzerland, 2003. Poster.

"Molecular Dynamics Study of the Influenza Hemagglutinin Fusion Peptide" Loredana Vaccaro and Franca Fraternali; Blue Gene 2002, IBM and NeSC workshop on Protein Science, Edinburgh, UK, 2002. Poster.

"Studio teorico della polimerizzazione di butadiene ed isoprene in presenza di catalizzatore Ziegler-NattaCpTiCl₃/MAO" Peluso A., Improta R., Vaccaro L., Zambelli A.; XIV Convegno Italiano di Scienza e Tecnologia delle Macromolecole, Salerno, Italy, 1999. Poster

Scientific interests:

Ab initio study of polymerization mechanism of conjugated dienes.

Molecular dynamics simulation of peptides and proteins in lipid bilayers.

Computing skills:

Computer systems: Windows, Linux.

Programs: Gaussian94, GAMESS, Gromacs, Molden, Vmd.

Programming language: Perl.

Non-scientific interests:

President of the Italian Society in Oxford (Jan. 2005 - Oct. 2006)

Webmaster of the Italian Society in Oxford (Jun. 2005 - Oct. 2006)

Spoken languages:

Italian (native tongue), English (fluent), French (basic), Spanish (learning).