Department of Chemistry
Maria Pellegrini is an Associate Professor of Research in the Chemistry Department at Dartmouth College, in Hanover, NH. She received her undergraduate degree and Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Padova, Italy.
Dr. Pellegrini’s early training in structural biology focused on the utilization of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and computational techniques towards the structure determination of small, flexible peptides. Her studies in Italy and at Brown University aimed at the characterization of conformation and dynamics of biologically active peptides, particularly peptide hormones activating G-protein coupled receptors, including bradykinin and parathyroid hormone. She then moved to the biotechnology industry first at Abbott (Abbott Bioresearch Center, Worcester, MA) and then at Biogen (Cambridge, MA) where she established high field NMR facilities for analytical and biomolecular NMR and pursued her interests in protein NMR characterization, protein structure determination and NMR-based screening. During this period, in a collaborative project at Biogen, Dr. Pellegrini started her work on NEMO, with the goal of developing new therapies to modulate the NF-κB pathway.
Dr. Pellegrini returned to academia in 2007, joining the Chemistry Department at Dartmouth College. Her research focuses on the characterization of protein/protein interactions based on their three-dimensional structure, with the goal to modulate, interfere with or inhibit the protein biological function.
Structural analysis of the human cannabinoid receptor one carboxyl-terminus identifies two amphipathic helices.
Biopolymers Jul, 2009 | Pubmed ID: 19274719
Structure of Vibrio cholerae ToxT reveals a mechanism for fatty acid regulation of virulence genes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Feb, 2010 | Pubmed ID: 20133655
A stabilizing influence: CAL PDZ inhibition extends the half-life of ΔF508-CFTR.
Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) Dec, 2010 | Pubmed ID: 21105033
Reining in polyoma virus associated nephropathy: design and characterization of a template mimicking BK viral coat protein cellular binding.
Biochemistry Oct, 2012 | Pubmed ID: 23002929
Recombinant production of TEV cleaved human parathyroid hormone.
Journal of peptide science : an official publication of the European Peptide Society Aug, 2013 | Pubmed ID: 23794508
Engineering a soluble parathyroid hormone GPCR mimetic.
Proteins Jul, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 24375686
Monitoring ATP hydrolysis and ATPase inhibitor screening using (1)H NMR.
Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) Oct, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25170530
Small molecule inhibition of the Na(+)/H(+) exchange regulatory factor 1 and parathyroid hormone 1 receptor interaction.
Biochemistry Sep, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25171053
Protein engineering of the N-terminus of NEMO: structure stabilization and rescue of IKKβ binding.
Biochemistry Nov, 2014 | Pubmed ID: 25286246
Phosphorylation of ezrin-radixin-moesin-binding phosphoprotein 50 (EBP50) by Akt promotes stability and mitogenic function of S-phase kinase-associated protein-2 (Skp2).
The Journal of biological chemistry Jan, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25492869
Small-molecule inhibitors of JC polyomavirus infection.
Journal of peptide science : an official publication of the European Peptide Society Mar, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25522925
A novel caspase 8 selective small molecule potentiates TRAIL-induced cell death.
Scientific reports May, 2015 | Pubmed ID: 25962125
Identification and Characterization of the Interaction Site between cFLIPL and Calmodulin.
PloS one , 2015 | Pubmed ID: 26529318
A new class of inhibitors of the AraC family virulence regulator Vibrio cholerae ToxT.
Scientific reports 03, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28332578
Bile salts and alkaline pH reciprocally modulate the interaction between the periplasmic domains of Vibrio cholerae ToxR and ToxS.
Molecular microbiology Jul, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28464377
Identification of a Small Molecule Activator for AphB, a LysR-Type Virulence Transcriptional Regulator in Vibrio cholerae.
Biochemistry 07, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28640592
Backbone and side chain resonance assignments for a structured domain within Atg32.
Biomolecular NMR assignments 10, 2017 | Pubmed ID: 28766175
The Peach RGF/GLV Signaling Peptide pCTG134 Is Involved in a Regulatory Circuit That Sustains Auxin and Ethylene Actions.
Frontiers in plant science , 2017 | Pubmed ID: 29075273
Cysteine modifiers suggest an allosteric inhibitory site on the CAL PDZ domain.
Bioscience reports 08, 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29472314
A pseudo-receiver domain in Atg32 is required for mitophagy.
Autophagy , 2018 | Pubmed ID: 29909755
The IKK-binding domain of NEMO is an irregular coiled coil with a dynamic binding interface.
Scientific reports Feb, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 30814588
The structure of a highly-conserved picocyanobacterial protein reveals a Tudor domain with an RNA-binding function.
The Journal of biological chemistry Sep, 2019 | Pubmed ID: 31391250