Language spoken: French, English, and un poquito de Spanish.
E-mail: apiazza@ucdavis.edu
Research experience
2013 – present: Post-doctoral researcher at the University of California Davis, under the supervision of Pr. Wolf-Dietrich Heyer. Subject: “Mechanism of homology search during homologous recombination”.
2007 – 2013: Undergraduate, Graduate student, and Post-doctoral researcher at the Institut Curie under the supervision of Dr. Alain Nicolas. Subject: “Role of G-quadruplexes on genomic instability”.
2007: Undergraduate student at the National Museum of Natural History, under the supervision of Dr. Christophe Escudé. Subject: “Setup of modified oligonucleotide probes that discriminate a SNP of centromeric satellite repeats in human”.
2006: Volunteer undergraduate summer training at the Institut Jacques Monod, under the supervision of Dr. Jean Cartaud. Subject: “Study of the interaction between MusK and ColQ”
Education
2008 – 2012: Ph.D. in Genetics, UPMC (Paris VI). Special congratulations of the jury.
2006 – 2008: Master in Molecular and Cellular Biology, specialized in Genetics, UPMC (Paris VI). Honors, ranked 1st.
2004 – 2006: Bachelor in Life Sciences, UPMC (Paris VI).
2003 – 2004: Preparatory Class to “Grandes Ecoles”. Admitted at Agro-Veto.
Scientific publications
Ribeyre C, Lopes J, Boulé JB, Piazza A, Guédin A, Zakian VA, Mergny JL, Nicolas A. (2009) « The yeast Pif1 helicase prevents genomic instability caused by G-quadruplex-forming CEB1 sequences in vivo », PLoS Genetics, 5, e1000475.
Piazza A, Boulé J-B, Lopès J, Mingo K, Largy E, Teulade-Fichou M-P, Nicolas A (2010) « Genetic instability triggered by G-quadruplex interacting Phen-DC compounds in Saccharomyces cerevisiae », Nucleic Acids Research, 13, 4337-48.
Highlighted as the Top 5% of Nucleic Acids Research articles of the year.
Lopes J*, Piazza A*, Bermejo R, Kriegsman B, Colosio A, Teulade-Fichou M-P, Foiani M, and Nicolas A (2011) « G-quadruplex-induced instability during leading strand replication », The EMBO Journal, 30(19), 4033-46
Highlighted by a “Have you seen” by Davis and Maizels “G4 DNA: at risk in the genome” in the same issue of EMBO.
Piazza A, Serero A, Boulé J-B, Legoix-Né P, Lopes J, Nicolas A (2012) « Stimulation of gross chromosomal rearrangements by the human CEB1 and CEB25 minisatellites in S. cerevisiae depends on G-quadruplexes or Cdc13 ». PLoS Genet 8(11): e1003033.
Piazza A*, Adrian M*, Samazan F*, Heddi B, Hamon F, Serero A, Lopes J, Teulade-Fichou MP, Phan AT, Nicolas A (2015) Short loop length and high thermal stability determine genomic instability induced by G-quadruplex-forming minisatellites. The EMBO Journal. 2015 May 8. pii: e201490702
Piazza A, Cui X, Adrian M, Samazan F, Heddi B, Phan AT, Nicolas A (2017) Non-Canonical G-quadruplexes cause the hCEB1 minisatellite instability in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Elife. 2017 Jun 29;6. pii: e26884.
Funding and Awards
2016: ASBMB travel award
2015-2018 (3 years): Marie Curie IOF.
2013 (2 years): Post-doctoral fellowship from EMBO.
2013 (6 months): Post-doctoral fellowship from the ARC Foundation.
2012: Alexandre Joël prize for my thesis work, awarded by the ARC Foundation.
2011: 4th year Ph.D. fellowship from the ARC Foundation.
2011: Travel grants from the SFG (French Society of Genetics).
2008: Ph.D. fellowship from the Higher Education and Research Ministry. Ranked first.
2007: Merit scholarship (UPMC, Paris VI).
