The University of Padova has an enrolment of almost 70,000 undergraduates and post-graduates studying the humanities, law, and social, behavioral, physical and natural sciences. UNIPD I is in the university’s prestigious School of Medicine and Surgery, which includes many internationally recognized basic and translational research groups. UNIPD I also forms part of the recently established Istituto Oncologico Veneto, a state-supported center of excellence for cancer treatment and research. UNIPD I’s laboratories are located in a modern, fully-equipped building dedicated to basic research that is adjacent to cancer treatment facilities of the city hospital.

UNIPD I is studying the survival pathways involved in HTLV-1-driven leukemogenesis. In particular, we are examining the temporal regulation of HTLV transcript expression in HTLV-1-infected cell lines and in freshly isolated ATL cells. The effects of transcriptional reactivation and physiologic death stimuli on survival of ATL cells and HTLV-infected cell lines are being investigated, with emphasis on alterations in mitochondrial parameters, including production of reactive oxygen intermediates, ATP, membrane potential, and mitochondrial DNA stability.

Hiraragi H, Kim SJ, Phipps AJ, Silic-Benussi M, Ciminale V, Ratner L, Green PL, Lairmore MD. Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 mitochondrion-localizing protein p13(II) is required for viral infectivity in vivo. J Virol. 2006;80:3469-76. Nicot C, Harrod RL, Ciminale V, Franchini G. Human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma virus type 1 nonstructural genes and their functions. Oncogene. 2005;24:6026-34. D'Agostino DM, Bernardi P, Chieco-Bianchi L, Ciminale V. Mitochondria as functional targets of proteins coded by human tumor viruses. Adv Cancer Res. 2005;94:87-142. Hiraragi H, Michael B, Nair A, Silic-Benussi M, Ciminale V, Lairmore M. Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 mitochondrion-localizing protein p13II sensitizes Jurkat T cells to Ras-mediated apoptosis. J Virol. 2005;79:9449-57. Trevisan R, Daprai L, Acquasaliente L, Ciminale V, Chieco-Bianchi L, Saggioro D. Relevance of CREB phosphorylation in the anti-apoptotic function of human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 tax protein in serum-deprived murine fibroblasts. Exp Cell Res. 2004;299:57-67. Silic-Benussi M, Cavallari I, Zorzan T, Rossi E, Hiraragi H, Rosato A, Horie K, Saggioro D, Lairmore MD, Willems L, Chieco-Bianchi L, D'Agostino DM, Ciminale V. Suppression of tumor growth and cell proliferation by p13II, a mitochondrial protein of human T cell leukemia virus type 1. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004;101:6629-34.