Gianni Barcaccia CV Profile

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1513″ img_link_target=”_self”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Prof. Gianni Barcaccia, Ph.D.
Address: Viale Dell’Università, 16
Legnaro
Telephone: 0498272814
E-mail: gianni.barcaccia@unipd.it[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_toggle title=”Education” open=”false”]Gianni Barcaccia obtained the M.S. in Agricultural Sciences on 1 March 1991, graduating with first-class honors at the Agriculture Fac­­ulty of the University of Perugia, Italy. Since 1992 he spent several training periods in national (ENEA, Rome) and international (MSU, Bozeman, MT, USA) laboratories in order to learn basic techniques of plant molecular biology. In 1995 he attained the Ph.D. title in Productivity of Crop Plants at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Perugia, defending a thesis entitled “Cytogenetic and molecular analyses of meiotic mutants of Medicago spp.” (supervisor: Prof. Franco Lorenzetti). Then he worked for short periods in Italian (Division of Genetic Engineering, ENEA, Rome) and European (Institute of Genetics, University of Gent, Belgium) laboratories to carry out research activity within the biennial Post-Doc program granted by the University of Perugia, regarding the genetic control of the reproductive system in Poa pratensis L. (supervisors: Prof. Mario Falcinelli and Prof. Fabio Veronesi). On 18 November 1998, he gained the position of University Researcher at the Department of Environmental Agronomy and Crop Production of the University of Padova. Soon he started several research programs in the laboratory of Plant Genetics and Breeding (supervisors: Prof. Paolo Parrini and Prof. Margherita Lucchin), dealing with the analysis of genomes using molecular markers and studies of gene expression levels, patterns and domains, mainly in species of agricultural (Zea mays L. and Cichorium intybus L.) and pharmaceutical (Hypericum perforatum L.) use, and forest trees (Salix spp.). Since 7 January 2004, he is Associate Professor of Plant Genetics at the Agriculture Faculty of the University of Padova, now DAFNAE – Department of Agronomy Food Natural resources and Environment (www.dafnae.unipd.it), at the Campus of Agripolis, Legnaro (Padova). On 28 March 2007, he got the confirmation in the academic role of Associate Professor.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Teaching activities” open=”false”]From the Academic Year 2001/02, the teaching activity at the University of Padova included a total number of 43 classes, including an institutional ownership class (Plant genetics) and several assigned ones (Genetics of varieties and their food derivatives, Genetics of plants with zootechnical use, Genetics of food products, Advanced genetical biotechnologies, Genomic analysis, Genomics and bioinformatics, Genetic traceability of food products), belonging to academic degree and master courses of the University of Padova. From the Academic Year 2010/11, he is Professor-in-charge of Plant Genetics and also assigned Professor of Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Genetic traceability of agri-food products, belonging to different I level and II level degree courses of the Departments of Agriculture Science and Veterinary Medicine. From the Academic Year 2007/08 he was engaged to teach “Genetically Modified Organisms of plant and animal origin ” in a II level Master of Quality and safety of agri-food products organized by the University of Padova.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Academic duties and scientific society memberships” open=”false”]From 2001 to 2007 he recovered the role of Secretary of the Council of the Degree Course in Agriculture Sciences and Technologies of the University of Padova. Since 2004 he is an academic member of the School of Doctorate in Crop Science (Course of studies in Agro-biotechnologies). Moreover, since January 2012 he is in charge as Vice-director of the School of Doctorate in Crop Science of the University of Padova (www.sciproveg.com/). Since 2005 he is member of the Agriculture Faculty Committee on Educational Guidance. As far as scientific society membership is concerned, he is member and counselor of the Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics (SIGA), the Interuniversity Consortium for Biotechnologies (CIB) and the European Association of Plant Breeding (EUCARPIA).[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Main research activities and expertise subjects” open=”false”]In the last 10 years he was involved in several research projects financed by regional and national institutions. In particular, research activity focused on the following themes: i) plant reproductive systems, mainly genetic control of fertilization barriers (e.g. male-sterility and self-incompatibility) and seed formation (i.e. apomixis) in crop and model species; ii) genome analysis by means of RFLP and PCR-derived molecular markers aimed at the construction of genetic linkage maps, identification of genes and marker-assisted selection (MAS); iii) transcriptome analysis by means of mRNA profiling and NGS technologies, gene expression studies, and structural, bioinformatic and functional analysis of genes; iv) analysis of genetic variability: characterization of varieties and natural populations belonging to crops, trees and livestock species; v) development of molecular diagnostic assays for the genetic traceability of plant and fish derivatives using DNA fingerprinting and DNA barcoding.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Research collaborations and Research projects, contracts and services” open=”false”]In the last 10 years he has developed and maintained scientific collaborations with several Italian, European and American groups (see coauthors of scientific publications) and he has also participated as invited speaker to several national and international conferences on plant and animal genetics and genomics, and plant reproduction systems. Among the research projects in which he has been involved, either as participant or responsible person of the research unit, there are several Projects of Relevant National Interest funded by the Ministry of University and Research, the Ministry of Agriculture Policies and the so-called Projects of Athenaeum funded by the University of Padova, Italy. Recently, he has been involved as work-package coordinator in the OLEA project, relating to the genome sequencing and breeding of olive, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture Food and Forest Policies.

In the last few years, he has regularly stipulated research contracts with Italian Seed Companies, mainly dealing with horticulture crops, and with Veneto Agriculture, the regional agency dealing with agriculture, forestry and food. In addition, he has directed an increasing number of research services for public corporates and private companies. In fact, since 2007 he is also the responsible person of “BreedOmics”, the academic laboratory service of genomic analyses for plant breeding.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Scientific activities as editors and reviewers of scientific journals” open=”false”]He is one of the members of the editorial board of the subject area of Genomics of the peer-reviewed, open-access journal Scientifica, covering a wide range of subjects of basic and applied research in the life sciences and environmental sciences (www.scientifica.com/journals/scientifica/editors/genomics/) and of the International Journal of Reproductive Biology (http://ijprb.com/), with specific expertise in apomixis and population genetics. He regularly carries out reviewer activities for international scientific journals of genetics, genomics and plant genetic resources and breeding (e.g. Gene, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, Heredity, Plant Breeding, Euphytica, The Plant Cell, Plant Physiology, J. Experimental Botany, Sexual Plant Reproduction, Intl. J. Plant Genomics, BMC Genomics, Plant Biosystems, Animal Genetics, ecc.).[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Oral presentations in national and international conferences” open=”false”]In the last decade of academic placement as university researcher, first, and associate professor, later, he has carried out consistent and constant seminar activities, both in domestic meetings and foreign countries. In particular, he has given several oral communications as either selected or invited lectures in national and international conferences (Plant and Animal Genome Congress, Sexual Plant Reproduction Congress, International Botanical Congress, International Apomixis Congress, Meetings of Eucarpia, International Society of Plant Reproductive Biologists, Annual Congress of the Italian Society of Agriculture Genetics, National Biotechnology Consortium, etc.). In addition, he has given academic talks for PhD and Post-doc students in several Italian and European universities, advanced lessons on genetic and biological aspects of plant reproductive systems during refresher courses held by the Italian Society of Agriculture Genetics and oral communications in national academies and international workshops.[/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Scientific papers and academic books” open=”false”]He has got published more than 100 in extenso articles (of which 61 records are available in both the ISI Web of Knowledge database apps.webofknowledge.com/ and SCOPUS www.scopus.com databases, 40 records in the AGRIS FAO database http://agris.fao.org, 36 records in the NAL USDA Catalog database http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/ and 29 records in the NCBI PubMed database www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed). In particular, he is co-author of more than 80 original articles published on international peer-reviewed journals; 19 original articles on national journals; 9 reports on newsletters; 3 academic book books; 8 book chapters; 2 monographs; more than 40 short articles on proceedings of national and international conferences, and many abstracts on the proceedings of Italian meetings and international congresses and workshops.

Moreover, he has deposited more than 2.500 nucleotide sequence records (genes and EST entries) and 943 protein sequence records in the NCBI databases (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/). He has recently written an academic book titled “Genetics and Genomics”, edited by Liguori Editore, Napoli (www.liguori.it), composed of three volumes: I. General Genetics, II. Genetic Improvement; III. Genomics and Genetic Biotechnologies. Volumes include 21 chapters (for a total of 1.165 pages) and describe the theoretical bases of genetics and breeding, the methods for improving crop and animal productions, including recent advances in genomic analyses and biotechnologies applied to species of agronomic and environmental interest.[/vc_toggle][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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