Assistant Professor
Department of Biotechnology and Molecular Sciences
via J.H. Dunant 3, 21100 Varese, ITALY
Tel: +39-0332-421414
Fax: +39-0332-421500
E-mail: gianluca.molla@uninsubria.it

Gianluca Molla was born in Varese, Italy, in 1969.

He studied Biological Sciences at the University of Milan where he received his Degree in 1994. In 1996 he joined the research group directed by Prof. M. Pilone and L. Pollegioni in Varese (Functional Post-Genomics and Protein Engineering Laboratory) at the Dept. of Structural and Functional Biology of the University of Insubria, where he currently works.

In 1999 Gianluca Molla received his Ph.D. in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology. During his Ph.D. research activity, in 1998, he spent several months as a research fellow in the laboratories directed by Prof. S. Ghisla (Flavoproteins Biochemistry) and by Prof. W. Welte (Protein Crystallography) at the University of Konstanz (Germany).

From 2000 to 2002 Gianluca Molla carried out his research activity as a Post-Doc fellow.

Since 2002 Gianluca Molla has been employed as an Assistant Professor at the University of Insubria:
- from 2002 to 2004 at the Dept. of Structural and Functional Biology;
- in 2004 he moved, as a co-founder, to the newly established Dept. of Biotechnology and Molecular Sciences still in Varese.

Gianluca Molla was a member of the organizing committee of the School on Rapid Kinetics Techniques (in 2004), the School on Enzyme Engineering (in 2005) and the National Symposium "Proteine 2000" for the Italian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

He is a referee for the Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology

The scientific career of Gianluca Molla focused, as a general topic, on the structure-function relationships in enzymatic proteins, as FAD-dependent oxidases (namely D-amino acid oxidase, cholesterol oxidase and glycine oxidase).

The functional and structural properties of the enzyme D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) from microorganisms, a model protein in enzyme biochemistry, has been investigated by using a multidisciplinary methodological approach: kinetic studies (steady state and pre-steady state kinetics), reaction mechanism studies (substrate specificity, chemical modification and site-directed mutagenesis), structural studies (X-ray crystallography, limited proteolysis), flavin reactivity and protein stability on heating and denaturing agents.

Gianluca Molla has acquired a wide experience on the fundamental aspects of functional and structural properties of flavooxidases and on the functional role of the covalent link of the flavin coenzyme. In the past few years, the experience in structural and functional biology of Gianluca Molla has been widely exploited in the field of protein biotechnology: DAAO (participation to contracts with the pharmaceutical companies Antibioticos and ACSDobfar), acylases (contract with Antibioticos, 2002-2004) have been employed as biocatalysts. The same enzymatic reaction has been used for the production of a prototype biosensor for the analytical determination of D-amino acids.

In last five years, Gianluca Molla specialised in the evolution of enzymatic activities by using rational (site-directed mutagenesis) and directed evolution (random and site-saturation mutagenesis) methods. These investigations allowed the production of a new enzymatic activity in the bioconversion of cephalosporin C (contract with Antibioticos and patent pending), and a new DAAO activity which is able to oxidise both neutral and acidic D-amino acids.

As a complementary approach to his biochemical studies, Gianluca Molla is also interested in computational techniques for the analysis of protein 3D structure and the building of protein 3D models; he is also interested in in silico methods for the automated docking of small ligands to macromolecules.