The NVBMB prize 2019 has been awarded to Dr. Francesca Mattiroli of the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht. After receiving her MSc (cum laude) from the University Pavia Italy, Dr. Mattiroli moved to the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam to pursue her PhD research in the lab of Dr. Titia Sixma. Dr. Mattiroli received her PhD (cum laude) in 2013. Next, she moved to the lab of Dr. Karolin Luger at the University of Colorado (USA) supported by prestigious personal grants from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO long term fellowship) and the Koningin Wilhelmina Fonds (KWF). She returned to The Netherlands in 2018 to start her independent research group at the Hubrecht Institute. 



Dr. Mattiroli studies fundamental aspects of chromatin biology using an elegant combination of biochemistry, molecular- and structural biology. During her PhD studies, Dr. Mattiroli discovered a novel ubiquitin-based DNA damage signaling pathway to chromatin. In her post-doctoral work she provided unprecedented insights into the organization of the archaeal genome into chromatin, and its impact on gene expression. In addition, she studied the mechanism of chromatin assembly in eukaryotic cells. By using a wide array of biophysical, structural and biochemical techniques, Mattiroli uncovered fundamental aspects of how histones are deposited onto the DNA following DNA replication. In her independent laboratory, Dr. Mattiroli will continue her dissection of DNA replication-coupled nucleosome assembly.