Researcher biography
I am a microbiologist, molecular cellular biologist, and genetic engineer with expertise in antibody discovery and characterization, yeast and mammalian cell line development, and mass spectrometry proteomics (with a focus on post-translational modifications).
I graduated from Universidad Nacional de Río Cuarto, Argentina. I then obtained a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue my Ph.D. in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Minnesota, USA. For my dissertation I studied genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of phenotypic variation in the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans. I did post-doctoral work in the laboratories of Dr. Jeffrey Brodsky (University of Pittsburgh, USA), Dr. Julio Caramelo (Fundación Instituto Leloir, Argentina), Dr. Benjamin L. Schulz (SCMB, UQ), and the ARC Training Centre for Biopharmaceutical Innovation (AIBN, UQ). I have received Fellowships from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, CONICET-Argentina, Endeavour-Australia, and The University of Queensland.
Research Area and Impact
In my team, we believe we can help prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure diseases; and we work every day to design new antibody-based therapies and to develop novel approaches to discovering antibodies against difficult targets.
Book Chapters
Zacchi, Lucía F. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2019). Data-independent acquisition for yeast glycoproteomics. Yeast systems biology. (pp. 191-202) New York, NY USA: Humana Press. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-9736-7_11
Zacchi, L.F., Caramelo, J.J., McCracken, A.A. and Brodsky, J.L. (2016). Endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation and protein quality control. Encyclopedia of cell biology. (pp. 596-611) edited by Ralph A. Bradshaw and Philip D. Stahl. Waltham, MA, United States: Academic Press. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-394447-4.10072-0
Journal Articles
Perera, Binura, Wu, Yuao, Pickett, Jessica R., Panagides, Nadya, Barretto, Francisca M., Fercher, Christian, Sester, David P., Jones, Martina L., Ta, Hang T. and Zacchi, Lucia F. (2024). Isolation and Characterization of Antibodies Against Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 Reveals Putative Role for Ig-like Domains 2 and 3 in Cell-to-Cell Interaction. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 25 (24) 13650, 1-21. doi: 10.3390/ijms252413650
McCulloch, Timothy R., Rossi, Gustavo R., Miranda‐Hernandez, Socorro, Valencia‐Hernandez, Ana Maria, Alim, Louisa, Belle, Clemence J., Krause, Andrew, Zacchi, Lucia F., Lam, Pui Yeng, Nakamura, Kyohei, Kupz, Andreas, Wells, Timothy J. and Souza‐Fonseca‐Guimaraes, Fernando (2024). The immune checkpoint TIGIT is upregulated on T cells during bacterial infection and is a potential target for immunotherapy. Immunology and Cell Biology, 102 (8), 721-733. doi: 10.1111/imcb.12794
Zhao, Shen, Radenkovic, Filip, Flower, Robert, Zacchi, Lucia, Jones, Martina, Wilson, Brett, Liew, Yew Wah, Tung, John-Paul and Hyland, Catherine (2024). Characterization of novel Rh variant (CETW) associated with haemolytic disease of fetus and newborn using recombinant technology. Pathology, 56 (Supplement 1), S100-S100. doi: 10.1016/j.pathol.2023.12.336
Pickett, Jess R., Wu, Yuao, Zacchi, Lucia F. and Ta, Hang T. (2023). Targeting endothelial VCAM-1 in atherosclerosis: drug discovery and development of VCAM-1-directed novel therapeutics. Cardiovascular Research, 119 (13), 2278-2293. doi: 10.1093/cvr/cvad130
Panagides, Nadya, Zacchi, Lucia F., Souza, Mitchell J. De, Morales, Rodrigo A. V., Karnowski, Alexander, Liddament, Mark T., Owczarek, Catherine M., Mahler, Stephen M., Panousis, Con, Jones, Martina L. and Fercher, Christian (2022). Evaluation of phage display biopanning strategies for the selection of anti-cell surface receptor antibodies. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23 (15) 8470, 8470. doi: 10.3390/ijms23158470
Honer, Jonas, Niemeyer, Katie M., Fercher, Christian, Diez Tissera, Ana L., Jaberolansar, Noushin, Jafrani, Yohaann M. A., Zhou, Chun, Caramelo, Julio J., Shewan, Annette M., Schulz, Benjamin L., Brodsky, Jeffrey L. and Zacchi, Lucía F. (2021). TorsinA folding and N-linked glycosylation are sensitive to redox homeostasis. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. Molecular Cell Research, 1868 (9) 119073, 119073. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2021.119073
Jenull, Sabrina, Mair, Theresia, Tscherner, Michael, Penninger, Philipp, Zwolanek, Florian, Silao, Fitz-Gerald S., de San Vicente, Kontxi Martinez, Riedelberger, Michael, Bandari, Naga C., Shivarathri, Raju, Petryshyn, Andriy, Chauhan, Neeraj, Zacchi, Lucia F., -Landmann, Salomé LeibundGut, Ljungdahl, Per O. and Kuchler, Karl (2021). The histone chaperone HIR maintains chromatin states to control nitrogen assimilation and fungal virulence. Cell Reports, 36 (3) 109406, 109406. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109406
Rubbab, Tehseen, Pegg, Cassandra L., Phung, Toan K., Nouwens, Amanda S., Yeo, K.Y. Benjamin, Zacchi, Lucia F., Muhammad, Amna, Naqvi, S.M. Saqlan and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2021). N-glycosylation on Oryza sativa root germin-like protein 1 is conserved but not required for stability or activity. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 553, 72-77. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.03.024
Zacchi, Lucia F., Roche-Recinos, Dinora, Pegg, Cassandra L., Phung, Toan K., Napoli, Mark, Aitken, Campbell, Sandford, Vanessa, Mahler, Stephen M., Lee, Yih Yean, Schulz, Benjamin L. and Howard, Christopher B. (2021). Coagulation factor IX analysis in bioreactor cell culture supernatant predicts quality of the purified product. Communications Biology, 4 (1) 390, 390. doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01903-x
Fercher, Christian and Zacchi, Lucía F. (2020). Resolving the TorsinA Oligomerization Conundrum: The Glycan Hypothesis. Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 7 585643, 585643. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2020.585643
Pegg, Cassandra L., Zacchi, Lucia F., Recinos, Dinora Roche, Howard, Christopher B. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2020). Identification of novel glycosylation events on human serum-derived factor IX. Glycoconjugate Journal, 37 (4), 471-483. doi: 10.1007/s10719-020-09922-2
Pelingon, Ruby, Pegg, Cassandra L., Zacchi, Lucia F., Phung, Toan K., Howard, Christopher B., Xu, Ping, Hardy, Matthew P., Owczarek, Catherine M. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2020). Glycoproteomic measurement of site-specific polysialylation. Analytical Biochemistry, 596 113625, 113625. doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2020.113625
Zacchi, Lucia F., Roche Recinos, Dinora, Otte, Ellen, Aitken, Campbell, Hunt, Tony, Sandford, Vanessa, Lee, Yih Yean, Schulz, Benjamin L. and Howard, Christopher B. (2020). S-trap eliminates cell culture media polymeric surfactants for effective proteomic analysis of mammalian cell bioreactor supernatants. Journal of Proteome Research, 19 (5), 2149-2158. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.0c00106
Phung, Toan K., Zacchi, Lucia F. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2020). DIALib: an automated ion library generator for data independent acquisition mass spectrometry analysis of peptides and glycopeptides. Molecular Omics, 16 (2), 100-112. doi: 10.1039/c9mo00125e
Fortes, M. R.S., Zacchi, L. F., Nguyen, L. T., Raidan, F., Weller, M. M.D.C.A., Choo, J. J.Y., Reverter, A., Rego, J. P.A., Boe-Hansen, G. B., Porto-Neto, L. R., Lehnert, S. A., Cánovas, A., Schulz, B. L., Islas-Trejo, A., Medrano, J. F., Thomas, M. G. and Moore, S. S. (2018). Pre- and post-puberty expression of genes and proteins in the uterus of Bos indicus heifers: the luteal phase effect post-puberty. Animal Genetics, 49 (6), 539-549. doi: 10.1111/age.12721
Nguyen, L. T., Zacchi, L. F., Schulz, B. L., Moore, S. S. and Fortes, M. R. S. (2018). Adipose tissue proteomic analyses to study puberty in Brahman heifers. Journal of Animal Science, 96 (6), 2392-2398. doi: 10.1093/jas/sky128
Zacchi, Lucia F., Dittmar, John C., Mihalevic, Michael J., Shewan, Annette M., Schulz, Benjamin L., Brodsky, Jeffrey L. and Bernstein, Kara A. (2017). Early-onset torsion dystonia: a novel high-throughput yeast genetic screen for factors modifying protein levels of torsinA Delta E. Disease Models & Mechanisms, 10 (9), 1129-1140. doi: 10.1242/dmm.029926
Medus, Maximo L., Gomez, Gabriela E., Zacchi, Lucia F., Couto, Paula M., Labriola, Carlos A., Labanda, Maria S., Bielsa, Rodrigo Corti, Clérico, Eugenia M., Schulz, Benjamin L. and Caramelo, Julio J. (2017). N-glycosylation triggers a dual selection pressure in eukaryotic secretory proteins. Scientific Reports, 7 (1) 8788, 8788. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09173-6
Zacchi, Lucia F. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2016). SWATH-MS glycoproteomics reveals consequences of defects in the glycosylation machinery. Molecular and Cellular Proteomics, 15 (7), 2435-2447. doi: 10.1074/mcp.M115.056366
Zacchi, Lucia F. and Schulz, Benjamin L. (2015). N-glycoprotein macroheterogeneity: biological implications and proteomic characterization.. Glycoconjugate Journal, 33 (3), 1-18. doi: 10.1007/s10719-015-9641-3
Principe, Analia, Alvarez, Florencia, Castro, Marina G., Zacchi, Lucia F., Fischer, Sonia E., Mori, Gladys B. and Jofre, Edgardo (2014). Erratum to: Biocontrol and PGPR features in native strains isolated from saline soils of Argentina. Current Microbiology, 69 (3), 404-404. doi: 10.1007/s00284-014-0601-0
Zacchi, Lucía F., Wu, Hui-Chuan, Bell, Samantha L., Millen, Linda, Paton, Adrienne W., Paton, James C., Thomas, Philip J., Zolkiewski, Michal and Brodsky, Jeffrey L. (2014). The BiP molecular chaperone plays multiple roles during the biogenesis of TorsinA, an AAA+ ATPase associated with the neurological disease Early-Onset Torsion Dystonia. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289 (18), 12727-12747. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M113.529123
Li, Hui, Wu, Hui-Chuan, Liu, Zhonghua, Zacchi, Lucia F., Brodsky, Jeffrey L. and Zolkiewski, Michal (2014). Intracellular Complexes of the Early-Onset Torsion Dystonia-Associated AAA+ ATPase TorsinA. SpringerPlus, 3 (1) 743, 743.1-743.5. doi: 10.1186/2193-1801-3-743
Gerami-Nejad, Maryam, Zacchi, Lucia F., McClellan, Mark, Matter, Kathleen and Berman, Judith (2013). Shuttle vectors for facile cloning through gap repair and integration into a neutral locus in Candida albicans. Microbiology, 159 (Part 3), 565-579. doi: 10.1099/mic.0.064097-0
Zacchi, Lucia F., Selmecki, Anna M., Berman, Judith and Davis, Dana A. (2010). Low dosage of histone H4 leads to growth defects and morphological changes in Candida albicans. PLoS One, 5 (5), e10629.1-e10629.12. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010629
Zacchi, Lucia F., Schulz, Wade L. and Davis, Dana A. (2010). HOS2 and HDA1 encode histone deacetylases with opposing roles in Candida albicans morphogenesis. PLoS One, 5 (8), e12171.1-e12171.7. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012171
Zacchi, Lucia F., Gomez-Raja, Jonathan and Davis, Dana A. (2010). Mds3 regulates morphogenesis in Candida albicans through the TOR pathway. Molecular and Cellular Biology, 30 (14), 3695-3710. doi: 10.1128/MCB.01540-09
Principe, Analia, Alvarez, Florencia, Castro, Marina G., Zacchi, Lucia, Fischer, Sonia E., Mori, Gladys B. and Jofre, Edgardo (2007). Biocontrol and PGPR features in native strains isolated from saline soils of Argentina. Current Microbiology, 55 (4), 314-322. doi: 10.1007/s00284-006-0654-9
Conference Paper
Zacchi, Lucia Florencia, Wu, Hui-Chuan, Niemeyer, Katie, Bell, Samantha, Zolkiewski, Michal and Brodsky, Jeffrey (2012). The ER chaperones BiP and Jem1/Scj1 are genetic modifiers of TorsinA, the AAA plus ATPase associated with the neurological disease primary torsion dystonia. Experimental Biology Meeting, San Diego, CA, United States, 21-25 April 2012. Hoboken, NJ, United States: John Wiley & Sons.