Eric di Luccio, Ph.D.

Research & Teaching

• 01/2010 - present : Assistant-Professor (tenure-track) - Kyungpook National University (KNU), Korea
• 06/2008 – 12/2009 : Postdoc in computational biology. University of California at Davis (UC Davis), USA
• 11/2003-05/2008 : Postdoc in structural biology, protein X-Ray crystallography. UC Davis, USA
• 1999-2003 : Master’s degree and Ph.D. Neuroscience (structural biology part): Laboratory of biochemistry UMR 6560 CNRS, University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II, Marseille, France.

Research funds

• 2010-2013 : National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant to Eric di Luccio (ID: 2010010837)
• 2010-2011 : KNU research grant and department/university funds to Eric di Luccio (ID: 201005950000)

Education

• 2001-2003 : Ph.D. in Neuroscience, minor in Biochemistry. Thesis defended with outstanding awards. University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II, France.
• 2000 : Master’s degree in Neuroscience, minor in Biochemistry with awards. University of the Mediterranean Aix-Marseille II, France.
• 1999 : Bachelor’s degree of Science, major in Biochemistry and structural biology. University of Science Albert Thomas, Limoges. France.

Special achievement

• June 2008-September 2008: Astronaut selection program class of 2009 - European Space Agency (ESA). I was one of the few selectee out of 10,000 applicants. I was selected based on excellence criteria: education, scientific skills, research achievements, airplane pilot license and fitness criteria. I underwent astronaut tests at one of the German Aerospace Center (DLR Germany).
• FAA certified private pilot airplane single engine land on Cessna 152 & 172 skyhawk

Awards and Fellowships

• 2009 : Art in crystallography price awarded by the American Crystallographic Association (ACA)
• 2005 : Best Poster prize: 17th West Coast Protein Crystallography Workshop - Assilomar, CA- USA
• 2003 : First Poster prize: 5th Scientific days of the Jean Roche research Institut - Marseille – France
• 2001-2003 : 3 years Ph.D. Fellowship (2001-2003) awarded by Conseil Régional de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur - France
• 1999-2000 : 1 Year pre-doctoral fellowship (1999-2000) awarded by Conseil Régional de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur – France

Scientific Meetings

• 2008 : Workshop on Applications of Protein Models in Biomedical Research – UCSF San-Francisco CA – USA
• 2005 : 17thWest Coast Protein Crystallography Workshop 2005 – Assilomar, CA- USA
  “X-ray structure at 2.1 Å of D-xylulose Kinase from E. coli. Catalytic mechanism”- Poster – Best poster price
• 2004 : Northwest Crystallography Workshop – Seattle, WA- USA
  “X-ray structure at 2.3 Å of D-xylulose Kinase from E. coli”- Poster
• 2003 : 5thScientific days of the Jean Roche research Institut – Marseille – France
  “Kinetics, Structural and Electrophysiological Studies of the in vitro folding /oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide- bridged scorpion toxin” - Poster – First Price Award
• “Scorpion Toxins or Analog Thereof: Molecular Modeling and Docking Simulations on Human Small-Conductance Ca2+-Activated K+Channel types 2 and 3” - Poster
• 2002 : First International Conference on Biomedical Spectroscopy – Cardiff -UK
  “Kinetics, Structural and Electrophysiological Studies of the in vitro folding / oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide- bridged scorpion toxin” - Oral communication
• 2002 : 12th Peptides and Proteins Congress G.F.P.P. – Aussois – France
  “Kinetics, Structural and Electrophysiological Studies of the in vitro folding / oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide- bridged scorpion toxin”- Oral communication
• 2002 : Biotechnology meeting – Marseille – France
  “Kinetics, Structural and Electrophysiological Studies of the in vitro folding / oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide- bridged scorpion toxin” - Oral communication
• 2001 : 4thScientific days of the Jean Roche research Institut – Marseille – France
  “Kinetics Studies of the in vitro folding / oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide-bridged scorpion toxin”- Oral communication
• 2000 : 26thEuropean Peptide Symposium – Montpellier- France
  “Kinetics Studies of the in vitro folding / oxidation of Maurotoxin, a four disulfide-bridged scorpion toxin”- Poster

Technics

• Molecular biology: PCR techniques, DNA cloning, gene disruption, site-directed mutagenesis
• Protein biochemistry: Protein expression and optimization in E. coli, tagged protein purification, Peptide/protein purification, reverse phase, ionic exchange HPLC, gel filtration
• Enzyme kinetics and pharmacological studies: Steady state, fluorescence quenching, Isothermal Titration Calorimetry (ITC)
• Protein 3D structure determination: X-ray crystallography methods: solve the structure, refinement, validation, and interpretation of structures
• Computational biochemistry: Determination of enzyme’s catalytical mechanism, in silico drug design
• Molecular modeling / protein structure prediction: Protein engineering, Homology modeling, models validation, energy minimisation, molecular dynamics simulations, prediction of domain motions docking simulations. I’m developing new methods and algorithms in molecular modeling of proteins
• Bioinformatics: Databases mining techniques, hidden markov models, very familiar with proteins databases search.
• Computer science: Use and management of crystallographic/structural biology softwares, molecular modeling softwares, databases mining tools, Unix, MacOS X fluent, unix scripts writing.I Designed, built and manage a 12 processor computer cluster – 6 nodes (XServe MacOS X) for all three crystallography labs in UC Davis. The cluster is being used for our data processing needs.
• Mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF), Dynamic light scattering (DLS), Circular dichroïsm (CD)

Activities, Personnal activities

• Sport: Surfing, avid bicycle rider, mountain biking, skiing, hiking, running
• Flying airplanes, US FAA-certified private pilot
• Reading and novel writing
• Avid enthusiast of the human space exploration
• Languages: French, English
• Born March 1st, 1974 in Bastia (France)
• Citizenship: French. USA permanent resident  (green card holder)