Giampaolo Trivellin

My research activity concerns the study of the genetic defects causing gigantism in children and acromegaly in adults. I began by studying genetic defects in the AIP and CDKN1B genes during my PhD in Padova, Italy, in the laboratory of Prof. Carla Scaroni and continued this line of study during my first post-doctoral experience in Prof. Marta Korbonits’s lab at the Queen Mary University of London, UK.

I then continued my post-doctoral training in Dr. Stratakis’s lab at the NIH, US. In his lab, in 2014 identified a new gene, an orphan GPCR named GPR101, involved in the most extreme cases of infantile-onset pituitary gigantism. My recent work was focused on the identification of GPR101 ligands and on understanding how this receptor regulates children’s growth by employing transgenic animal models (mice and zebrafish) and cell lines.

My career plan is to become a Principal Investigator in the field of Genetic Endocrinology. To this end, in March 2020 I started a junior investigatorship at Humanitas Research Hospital, Italy (Marie Curie fellowship) to establish my research line. My current research interest is to functionally characterize GPR101 by dissecting the epigenetic mechanisms controlling its expression in normal and tumor pituitary cells and by quantifying at single-cell level the intracellular effects elicited by newly discovered GPR101 inhibitors. In December 2022, I became a fixed-term researcher at Humanitas University.

1. Duplications disrupt chromatin architecture and rewire GPR101-enhancer communication in X-linked acrogigantism Franke M, Daly AF, Palmeira L, Tirosh A, Stigliano A, Trifan E, Faucz FR, Abboud D, Petrossians P, Tena JJ, Vitali E, Lania AG, Gómez-Skarmeta JL, Beckers A*, Stratakis CA*, Trivellin G* Am J Hum Genet. 2022 Apr 7;109(4):553-570. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2022.02.002
2. The X-linked acrogigantism-associated gene gpr101 is a regulator of early embryonic development and growth in zebrafish Trivellin G, Tirosh A, Hernández-Ramírez LC, et al. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2021, 520:111091. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2020.111091
3. Characterization of GPR101 transcript structure and expression patterns Trivellin G, Bjelobaba I, Daly AF, et al. J Mol Endocrinol. 2016 Aug;57(2):97-111. doi: 10.1530/JME-16-0045
4. Gigantism and acromegaly due to Xq26 microduplications and GPR101 defects Trivellin G*, Daly AF*, Faucz FR, et al. N Engl J Med. 2014 Dec 18;371(25):2363-74. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1408028
5. MicroRNA miR-107 is overexpressed in pituitary adenomas and in vitro inhibits the expression of aryl hydrocarbon receptor-interacting protein (AIP) Trivellin G, Butz H, Delhove J, et al. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2012 Sep;303(6):E708-19. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.00546.2011