Guido Capitani, 1970 - 2017

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Guido Capitani passed away on May 2, 2017. Guido was 46, and is much missed by his friends and colleagues. He was a prolific crystallographer, with 70 protein structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) over the past two decades. He also made significant contributions to computational structural biology, particularly in the analysis of protein-protein interfaces. He was a devoted scientist, with 69 peer-reviewed publications over his life, and a mentor to a number of masters, PhD, and post-doctoral scientists.

Guido grew up in Bologna, Italy. His education was marked by accolades, with perfect scores on high school and university final exams. He studied chemistry for two years at the University of Bologna and then at the University of Padua, where he graduated cum laude. He moved to Switzerland for his doctorate, where he would reside for the remainder of his career. His doctoral thesis, "X-ray crystallographic studies of chloroplastic thioredoxins and of vitamin B6-dependent enzymes," earned him a doctorate in biophysics summa cum laude from Basel Biozentrum in 1998. From there, he worked with Markus Grütter at the University of Zurich, elucidating the structures of numerous proteins. Notable structures include thioredoxin structures, glutamate decarboxylase, and bacterial type 1 pili. The type 1 pilus enables E. coli to infect humans by attaching to sugar moieties that reside on the urethral epithelium. Work highly relevant to our well-being. He also began teaching courses on crystallography and bioinformatics during this period. He enjoyed teaching and continued lecturing at the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich throughout his career.
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In 2008, Guido started a successful research group at Paul Scherrer Institute. He continued to solve protein structures at the Swiss Light Source, and also put forward a program of large-scale bioinformatic analysis of structures. This includes the Evolutionary Protein-Protein Interface Classifier (EPPIC) for assessing the biological relevance of protein-protein interfaces. His expertise in protein interfaces was widely appreciated in the community, and Guido was appointed as an assessor for the Critical Assessment of protein Structure Prediction (CASP) this year. Guido was a remarkable person. He was soft-spoken and considerate, and always had an open ear available for anyone.
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We are interested in protein structure both from a structure determination and from a structural bioinformatics perspective, which means obtaining high resolution "bioimages" of proteins and extracting as much information as possible from them. This information can be useful not only to understand protein structure (structure analysis) but also for structure determination and validation. We are studying protein structures and crystal lattices by employing a variety of approaches, in particular concepts from the field of molecular evolution. We have demonstrated that this approach can be successfully applied to address the problem of distinguishing, in a crystal structure, the biologically relevant interface(s) from those that are merely lattice contacts (reviewed in Capitani et al., 2016). As the first step we used Ka/Ks ratios to detect if a protein-protein interface has a biological character (CRK method, Schärer et al., 2010). In a second phase we used two sequence entropy-based evolutionary indicators and a simple geometric criterion to obtain accurate and efficient classification of protein-protein interfaces (Duarte et al., 2012). This approach (EPPIC, Evolutionary Protein Protein Interface Classifier) is available to the community as an open source command-line tool and as a web server (www.eppic-web.org(link is external)), linked to a database (EPPIC db) that contains precomputed analysis results (Baskaran et al., 2014) for nearly one million interfaces as of April 2016.

Experimentally, we are involved, in collaboration with the Glockshuber group (ETHZ), in structural studies of a proteinaceous organelle, the type 1 pilus from uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC), and in particular of its main subunit FimA. The type 1 pilus enables UPEC to infect humans by attaching to sugar moieties that reside on the urethral epithelium. It represents a very interesting system to study hybrid approaches to structure determination and structure-function relationships.

2018

  • Resolution extension by image summing in serial femtosecond crystallography of two-dimensional membrane-protein crystals Casadei Cecilia M, Tsai C, Barty A, Hunter Mark S, Zatsepin Nadia A, Padeste C, Capitani G, Benner WHenry, Boutet S, Hau-Riege Stefan P, Kupitz C, Messerschmidt M, Ogren John I, Pardini T, Rothschild Kenneth J, Sala L, Segelke B, Williams Garth J, Evans James E, Li X, Coleman M, Pedrini B, Frank M
    IUCRJ 5, 103 (2018).
    DOI: 10.1107/S2052252517017043(link is external)
  • Structural Basis of Formation of the Microtubule Minus-End-Regulating CAMSAP-Katanin Complex Jiang K, Faltova L, Hua S, Capitani G, Prota Andrea E, Landgraf C, Volkmer R, Kammerer Richard A, Steinmetz Michel O, Akhmanova A
    STRUCTURE -, S0969212617304422 (2018).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2017.12.017(link is external)

2017

  • Microtubule minus-end regulation at spindle poles by an ASPM-katanin complex. Jiang K, Rezabkova L, Hua S, Liu Q, Capitani G, Maarten Altelaar AF, Heck AJR, Kammerer RA, Steinmetz MO, Akhmanova A
    NATURE CELL BIOLOGY 19, 480 (2017).
    DOI: 10.1038/NCB3511(link is external)
  • Structural basis of katanin p60:p80 complex formation Rezabkova L, Jiang K, Capitani G, Prota Andrea E, Akhmanova A, Steinmetz Michel O, Kammerer Richard A
    Scientific Reports 7, 14893 (2017).
    DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14194-2(link is external)
  • Structure of the Full-length VEGFR-1 Extracellular Domain in Complex with VEGF-A. Markovic-Mueller S, Stuttfeld E, Asthana M, Weinert T, Bliven S, Goldie KN, Kisko K, Capitani G, Ballmer-Hofer K
    STRUCTURE 25, 341 (2017).
    DOI: 10.1016/J.STR.2016.12.012(link is external)

2016

  • Accelerating the Association of the Most Stable Protein-Ligand Complex by more than Two Orders of Magnitude Giese C, Eras J, Kern A, Schärer Martin A, Capitani G, Glockshuber R
    ANGEWANDTE CHEMIE-INTERNATIONAL EDITION , (2016).
    DOI: 10.1002/anie.201603652(link is external)
  • Understanding the fabric of protein crystals: computational classification of biological interfaces and crystal contacts Capitani G, Duarte Jose M, Baskaran K, Bliven S, Somody Joseph C
    BIOINFORMATICS 32, 481 (2016).
    DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btv622(link is external)

2015

  • Functional roles of the hexamer organization of plant glutamate decarboxylase Astegno A, Capitani G, Dominici P
    BIOCHIMICA ET BIOPHYSICA ACTA (BBA) - PROTEINS AND PROTEOMICS 1854, 1229 (2015).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.bbapap.2015.01.001(link is external)
  • Structure of the BoNT/A1 - receptor complex Benoit Roger M, Frey D, Wieser Mara M, Thieltges Katherine M, Jaussi R, Capitani G, Kammerer Richard A
    TOXICON 107, 25 (2015).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.toxicon.2015.08.002(link is external)
  • The use of ene adducts to study and engineer enoyl-thioester reductases. Rosenthal RG, Vogeli B, Quade N, Capitani G, Kiefer P, Vorholt JA, Ebert MO, Erb TJ
    NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY 11, 398 (2015).
    DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1794(link is external)
  • Time-resolved structural studies with serial crystallography: A new light on retinal proteins Panneels Valerie, Wu Wenting, Tsai ChingJu, Nogly Przemek, Rheinberger Jan, Jaeger Kathrin, Cicchetti Gregor, Gati Cornelius, Kick Leonhard M, Sala Leonardo, Capitani Guido, Milne Chris, Padeste Celestino, Pedrini Bill, Li XiaoDan, Standfuss Joerg, Abela Rafael, Schertler Gebhard
    STRUCTURAL DYNAMICS 2, 041718 (2015).
    DOI: 10.1063/1.4922774(link is external)

2014

  • 7 angstrom resolution in protein two-dimensional-crystal X-ray diffraction at Linac Coherent Light Source Pedrini Bill, Tsai Ching-Ju, Capitani Guido, Padeste Celestino, Hunter Mark S, Zatsepin Nadia A, Barty Anton, Benner W Henry, Boutet Sebastien, Feld Geoffrey K, Hau-Riege Stefan P, Kirian Richard A, Kupitz Christopher, Messerschmitt Marc, Ogren John I, Pardini Tommaso, Segelke Brent, Williams Garth J, Spence John C H, Abela Rafael, Coleman Matthew, Evans James E, Schertler Gebhard F X, Frank Matthias, Li Xiao-Dan
    PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 369, UNSP 20130500 (2014).
    DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2013.0500(link is external)
  • A Type IV Translocated Legionella Cysteine Phytase Counteracts Intracellular Growth Restriction by Phytate Weber Stephen, Stirnimann Christian U, Wieser Mara, Frey Daniel, Meier Roger, Engelhardt Sabrina, Li Xiaodan, Capitani Guido, Kammerer Richard A, Hilbi Hubert
    JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 289, 34175-34188 (2014).
    DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M114.592568(link is external)
  • Conformational transitions driven by pyridoxal-5 '-phosphate uptake in the psychrophilic Serine hydroxymethyltransferase from Psychromonas ingrahamii Angelaccio Sebastiana, Dworkowski Florian, Di Bello Angela, Milano Teresa, Capitani Guido, Pascarella Stefano
    PROTEINS-STRUCTURE FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS 82, 2831-2841 (2014).
    DOI: 10.1002/prot.24646(link is external)
  • How Periplasmic Thioredoxin TlpA Reduces Bacterial Copper Chaperone ScoI and Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit II (CoxB) Prior to Metallation Abicht Helge K, Schaerer Martin A, Quade Nick, Ledermann Raphael, Mohorko Elisabeth, Capitani Guido, Hennecke Hauke, Glockshuber Rudi
    JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 289, (2014).
    DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M114.607127(link is external)
  • Structural basis for recognition of synaptic vesicle protein 2C by botulinum neurotoxin A Benoit Roger M, Frey Daniel, Hilbert Manuel, Kevenaar Josta T, Wieser Mara M, Stirnimann Christian U, McMillan David, Ceska Tom, Lebon Florence, Jaussi Rolf, Steinmetz Michel O, Schertler Gebhard F X, Hoogenraad Casper C, Capitani Guido, Kammerer Richard A
    NATURE 505, 108-+ (2014).
    DOI: 10.1038/nature12732(link is external)
  • Structural basis for-10 promoter element melting by environmentally induced sigma factors Campagne Sebastien, Marsh May E, Capitani Guido, Vorholt Julia A, Allain Frederic H-T
    NATURE STRUCTURAL & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 21, 269-276 (2014).
    DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2777(link is external)

2013

  • (4R)- and (4S)-Fluoroproline in the Conserved cis-Prolyl Peptide Bond of the Thioredoxin Fold: Tertiary Structure Context Dictates Ring Puckering Rubini Marina, Schaerer Martin A, Capitani Guido, Glockshuber Rudi
    CHEMBIOCHEM 14, 1053-1057 (2013).
    DOI: 10.1002/cbic.201300178(link is external)
  • An analysis of oligomerization interfaces in transmembrane proteins Duarte Jose M, Biyani Nikhil, Baskaran Kumaran, Capitani Guido
    BMC STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY 13, 21 (2013).
    DOI: 10.1186/1472-6807-13-21(link is external)
  • Quaternary Dynamics of the SecA Motor Drive Translocase Catalysis Gouridis G, Karamanou S, Sardis MF, Schaerer MA, Capitani G, Economou A
    MOLECULAR CELL 52, 655-666 (2013).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.molcel.2013.10.036(link is external)

2012

  • Interaction of mammalian end binding proteins with CAP-Gly domains of CLIP-170 and p150(glued) Bjelic S, De Groot CO, Scharer MA, Jaussi R, Bargsten K, Salzmann M, Frey D, Capitani G, Kammerer RA, Steinmetz MO
    JOURNAL OF STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY 177, 160 (2012).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jsb.2011.11.010(link is external)
  • Protein interface classification by evolutionary analysis Duarte JM, Srebniak A, Scharer MA, Capitani G
    BMC BIOINFORMATICS 13, 334 (2012).
    DOI: 10.1186/1471-2105-13-334(link is external)
  • Quality control of disulfide bond formation in pilus subunits by the chaperone FimC Crespo MD, Puorger C, Scharer MA, Eidam O, Grutter MG, Capitani G, Glockshuber R
    NATURE CHEMICAL BIOLOGY 8, 707-713 (2012).
    DOI: 10.1038/NCHEMBIO.1019(link is external)

2011

  • A Prokaryotic S1P Lyase Degrades Extracellular S1P In Vitro and In Vivo: Implication for Treating Hyperproliferative Disorders Ho P, Huwiler A, Bourquin F, Kotelevets N, Pastukhov O, Capitani G, Grütter Markus G, Zangemeister-Wittke U
    PLOS ONE 6, e22436 (2011).
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022436(link is external)
  • PLP-dependent enzymes as entry and exit gates of sphingolipid metabolism Bourquin F, Capitani G, Grutter MG
    PROTEIN SCIENCE 20, 1492 (2011).
    DOI: 10.1002/pro.679(link is external)
  • Structural basis for reduced activity of 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate synthase affected by a mutation linked to andromonoecy Scharer MA, Eliot AC, Grutter MG, Capitani G
    FEBS LETTERS 585, 111 (2011).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2010.11.013(link is external)

2010

  • CRK: An evolutionary approach for distinguishing biologically relevant interfaces from crystal contacts Scharer MA, Grutter MG, Capitani G
    PROTEINS-STRUCTURE FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS 78, 2707 (2010).
    DOI: 10.1002/prot.22787(link is external)
  • Molecular Insights into Mammalian End-binding Protein Heterodimerization De Groot CO, Jelesarov I, Damberger FF, Bjelic S, Scharer MA, Bhavesh NS, Grigoriev I, Buey RM, Wuthrich K, Capitani G, Akhmanova A, Steinmetz MO
    JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 285, 5802 (2010).
    DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M109.068130(link is external)
  • Structure and Function of Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Lyase, a Key Enzyme of Sphingolipid Metabolism Bourquin F, Riezman H, Capitani G, Grutter MG
    STRUCTURE 18, 1054 (2010).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2010.05.011(link is external)

2009

  • A Common Structural Basis for pH- and Calmodulin-mediated Regulation in Plant Glutamate Decarboxylase Gut H, Dominici P, Pilati S, Astegno A, Petoukhov MV, Svergun DI, Grutter MG, Capitani G
    JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 392, 334 (2009).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2009.06.080(link is external)
  • Mutation of His465 Alters the pH-dependent Spectroscopic Properties of Escherichia coli Glutamate Decarboxylase and Broadens the Range of Its Activity toward More Alkaline pH Pennacchietti E, Lammens TM, Capitani G, Franssen MCR, John RA, Bossa F, De Biase D
    JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 284, 31587 (2009).
    DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M109.049577(link is external)
  • Oxidoreductase activity of oligosaccharyltransferase subunits Ost3p and Ost6p defines site-specific glycosylation efficiency Schulz BL, Stirnimann CU, Grimshaw JPA, Brozzo MS, Fritsch F, Mohorko E, Capitani G, Glockshuber R, Grutter MG, Aebi M
    PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 106, 11061 (2009).
    DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0812515106(link is external)

2008

  • Crystal structure of the ternary FimC-FimF(t)-FimD(N) complex indicates conserved pilus chaperone-subunit complex recognition by the usher FimD Eidam O, Dworkowski FSN, Glockshuber R, Grutter MG, Capitani G
    FEBS LETTERS 582, 651 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2008.01.030(link is external)
  • DsbL and DsbI form a specific dithiol oxidase system for periplasmic arylsulfate sulfotransferase in uropathogenic Escherichia coli Grimshaw JPA, Stirnimann CU, Brozzo MS, Malojcic G, Gruetter MG, Capitani G, Glockshuber R
    JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 380, 667 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2008.05.031(link is external)
  • Evidence for proton shuffling in a thioredoxin-like protein during catalysis Narzi D, Siu SWI, Stirnimann CU, Grimshaw JPA, Glockshuber R, Capitani G, Bockmann RA
    JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 382, 978 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2008.07.061(link is external)
  • Identifying key residues of sphinganine-1-phosphate lyase for function in vivo and in vitro Mukhopadhyay D, Howell KS, Riezman H, Capitani G
    JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY 283, 20159 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M709753200(link is external)
  • Infinite kinetic stability against dissociation of supramolecular protein complexes through donor strand complementation Puorger C, Eidam O, Capitani G, Erilov D, Grutter MG, Glockshuber R
    STRUCTURE 16, 631 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2008.01.013(link is external)
  • Molecular evolution of B6 enzymes: Binding of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate and Lys41Arg substitution turn ribonuclease A into a model B6 protoenzyme Vacca R, Giannattasio S, Capitani G, Marra E, Christen P
    BMC BIOCHEMISTRY 9, 17 (2008).
    DOI: 10.1186/1471-2091-9-17(link is external)

2007

  • Inhibition of caspase-2 by a designed ankyrin repeat protein: Specificity, structure, and inhibition mechanism Schweizer A, Roschitzki-Voser H, Amstutz P, Briand C, Gulotti-Georgieva M, Prenosil E, Binz HK, Capitani G, Baici A, Pluckthun A, Grutter MG
    STRUCTURE 15, 625 (2007).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2007.03.014(link is external)

2006

  • Escherichia coli acid resistance: pH-sensing, activation by chloride and autoinhibition in GadB Gut H, Pennacchietti E, John RA, Bossa F, Capitani G, De Biase D, Grutter MG
    EMBO JOURNAL 25, 2643 (2006).
    DOI: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7601107(link is external)
  • Evidence for a novel domain of bacterial outer membrane ushers Capitani G, Eidam O, Grutter MG
    PROTEINS-STRUCTURE FUNCTION AND BIOINFORMATICS 65, 816 (2006).
    DOI: 10.1002/prot.21147(link is external)
  • High-resolution structures of Escherichia coli cDsbD in different redox states: A combined crystallographic, biochemical and computational study Stirnimann CU, Rozhkova A, Grauschopf U, Bockmann RA, Glockshuber R, Capitani G, Grutter MG
    JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 358, 829 (2006).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2006.02.030(link is external)
  • Structural and functional insights into the assembly of type 1 pili from Escherichia coli Capitani G, Eidam O, Glockshuber R, Grutter MG
    MICROBES AND INFECTION 8, 2284 (2006).
    DOI: 10.1016/micinf.2006.03.013(link is external)
  • Structure of the PRYSPRY-domain: Implications for autoinflammatory diseases Grutter C, Briand C, Capitani G, Mittl PRE, Papin S, Tschopp E, Grutter MG
    FEBS LETTERS 580, 99 (2006).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.febslet.2005.11.076(link is external)

2005

  • Allosteric inhibition of aminoglycoside phosphotransferase by a designed ankyrin repeat protein Kohl A, Amstutz P, Parizek P, Binz HK, Briand C, Capitani G, Forrer P, Pluckthun A, Grutter MG
    STRUCTURE 13, 1131 (2005).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2005.04.020(link is external)
  • Structural basis and kinetics of DsbD-dependent cytochrome c maturation Stirnimann CU, Rozhkova A, Grauschopf U, Grutter MG, Glockshuber R, Capitani G
    STRUCTURE 13, 985 (2005).
    DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2005.04.014(link is external)
  • Structural basis of chaperone-subunit complex recognition by the type 1 pilus assembly platform FimD Nishiyama M, Horst R, Eidam O, Herrmann T, Ignatov O, Vetsch M, Bettendorff P, Jelesarov I, Grutter MG, Wuthrich K, Glockshuber R, Capitani G
    EMBO JOURNAL 24, 2075 (2005).
    DOI: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7600693(link is external)

2004

  • Structural basis and kinetics of inter- and intramolecular disulfide exchange in the redox catalyst DsbD Rozhkova A, Stirnimann CU, Frei P, Grauschopf U, Brunisholz R, Grutter MG, Capitani G, Glockshuber R
    EMBO JOURNAL 23, 1709 (2004).
    DOI: 10.1038/sj.emboj.7600178(link is external)

2003

  • Crystal structure and functional analysis of Escherichia coli glutamate decarboxylase Capitani G, De Biase D, Aurizi C, Gut H, Bossa F, Grutter MG
    EMBO JOURNAL 22, 4027 (2003).
    DOI: 10.1093/emboj/cdg403(link is external)