Sara Tufi

Current position:

PhD at Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam

Contact:

+31 (0)20 5983232

sara.tufi@vu.nl


Sara Tufi

Current research

The goal of my PhD project is to develop an untargeted and targeted metabolomic approaches suitable for studying neurotoxic effects on the invertebrate species Lymnaea Stagnalis and to apply this strategy to investigate metabolic changes caused by neurotoxicant exposure. Multivariate data analysis and biochemical networks analysis will be used to uncover the alteration of metabolic pathways and to discover biomarkers of exposure. Moreover the metabolomics approaches will be applied in Effect Directed Analysis by exploring the organism metabolism related to the exposure of surface water extracts. To associate observed the toxic effects on L. stagnalis a targeted and untargeted analysis of the extracts will be carried out.

Expertise

  • Mass Spectrometry
  • Liquid Chromatography
  • Gas Chromatography
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Metabolomics

  • Ecotoxicology
  • Biomarkers
  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Biochemical Network Mapping

Research interests

  • Untargeted and targeted metabolomics
  • Metabolomics in environmental studies
  • Analytical chemistry with a focus in mass spectrometry and chromatography
  • Bioinformatics in the –omics sciences
  • Ecotoxicogenomics and its integration in environmental monitoring and risk assessment

Curriculum vitae

Research Experience

Since June 2012

PhD at Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam
Research Topic: Environmental Metabolomics and its application to Effect Directed Analysis

Jan 2010 - May 2012

Research fellowship at National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition, Rome, Italy
Research Topic: Development and validation of analytical methods based on LC-MS/MS for the quantification of bioactive molecules in human nutritional research

Education

Oct 2008 - July 2010

Master’s degree in Analytical Chemistry and Applied Methodologies
Thesis Title: “Urinary metabolic profiling of subjects under confinement stress during the Mars500 project using HPLC-MS/MS and multivariate analysis”
Department of Chemistry, University of Rome “La Sapienza”

Oct 2004 - May 2008

Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Thesis Title: “Development of proteomics-based method for carbonic anhydrase II quantification in Down’s syndrome subjects serum”
Department of Chemistry, University of Rome “La Sapienza”

Presentations

Tufi, S. et al., 2014. A metabolomic approach to assess neurotoxic effects of Imidacloprid on the freshwater snail Lymnaea Stagnalis. Oral presentation, 10th International Conference of the Metabolomics Society, Tsuruoka,  Japan.

Tufi, S. et al., 2013. Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) —a powerful analytical platform to obtain a broad metabolite coverage in metabolic profiling. Poster presentation, HPLC 2013, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Tufi, S. et al., 2013. Cross-Platform metabolic profiling of the aquatic model organism Lymnaea Stagnalis for neurotoxicity assessment. Poster presentation, 9th International Conference of the Metabolomics Society, Glasgow, Ireland.

Tufi, S. et al., 2012. Organism metabolic functioning directign toxicant identification. Poster presentation, NORMAN workshop, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Publications

Tufi, S., Lamoree, M.H., De Boer, J., Leonards, P.E.G., 2015. Simultaneous analysis of multiple neurotransmitters by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry. Journal of Chromatography A, in press. doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2015.03.056

Tufi, S., Lamoree, M.H., De Boer, J., Leonards, P.E.G., 2015. Cross-platform metabolic profiling: application to the aquatic model organism Lymnaea stagnalis. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 407, 7, 1901-1912. doi: 10.1007/s00216-014-8431-2

Brack, W., Govender, S., Schulze, T., Krauss, M., Hu, M., Muz, M., Hollender, J., Schirmer, K., Schollee, J., Hidasi, A., Slobodnik, J., Rabova, Z., Ait-Aissa, S., Sonavane, M., Carere, M., Lamoree, M., Leonards, P., Tufi, S., Ouyang, X., Schriks, M., Thomas, K., Almeida, A.C. de, Froment, J., Hammers-Wirtz, M., Ahel, M., Koprivica, S., Hollert, H., Seiler, T.-B., Paolo, C.D., Tindall, A., Spirhanzlova, P., 2013. EDA-EMERGE: an FP7 initial training network to equip the next generation of young scientists with the skills to address the complexity of environmental contamination with emerging pollutants. Environ. Sci. Eur. 25, 18. doi:10.1186/2190-4715-25-18

Lucarini, M., D’Evoli, L., Tufi, S., Gabrielli, P., Paoletti, S., Di Ferdinando, S., Lombardi-Boccia, G., 2012. Influence of growing system on nitrate accumulation in two varieties of lettuce and red radicchio of Treviso. J. Sci. Food Agric. 92, 2796–2799. doi:10.1002/jsfa.5526

Lucarini, M., Saccani, G., D’Evoli, L., Tufi, S., Aguzzi, A., Gabrielli, P., Marletta, L., Lombardi-Boccia, G., 2013. Micronutrients in Italian ham: a survey of traditional products. Food Chem. 140, 837–842. doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2012.10.020


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Workplace

Marie Curie ITN EU-FP7 project