Rate My Professor Ezio Rosato

Professor Ezio Rosato serves as Professor of Biology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Leicester, affiliated with the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology. He earned his Laurea in Scienze Biologiche from the Università di Padova, Italy, and his Dottorato di Ricerca (PhD) in Genetica from the Università di Ferrara. His doctoral laboratory work was performed in the Department of Biology at the Università di Padova and the Department of Genetics at the University of Leicester, following which he relocated to Leicester permanently in 1994. Rosato's career has centered on behavioral neurogenetics, leveraging Drosophila melanogaster and other model organisms to dissect complex behavioral mechanisms.

Professor Rosato's research interests include animal behavior, the circadian clock—particularly in Drosophila melanogaster—genes regulating the clock, their function, evolution, and expression, organization of clock neurons, circadian information flow through neuronal networks, and the interrelationship between the clock and development. His laboratory also investigates biological rhythmicity in marine invertebrates, such as circadian and tidal behaviors in ragworms (Nereis virens) and Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Key publications co-authored by Rosato encompass: Kyriacou CP, Rosato E (2022), 'Genetic analysis of Cryptochrome in insect magnetosensitivity', Frontiers in Physiology; Delfino L et al. (2020), 'Rab8 promotes mutant HTT aggregation, reduces neurodegeneration, and ameliorates behavioural alterations in a Drosophila model of Huntington's disease', Journal of Huntington's Disease; Hunt BJ et al. (2019), 'In silico identification of a molecular circadian system with novel features in the crustacean model organism Parhyale hawaiensis', Frontiers in Physiology; Hansen CC et al. (2019), 'Locomotor behaviour and clock neurons organization in the agricultural pest Drosophila suzukii', Frontiers in Physiology; Dissel S et al. (2014), 'The logic of circadian organization in Drosophila', Current Biology; Fedele G et al. (2014), 'An electromagnetic field disrupts negative geotaxis in Drosophila via a CRY-dependent pathway', Nature Communications; Dissel S et al. (2004), 'A constitutively active Drosophila CRYPTOCHROME', Nature Neuroscience; and Rosato E et al. (2001), 'Light-dependent interaction between Drosophila CRY and the clock protein PER mediated by the carboxy terminus of CRY', Current Biology. These works have advanced insights into circadian regulation, magnetosensitivity, and disease modeling. He supervises PhD projects in genetics and chronobiology.