Glauco Pasquale Tocchini-Valentini

His early scientific contributions include the demonstration of the fact that genetic transcription is an asymmetric process. He isolated the first rifampicin-resistent mutant and initiated the genetics of RNA polymerase. At the end of the sixties his interest turned to the molecular biology of eukaryotes. He contributed to the isolation and characterization of both RNA and DNA polymerases and the discovery of Type II DNA topoisomerase. More recently, the study of RNase P and of the tRNA splicing endonuclease from germinal vescicles led him to make important contributions to the understanding of the rules governing enzymes-substrate interactions and the determination of cleavage sites.