CHEMISTRY FOR LIFE SCIENCES
Synthesis and modification of bioactive compounds
SCITEC – which is a key contact point for chemical and biochemical research – collaborates with a number of life-sciences stakeholders (IRCCS, hospitals e translational medicine departments, companies) on topics spanning the design of new molecules, their synthesis and relative structural modifications, as well as their bioconjugation to a wide range of scaffolds including nanoparticles, proteins and antibodies, with the aim of identifying tools for biomedical research, such as experimental diagnostics and therapeutics, bioactive peptides, fluorophores and tracers for biomedical imaging, recombinant proteins. These tools are then validated in vitro and ex-vivo with the view of subsequently studying their biological/pharmacological activity in vivo.
The final goal is the identification of novel small molecule drug candidates, diagnostics for biomedical imaging, and molecular tools for interrogating biological systems.
Skills
- Organic synthesis and catalysis
- Medicinal chemistry and SAR studies
- Organofluorine chemistry
- Enzymatic synthesis and biocatalysis
- Solid-phase peptide synthesis
- Bioorthogonal and “click” chemistry
- Analytical and spectroscopic characterisation of organic molecules