Matteo Banti graduated in February 2022 in Medicinal Chemistry  at University of Pisa. In April 2022 he won a post graduate research fellowship to work on a project on tyromimetic compounds. In November 2022 he started a PhD course at the doctoral school of Science of Drug and Bioactive Substances at Department of Pharmacy of University of Pisa to work on a project for the extraction of bioactive substances from microalgae, co-supervised by professor Simona Rapposelli.

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matteo.banti@phd.unipi.it

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Italo Cirone graduated with highest honours in October 2020 in Medicinal Chemistry at University of Cagliari, discussing a master thesis on anticancer small molecules. After finishing a short-term graduate research assignment at the same University, he joined a research group in Galway, Ireland for three months as an Erasmus trainee.

In November 2021 he started his PhD course at the doctoral school of Science of Drug and Bioactive Substances at Department of Pharmacy of University of Pisa, under supervision of Professor  Simona Rapposelli, to work on design and synthesis of innovative anticancer drugs targeting the 14-3-3 protein family.

 

italo.cirone@phd.unipi.it

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Lorenzo Raffellini graduated with highest honours in October 2022 in Medicinal Chemistry at University of Pisa. In November 2022 he started his PhD course at the doctoral school of Science of Drug and Bioactive Substances at Department of Pharmacy of University of Pisa, under supervision of Professor Simona Rapposelli. The aim of his project is to design and synthesise urolitin-based neuroprotective compounds and to test them on an in vivo model of C. elegans.

lorenzo.raffellini@phd.unipi.it

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Fabio Di Ricco graduated with highest honours in July 2024 in Medicinal Chemistry from University of Pisa. In October 2024 he won a post graduate research fellowship under supervision of Professor Simona Rapposelli. The aim of his project is to design and synthesize Thyroid Hormone Receptor-beta (THRb) selective compounds. 

f.diricco@studenti.unipi.it

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Simona Sestito graduated with honours in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology in April 2011 at University of Pisa, and started the Doctoral course in "Science of Drug and Bioactive Substances" at the University of Pisa in the same year. In 2013 she was a visiting student at QMUL-London in Prof. Falasca group to study the effects of new Akt/PDK1 inhibitors on pancreatic and breast cancer cell lines. In 2015, she obtained the title of PhD, defending a dissertation entitled "Design and synthesis of new antitumor ligands". Then, she worked as Postdoctoral Researcher for 4 years in the Prof.Rapposelli’s group (Dept of Pharmacy-University of Pisa) and for 1 year in the Prof.Zucchi and Prof.Chiellini group (Dept of Pathology-University of Pisa). Since 2020, she is enrolled as young researcher (RTD-A) at University of Sassari. In 2022, she approached computational chemistry as visiting researcher in Prof.Danani group (SUPSI-Lugano). 
Her work focuses on three main projects: the development of new multitarget agents and prodrugs endowed with antitumor activity; the development of new multidrug resistance reversal agents and the development of new potential drugs for the prevention of cellular aging and neurodegeneration.
 

ssestito@uniss.it

Massimiliano Runfola graduated in June 2016 in CTF (Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology) at University of Pisa. Since November 2017 he is a doctoral student at Department of Pharmacy of University of Pisa, under supervision of Professor Rapposelli. His main project focuses on the design, synthesis, and biological evaluation of new compounds for treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. The main topic of his research activity is the optimization of thyronamine-like analogues, namely SG compounds, which proved to hit the main impaired pathways involved in AD .

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massimiliano.runfola@farm.unipi.it

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Andrea Bacci graduated in April 2018 in CTF (Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology) at University of Pisa. In November 2019 he started his PhD course at the doctoral school of Science of Drug and Bioactive Substances at Department of Pharmacy of University of Pisa, under supervision of Professor Rapposelli. The aim of his project is to design and synthetize dual BTK-TCL1 inhibitors able to directly act against the mutated BTK forms, but also against the AKT and NF-kB pathway activation, indirectly mediated by TCL1.

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andrea.bacci@phd.unipi.it

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