Prof. Vincenza Andrisano received her Doctorate Degree in
Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology from the University of
Bologna (Italy) and a 2 years post-lauream Diploma from Scuola di
specializzazione in Scienze e tecnologie cosmetiche Università di
Ferrara (Italy). In 1998 she is associate professor of Medicinal
Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Bologna
and carries out her research at the Department of Pharmaceutical
Sciences. As part of her postdoctoral training, she spent two years
as a research assistant at the Sydney University Australia
(Department of Biochemistry), researching on the enzymatic
properties of new mechanism based substrates and inhibitors for
dihydrofolate reductase in the search of anticancer drugs
(1987-88). She has been visiting professor at McGill University,
Division de Pharmacocinétique, Department D'Oncologie, Montréal
(Canada) (1995) (stereoselective interaction between drug-target
protein by biochromatography) and at the Department of Pharmacology
Georgetown University Medical Center Washington DC (USA)
(2000)(enzyme immobilization for the development of glyceraldheyde
3-phosphate dehydrogenase inhibitors in the search of
anti-tripanosomial drugs).
Since 2012 she is full professor in medicinal chemistry at the
Department for the Quality of Life, University of Bologna.
She has published more than 230 papers in peer-reviewed
scientific journals (HI=56, Scopus) and a similar number of
contributions in conference proceedings. She delivered lectures in
several international symposia.
VA's present research covers four main lines: (i) development of
new drugs for the treatment of degenerative diseases (Alzheimer's
disease and cancer) : structural characterization of protein
targets (i.e. amyloid peptides) and candidate leads (circular
dicroism in solution, HPLC-MS), enzyme kinetics, determination of
mechanism of action of new potential acetylcholinesterase
inhibitors with dual function, inhibition studies of b-amyloid
fibril formation by circular dichroism and fluorescence
spectroscopy (ii) development of analytical methodologies in the
design, synthesis and biological evaluation of new bioactive
compounds (iii) characterization of the ligand/target
peptide/protein/enzyme interactions (classical and multiwells
spectroscopic kinetic methods, biochromatography, analysis through
optical biosensor, HPLC-MS) (iv) Immobilisation of target enzymes
on solid matrices which are then inserted in fluidic and
chromatographic systems for binding studies.
Since 2005 she is scientific coordinator of local research
programs (RFO) financed by the University of Bologna ‘Metodologie
avanzate per l'analisi di farmaci e composti biologicamente
attivi'. Since 2003 she partecipated to the MIUR supported FIRB
project (FIRB2003, RBNE03FH5Y, ‘Sviluppo di metodologie innovative
per l'identificazione e la sintesi di nuove molecole a scopo
terapeutico: applicazioni nel campo della malattia di Alzheimer').
In 2007-11, she coordinates a young scientists research project
financed by the the University of Bologna (p53 e patologie
non neoplastiche nell'anziano: uno studio multidisciplinare sul
ruolo del polimorfismo al codone 72 del gene TP53). In
2008-11, she is the coordinator of the italian unit of
the european FP7 reasearch project ‘BISNES: Bio-Inspired
Self-assembled Nano-Enabled Surfaces' in the call NMP-2007-1.1-1
“Nano-scale mechanisms of bio/non-bio interactions” NMP-2007-1.1-2
“Self-assembling and self-organisation”. She is also coordinator of
the University of Bologna unit for PRIN 2007and PRIn 2099:
‘Metodologie analitiche avanzate nelle ricerca e sviluppo di
farmaci'.
She was Director of the Summer School on Pharmaceutical
Analysis SSPA (http://www.scpaweb.org/) since 2008 to
2013.
