Pedro Miguel Ascenso Vieira
Biography
I began my chemistry studies in 2017 at the Nova School of Science and Technology of the Nova University of Lisbon, gaining my bachelor’s degree in applied chemistry. For my master’s degree I wanted to focus more on organic chemistry and obtained my master´s degree in Bioorganic Chemistry at the same university. To finish my master´s I wanted to focus more on medicinal chemistry, so my master´s thesis was to develop new triazene derivatives against microorganism and biofilm growth.
Research project objectives
This DC position will focus on the identification of small molecules able to selectively interfere with the creation of key glycan motifs implicated in cancer. The DC will synthesize and characterize new glycomimetics. The synthesis be done using an original version of the [4+2] inverse electron demand hetero Diels Alder reaction (ihDA). The DC will also perform structural biology and cancer biology studies to unveil information on the interaction of the synthetic glycomimetics with the target glycosyltransferases.
PhD School in Chemical Science XXXIX Cycle (University of Florence, Department of Chemistry ‘Ugo Schiff’, UNIFI-DICUS)
The host laboratories (DICUS–UNIFI) are equipped with modern equipment for organic synthesis and nanomaterials, including 400MHz NMR spectroscopy facilities, a state of the art cryo-electron microscope (cryo-EM), polarimeter, DLS, microwave reactors, HPLCs, FT-IR, and mass (GC/MS, ESI/MS) spectrometers, UV-Vis spectrophotometers, freeze dryers, and centrifuges. Full access to the literature databases (Reaxys, Web of Science, ScFinder) and on-line access to the primary lit. https://www.chim.unifi.it/vp-363-strumentazione-dipartimentale.html
Prof. Barbara Richichi
Carbohydrate chemist expert in the synthesis of glycomimetics and fluorescent probes their conjugation to proteins and nanomaterials.
Dr. Tamas Sohajda
Pharmacists, expert in cyclodextrins, preclinical R&D, industrial applications and development CEO at CarboHyde
Prof. Marco Marradi
Carbohydrate chemist expert in glyco-nanotechnology including gold and polymeric nanoparticles
Dr. Giacomo Biagiotti
Senior Post-Doc
Dr. Robert Sackstein
Senior Vice-President for Global Medical Affairs Florida International University World-renowned bone marrow transplant physician and biomedical researcher. He investigated the structures that direct cell migration in blood flow, such as those molecules that cause braking on E-selectin.
Selected papers (10):
- Biagiotti G.; G. Toniolo G.; Albino M.; Severi M.; Andreozzi P.; Marelli M.; Kokot H.; Tria G.; Guerri A.; Sangregorio C.; Rojo J.; Berti D.; Marradi M.; Cicchi S.; Urbancˇicˇ I.; van Kooyk Y.; Chiodo F.; Richichi B. Simple engineering of hybrid cellulose nanocrystal–gold nanoparticles results in a functional glyconanomaterial with biomolecular recognition properties. Nanoscale Horizons, 2023, DOI: 10.1039/d3nh00063j
- Tricomi, J.; Cacaci, M.; Biagiotti, G.; Caselli, L.; Niccoli, F.; Torelli, R. Gabbani, A.; Di Vito, M.; Pineider, F.; Severi, M.; Sanguinetti, M.; Menna, E.; Lelli, M.; Berti, D.; Cicchi, S.; Bugli, F.; Richichi, B. Ball Milled Glyco-graphene oxide conjugates markedly disrupted Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm, Nanoscale, 2022, DOI: 10.1039/D2NR02027K.
- Biagiotti, G.; Legnani, L.; Aresta, G.; Chiacchio, M.A.; Richichi, B. Benzo[c][1,2]thiazine-Based Analogs in the Inverse Electron Demand [4+2] Hetero Diels-Alder Reaction with Glycals: Access to Tetracyclic Fused Galactose and Fucose Derivatives. Eur. J. Org. Chem., 2022, e202200769. doi: 10.1002/ejoc.202200769.
- Anderluh, M.; Berti, F.; Bzducha‐Wróbel, A.; Chiodo, F.; Colombo, C.; Compostella, F.; Durlik, K.; Ferhati, X.; Holmdahl, R.; Jovanovic, D.; Kaca, W.; Lay, L.; Marinovic‐Cincovic, M.; Marradi, M.; Ozil, M.; Polito, L.; Reina, J.J.; Reis, C.A.; Sackstein, R.; Silipo, A.; Švajger, U.; Vaněk, O.; Yamamoto, F.; Richichi, B.; S. J. van Vliet, Recent advances on smart glycoconjugate vaccines in infections and cancer. FEBS J., 2021, doi: 10.1111/febs.15909
- Martin, K.C.; Tricomi, J.; Corzana, F.; García-García, A.; Ceballos-Laita, L.; Hicks, T.; Monaco, S.; Angulo, J.; Hurtado-Guerrero, R.; Richichi, B.; Sackstein, R. Fucosyltransferase-specific inhibition via next generation of fucose mimetics. ChemCommun, 2021, 57, 1145-1148.
- Biagiotti G.; Purić E.; Urbančič I.; Krišelj A.; Weiss M.; Mravljak J.; Gellini C.; Lay L.; Chiodo F.; Anderluh M.; Cicchi S.; Richichi B. Combining cross-coupling reaction and Knoevenagel condensation in the synthesis of glyco-BODIPY probes for DC-SIGN super-resolution bioimaging. BioorgChem, 2021, 109, 104730.
- Andreozzi P.; Simó C.; Moretti P.; Martinez Porcel J.; Ursula Lüdtke T.; de los Angeles Ramirez M.; Tamberi L.; Marradi M.; Amenitsch H.; Llop J.; Grazia Ortore M.; Moya S.E. Novel Core–Shell Polyamine Phosphate Nanoparticles Self-Assembled from PEGylated Poly (allylamine hydrochloride) with low toxicity and increased in vivo circulation time, Small 2021, 17, 2102211. DOI: 10.1002/smll.202102211.
- Vetro M.; Safari, D.; Fallarini, S.; Salsabila K.; Lahmann M.; Penadés, S.; Lay L.; Marradi M.; Compostella F. Preparation and immunogenicity of gold glyco-nanoparticles as antipneumococcal vaccine model Nanomedicine 2017, 12(1), 13–23. DOI: 10.2217/nnm-2016-0306
- Chiodo F.; Marradi M.; Park J.; Ram A.F.J.; Penadés S.; van Die I.; Tefsen B.Galactofuranose-Coated Gold Nanoparticles Elicit a Proinflammatory Response in Human Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells and Are Recognized by DC-SIGN. ACS Chem. Biol. 2014, 9, 383−389. DOI: 10.1021/cb4008265
- Terán-Navarro H.; Zeoli A.; Salines-Cuevas D.; Marradi M.; Montoya N.; Gonzalez-Lopez E.; Ocejo-Vinyals J.G.; Dominguez-Esteban M.; Gutierrez-Baños J.L.; Campos-Juanatey F.; Yañez-Diaz S.; Garcia-Castaño A.; Rivera F.; Duran I.; Alvarez-Dominguez C. Gold Glyconanoparticles Combined with 91–99 Peptide of the Bacterial Toxin, Listeriolysin O, Are Efficient Immunotherapies in Experimental Bladder Tumors. Cancers 2022, 14, 2413. DOI: 10.3390/cancers14102413
