Phd in LIFE SCIENCE

Thematic area: Pharmaceutical chemistry.
SSD: CHIM/08.

Brief resume: Having graduated from the Department of Chemistry with a BSc and the Department of Biotechnology with an MSc from Izmir Institute of Technology, I found the chance of first-hand experience on the subjects of synthesis of organic, small-molecule fluorescent probes, and inorganic compounds, metal-organic frameworks, both in Izmir Institute of Technology and Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel with IAESTE, respectively. Additionally, I worked in the development of multicomponent crystal forms such as co-crystal and salt as well as polymorphic screening of antibiotics throughout my Erasmus+ mobility program at Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, Portugal. At the same time, I have contributed to the development/synthesis of carbonic anhydrase inhibitors at La Sapienza, University of Rome. Most recently, inspired by the encouraging internship I had at Sapienza Università di Roma and the excellent opportunity offered by the Life Sciences Ph.D. program, I aim to enrich my scientific understanding in the subject of drug discovery and make my contribution to the field.


Brief description of my project: The severe and acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV 2) has caused to pandemic with considerably great socioeconomical impact worldwide Throughout the global pandemic, vaccine development has been prioritized. Despite the outstanding job done in the development of vaccines, there are various downsides when it comes to lacking antiviral drugs active on SARS CoV 2: first and foremost, the short-term vaccine induced immunity, and obscurity of vaccines among new variants. These reasons rightfully highlight the pivotal importance of having broad-spectrum antiviral inhibitors. Among those therapeutical targets, my project aims at unveiling nsp13 inhibitors for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2. In this sense, within my project, novel analogous are designed, synthesized, purified and their inhibitory profile is examined.

Attendance:
PhD Courses: From Ramon y Cajal to CryoEM Course for Advanced Microscopy, Introduction to Immunology, Preparing artwork for scientific papers.

Poster presentations: “Novel nsp13 Inhibitors Capable of Blocking Viral Replication of SARS-CoV-2” in European School of Medicinal Chemistry (ESMEC), 42 nd Advanced Course of Medicinal Chemistry and "E. Duranti" Seminar for PhD Students and “New Blood- brain Barrier Permeable Compounds as naegleria fowleri CYP51 Inhibitors” in XXVIII National Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry (NMMC28)

Seminars: Exploring the allosteric mechanism of oncogenic phosphatase SHP2 for the design of peptide inhibitors of its protein-protein interactions by Prof. Lorenzo Stella, Regulation of enzymatic activity mediated by liquid-liquid phase separation by Dott. Mirco Dindo, Engineering Proteins To Boost LTP And Memory by Prof. Cristian Ripoli, Application of deep learning to the protein structure prediction: the tale of a “gigantic leap” by Prof. Anna Marabotti, Deciphering self-renewal traits in epidermal stem cells by Dott. Elena Enzo, Insulin Signaling in Alzheimer’s Disease Brain and Models Thereof by Prof. Eugenio Barone, Educating tutor-associate macrophages under metabolic stress by Dr. Ping-Chih Ho, Synthetic Biology: what, why and how by Dott.ssa Velia Siciliano, Protecting our genome: mechanisms to maintain DNA repeats stability in human cells by Prof. Simona Giunta, The chaperonin GroEL nano-machine: allostery and function by Prof. Amnon Horowitz, Enzymes by the point of view of a computational chemist by Prof. Massimiliano Aschi, Riboregulation from bacteria to eukaryotes: mechanisms and challenges by Matthias Hentze & Ina Huppertz & Ben Luisi & Gian Gaetano Tartaglia & Francesca Cutruzzola.