Background

I graduated in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Rome – La Sapienza in 2013 with a thesis about the computer-aided-design and synthesis of novel compounds in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease in Professor Romano Silvestri research group. Then, I worked as regulatory affairs and computer system validation junior consultant for different bio-pharma companies. I moved to Cardiff in 2013 to undertake a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry with Professor Andrea Brancale on the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel inhibitors of a protein-protein interaction involved in the metastatic progression of breast cancer. Then, in 2016 I joined Professor Andrew Westwell research group at Cardiff University as a Research Associate working on the in silico design, synthesis and biological evaluation of novel anti-metastatic compounds.  I have now joined the Northern Institute of Cancer Research as a Research Associate in medicinal chemistry.

Area of expertise

• Medicinal chemistry

Research

• Drug design and development

• Structure-based drug design

• Hit to lead optimisation

• Microwave enhanced synthesis

• Computational chemistry

• In vitro cell based assays