giovedì ore 14.00-16.00. contattare preliminarmente il docente via emal (carla.bazzicalupiATunifi.it) per consentire l'organizzazione e definire la sede degli appuntamenti

Data di nascita 22 dicembre 1967 Titoli di studio Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze Chimiche, Firenze VIII ciclo, 1996 Laurea in Chimica, Firenze 1992 Posizioni Professore Associato Università di Firenze 2015-oggi Ricercatore Università di Firenze novembre 2001 - 2015 Funzionario Tecnico Università di Firenze maggio 1998 – ottobre 2001 Borsa di studio post-dottorale, Firenze 1997-1998 Borsa di studio del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, ISSEC, Firenze, 1996-1997 Attività di ricerca L’attività di ricerca di Carla Bazzicalupi verte sia alla caratterizzazione strutturale di nuovi recettori sintetici, prevalentemente poliammine a struttura macrociclica o aperta, che allo studio delle loro caratteristiche di coordinazione nei confronti di ioni metallici e di specie anioniche. Più di recente ha iniziato ricerche con lo scopo di individuare composti sviluppabili nell’ambito delle nuove “terapie molecolari”, e più precisamente molecole in grado di interagire con arrangiamenti di tipo non-B di acido nucleico. Nei suoi studi utilizza principalmente la diffrattometria a raggi X su cristallo singolo, ma anche tecniche di modellistica molecolare, sia meccanica molecolare che quanto-meccanica, applicate allo studio delle interazioni di varie tipologie di leganti con differenti tipi di substrati, come ad esempio target biologici, principalmente DNA. E’ autrice di più di centosessanta pubblicazioni su riviste di rilievo internazionale.

Date of birth 22nd December 1967

Qualifications

PhD in Chemical Sciences, Florence VIII cycle, 2nd October 1996, Degree in Chemistry with first class honours, Florence 15th June 1992

Job experiences

2015 – currently Associate Professor (Inorganic Chemistry) at the Scuola di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, Department of Chemistry. 2001 – 2015 Researcher at the Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche Fisiche e Naturali dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, Department of Chemistry. 1998 – 2001 Technical Officer (VIII administrative level) at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Florence. 1997 - 1998 Post-doctorate grant, University of Florence. 1996 - 1997 Grant from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche ISSEC.

Official assignments

Coordinator of the Bilateral Agreement of cultural and scientific collaboration between the University of Florence and the University of Zagabria, Croatia, since the 16th May 2012. 2010 – 2017 Representative of the Department of Chemistry of the University of Florence at the Centro di Cristallografia dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze.

Membership

Member of the Associazione Italiana di Cristallografia AIC

Conference Organization

2018 Member of the Organizing Committee for the International Symposium on Metal Complexes (ISMEC 2018), Florence 3^rd - 7^th June 2018. 2014 Chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2nd Joint Italian Crystallographic Association (AIC) and Italian Synchrotron Radiation Society (SILS) conference. 2005 Member of the Organizing Committee for the XX Congress of the International Union of Crystallography, Florence IUCr 2005, Florence 23rd-31st August 2005. 2005 Member of the Organizing Committee for the VII National Conference of Supramolecular Chemistry, Florence 4th-7th September 2005. 1996 Member of the Organizing Committee for the XXI International Symposium on Macrocyclic Chemistry, Montecatini Terme 23rd-28th June 1996.

Scientific work interest

Carla Bazzicalupi’s research work is focused on the structural characterization by means of X-ray diffraction and molecular modelling techniques of supramolecular adducts obtained from the aggregation of a receptor and a substrate, linked by weak interactions. Several studied systems regard synthetic receptors, mainly macrocyclic or open polyamines. Due to the high number of nitrogen atoms, these receptors are able to give both transition metal complexes in aqueous solution and polyprotonated species which can be employed for anion coordination also at neutral pH. Receptors of this type can be optimized varying the position and the type of donor atoms as well as introducing different functional groups, especially aromatic or heteroaromatic. They can be used to selectively coordinate environmentally and/or biologically relevant species, also in aqueous solution. These are mainly heavy metals or metabolites, such as simple inorganic or nucleotide anions.

Aromatic groups in the receptors’ skeleton can improve the stability of the adducts formed with substrates containing aromatic moieties, and additional stacking interactions can take place between the two partners. This is particularly evident in the interaction studies with the DNA, which Carla Bazzicalupi has recently concentrated on. In these systems the receptor and substrate roles are inverted, as the DNA recognizes and coordinates the synthetic ligand, as such or as a metal complex. This research has the purpose of finding compounds able to selective interact with non-B DNA foldings, for the development of potential new drugs. An interesting development is the study of the interaction of both synthetic and natural ligands with telomeric DNA showing G-quadruplex folding. This non-canonical secondary structure has in fact recently become an important target in cancer research.  In this research activity, the structural characterization is fundamental in that it provides information about the tridimensional geometry of the adduct which can be used in the design of better behaving ligands or in the interpretation of experimental data obtained from solution studies.  As previously mentioned, Carla Bazzicalupi’s contribution concerns exactly this type of characterization, which is mainly carried out via the structural resolution from single crystal X-ray diffraction data. The difficulty in crystallizing these species is particularly significant in the case of the large and flexible nucleotide anions. As a consequence, she also uses molecular modelling techniques, based both on empirical force-fields and on quantum-mechanical methods. 

Carla Bazzicalupi is author of over 160 papers that have been published on international journals. (please visit the link pubblicazioni in the italiano section)