News
CircleU Sandpit 2nd round
In November I had the opportunity to participate to the CircleU Sandpit event in Louvain la Neuve, in Belgium. CircleU is a university alliance, of which "Università di Pisa" is part of, togeheter with many others, for the creation of an international and interdisciplinary circuit of common research and teaching practices. It was so refreshing to speak and exchange ideas with motivated colleagues and PhD students from all Europe. We were able to write and participate to a call for funding, bridging Science and Democracy. Unfortunately, our project was not selected, but we have good ideas, materials, and more important enthusiastic people to try again next time. I will surely keep the memory of a great experience with fantastic people. Moreover, I could teach how to play "Table football" (Biliardino) to talented students! Definetely, a teaching achievement I can be proud of!
Laurea Magistrale di Francesco
In ritardo anche stavolta, postiamo la news della laurea magistrale di Francesco Basini, a cui facciamo tanti auguri per un brillante futuro! Francesco ha svolto una tesi mista computazionale/sintetica sullo sviluppo di nuovi photoswitch per applicazioni in fotofarmacologia, in collaborazione con la Prof.ssa Benedetta Mennucci e Prof. Filippo Lipparini, nell'ambito del progetto Quantum LIP.
New article published on Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry
The PostDoc I was 8 years ago is really happy that this article is finally published. It's a good memory of the time I spent in France with very nice people, and when solid data and robust scientific methods are produced, the sharing of results is due, even with some delay. So let's celebrate!
New article published on Journal of Organic Chemistry
Our last article is now online! On journal of Organic Chemistry, as Editor's choice and Open Access. "A unique and stable Polyproline I helix sorted out from confromational equilibrium by solvent polarity". It has been a beautiful adventure in collaboration with collegues of UniPisa and talented students. The rare Polyproline I has been uniquely isolated, in solution and in the solid phase, allowing for a fine characterization, which will be useful for future identification of naturally occurring PPI or in the design of structured peptide sequences. These findings could aid in the design of β-turns or β-hairpins or in the synthesis of macrocyclic peptides.
The Pisa Chemobrionics COST action meeting 2022
The Chemobrionics conference has finished! Hosting such event was a great experience and I am grateful to the COST action, European Cooperation in Science and Technology, and to my University, for this opportunity. A hundred of scientists and young students had the opportunity to discuss and show their results. Multidisciplinary projects are difficult, researchers don't speak exactly the same language. However, it's different perspectives that nurish ideas. For example, I attended talks of physical chemistry, biology, geology and, as a synthetic organic chemist, I was struck by the many often overlooked hints that a multidisciplinary approach can bring on important synthetic issues, such carbon dioxide reduction or peptide synthesi in catalytic conditions. Last but not least, I could draw a line on my personal list of things to do: "bring an international group of scientists, for the social event, to visit the magnificient Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa, located in the ancient charterhouse of Calci".