People

Research team

Marco Pallavicini

Full Professor

Marco works in the Medicinal Chemistry Section of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Milan. 
Following a M.Sc. degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies  (CTF), Marco undertook a Ph.D. in “Chimica del Farmaco” at the University of Milan under the guidance of Prof. Luigi Villa. In 1990, Marco became Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Milan. In 1998 he took the position of Associated Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, and in 2005 of Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Milan. From 2009 to 2013 Marco held the role of President Of Consiglio di Coordinamento Didattico of the master’s degree course “Chimica e Tecnologia Farmaceutiche”.

Cristiano Bolchi

Associate Professor

Cristiano obtained his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Milan in 2003. After Postdoctoral research, he began his academic career at Milan University, where he rose from the research fellow rank to Associate Professor in 2019 at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Since 2015, he has actively collaborated with the pharmaceutical company Cambrex in the development of new synthetic strategies applied to the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API). His major research interests are focused on medicinal chemistry and, more recently, on chemical biology, covering the design, synthesis and optimization of new agents targeting neuronal cholinergic system and the development of chemical biology tools to better understand the intracellular trafficking of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors. He is also interested in the new synthesis protocols inspired to green chemistry principles.

Alessandro Giraudo

Postdoctoral Fellow

After graduating in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies (CTF) at University of Turin in 2014, Alessandro obtained a double degree Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Universities of Turin and Copenhagen in 2018. Afterwards, he joined Italian Institute of Technology (iit, Genoa, Italy) as Postdoc, being involved in cystic fibrosis research for two years. He then moved to Fraupharma srl as R&D synthetic chemist and, in May 2022, Alessandro came back to academia as Postdoctoral fellow at University of Milan. During his experience, Alessandro investigated the development of novel small molecules targeting GABA_A receptors and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, as well as new modulators for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, potential treatments for neglected diseases, green chemistry methodologies and optimization of API synthesis.

Camillo Morano

Ph.D. Student

Camillo attained his M.Sc. in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies (CTF) at the University of Milan in 2021. For his thesis internship, he attended the Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Mass Spectrometry of the Department of Health Sciences, handling a project about the discovery of biomarkers for severe COVID-19. After winning a Research Scholarship to deepen his thesis topic, he is now enrolled as a Ph.D. Student at our laboratory.

Edoardo Armano

Ph.D. Student

Edoardo attained his M.Sc. in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies (CTF) at the University of Milan in 2022. He spent his master internship in our laboratories and his project regarded the synthesis of new BODIPY groups with the purpose of a spatiotemporal control of α4β2 nAChRs through photoactivation. 

Master Students

Former Master Students

External Collaborators

University of Milan
BIOMETRA

Prof. Francesco Clementi

Hospital Luigi Sacco

Dr. Clara De Palma

CNR
Institute of Neuroscience

Dr. Cecilia Gotti
Dr. Susanna Pucci
Dr. Sara Colombo

University of Utah
Dep. of Psychiatry

Prof. Michael J. McIntosh
Dr. Cheryl Dowell

St. Joseph Hospital
Barrow Neurological Institute Phoenix

Prof. Paul Whiteaker

University La Sapienza
Dep. of Physiology and Pharmacology

Prof. Sergio Fucile

University of Copenhagen
Dep. of Drug Design and Pharmacology

Dr. Francesco Bavo
Dr. Mohammed Shehata

University of Texas at Tyler
Dep. of Pharmacy

Prof. Ayman Hamouda

University of York
Dep. of Chemistry

Prof. Peter O’Brien

Cambrex Profarmaco
R&D

Former Lab Researchers

Rebecca Appiani
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Valentina Bartolini
Research Associate

Francesco Bavo
Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences