PassaLab

Prof. Daniele Passarella’s Research Group
Department of Chemistry
University of Milan

Self-Assembled
Nanoparticles

Diversity-Oriented
Synthesis

Synthesis
of API

Natural Products
as Leads

TubInTrain

European Joint Doctorate on chemistry and biology of neurodegeneration, Horizon 2020 – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks

It is a plesure for us to introduce you the new European Joint Doctorate called TubInTrain. You can find more details on this ufficial Link.

Follow the project on social

Quantitative Live Cell Imaging of a Tauopathy model enables the Identification of a Polypharmacological Drug Candidate that Restores Physiological Microtubule Interaction

Nature Communications, 2024
A live-cell imaging of a tauopathy model enables screening of compounds that modulate taumicrotubule interaction and allows identification of a promising polypharmacological drug candidate that simultaneously inhibits tau aggregation and reduces tau phosphorylation. Find out more at the link.

A Green Approach to Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitutions of Nicotinic Esters in Cyrene

European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2024
Cyrene has been used as an eco-friendly alternative to environmentally harmful polar aprotic solvents in SNAr reactions. This innovative protocol enabled the facile synthesis of a wide library of novel nicotinic esters, valuable precursors of bioactive compounds. This methodology could also be extended to scale-up processes, microwave-assisted synthesis, and one-pot telescoping reactions, thus enhancing its applicability in various eco-friendly synthetic contexts. Find out more at the link.

Recent advances in the development of CB1R selective probes

Front. Nat. Prod. , 2023
A great collaboration involving our postdoc Arianna and researchers at Uniupo has lead to this interesting review on probes for CB1R. Find out more at the link.

Synthesis and Preliminary Characterization of Putative Anle138b-Centered PROTACs against α-Synuclein Aggregation

Pharmaceutics, 2023
Fantastic work by Martina and the rest of the team on Anle138b-centered PROTACs! More about it at this Link


Synthesis of SARS-CoV-2 MPro Inhibitors bearing a Cinnamic Ester Warhead with In Vitro Activity against Human Coronaviruses

Org. Biomol. Chem., 2023
Our group has developed new Mpro inhibitors endowed with antiviral activity against human coronaviruses. Well done to Andrea and Davide for their first work as corresponding authors. To find out more details follow the Link




Biochemical Modulation of D-Asp Metabolism in Brain

Discovery of new small molecules inhibitors of hDASPO for the treatment of disorders connected to deficiency of D-Asp levels in brain. hDASPO inhibitors increases D-Asp in neuronal cells and thereby activates NMDA receptor function.

hDASPO project covers several multidisciplinary aspects, such as structural biology, synthetic organic chemistry and pharmacology, in collaboration with prof. Marco Nardini (Unimi) and Loredano Pollegioni (Uninsubria).


Modular Symmetric Ligands for Selective Recognition of Cancer-Relevant G-Quadruplexes

Journal of Molecular Structure, 2023
By exploiting different biophysical techniques, we proved the ability of the bioxazole-based derivatives to strongly and selectively interact with telomeric and oncogenic G-quadruplexes, while the compound featured by a naphthalene core did not emerge as a good G-quadruplex ligand. Molecular docking studies demonstrated the ability of the bioxazole-based ligands to preferentially target the outer G-tetrads of both telomeric and oncogenic G-quadruplexes, by positioning their cores on the G-tetrads in a symmetrical or asymmetrical way respectively, with the pendant groups pointing towards or away from the grooves. Find out more under the Link

First Total Synthesis of Caerulomycin K: a Case Study on Selective, Multiple C–H Functionalizations of Pyridines

RSC Advances, 2024
Caerulomycins, natural alkaloids with antimicrobial properties, have been previously synthesized starting with highly pre-functionalized building blocks or requiring many functional group manipulations. In this work, we report the first total synthesis of caerulomycin K, a diversely trifunctionalized pyridine readily assembled in three steps exploiting the recent advancements in the C–H activation of N-heterocycles. Find out more under the Link


Maytansinol Functionalization: Towards Useful Probes for Studying Microtubule Dynamics

Chem. Eur. J., 2022
Great work by Zlata and the rest of the team on maytansinol! It was also selected as Front Cover! More about it at this Link


Notice Board

Publications of the research group

Quantitative Live Cell Imaging of a Tauopathy model enables the Identification of a Polypharmacological Drug Candidate that Restores Physiological Microtubule Interaction


Nature Communications, 2024, 15, 1779

Luca Pinzi, Christian Conze, Nicolo Bisi, Gabriele Dalla Torre, Ahmed Soliman, Nanci Monteiro-Abreu, Nataliya I. Trushina, Andrea Krusenbaum, Maryam Khodaei Dolouei, Andrea Hellwig, Michael S. Christodoulou, Daniele Passarella, Lidia Bakota, Giulio Rastelli* and Roland Brandt*

Save the date!

Upcoming webinars, seminars, conferences etc.

  • The XLVIII edition of the “Attilio Corbella” International Summer School on Organic Synthesis (ISOS 2024) will take place in Gargnano (BS, Italy) on June 16-20, 2024.

https://corbellasummerschool.unimi.it/

  • The XIV edition of the Italo-Spanish Symposium on Organic Chemistry (SISOC 2024) will take place in Turin on February 25-27, 2024.

https://www.sisoc2024.unito.it/

Browse the News

challenging papers, breaking news, images and videos

The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals, Hugo Zeberg & Svante Pääbo, Nature, Nov 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2818-3
Anthony Fauci and Alberto Mantovani Webinar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As4E0fbqga0
Carlo Rovelli: Seminar about his new book “Helgoland”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjFGM5gI1fobel
SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in development Nature paper
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2798-3
COVID-19: Drug Targets and Potential TreatmentsJournal of Medicinal Chemistry – Paper
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.0c00606
COVID research updates
Nature wades through the literature on the new coronavirus — and summarizes key papers as they appear
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00502-w
Coronavirus: Research, Commentary, and News
The Science journals are striving to provide the best and most timely research, analysis, and news coverage of COVID-19 https://www.sciencemag.org/collections/coronavirus
Food an Drug Administration
https://www.fda.gov/drugs
Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco – Vaccini COVID-19
https://www.aifa.gov.it/vaccini-covid-19

Professor Daniele Passarella

Full Professor of Organic Chemistry
University of Milan – Department of Chemistry