Research Node 5 - TERDRUG
New Therapeutic Strategies
Research node 5 of the INF-ACT PE will develop new therapeutic strategies against emerging infectious diseases through an integrated approach combining a wide portfolio of expertise in antiviral and antimicrobial drugdiscovery from academic and non-academic environments. We will act horizontally, providing data, tools, and expertise to the vertical research nodes (1, 2, 3), while at the same time exploiting data, tools and results coming from the other research nodes to feed our own research activities. This high level of interconnection will speed up the drug development process, making it feasible to develop drug candidates ready for clinical evaluation within the first three years of the project. Research node 5 will pursue a wide-angle approach, investigating new therapeutic interventions at all levels of the host-pathogen interface. 5 WPs, with a significant critical mass of PIs belonging to 18 top scientific Italian institutions were selected on the basis of their scientific excellence to cover specifically required skills to carry successfully on the project and achieve the ambitious goals of research node 5.
The activities within Research Node 5 are organized into 5 Work Packages (WP):
- WP5.1 - Structural and functional studies on proteins and protein-protein interactions/proteomicsfunctional proteomics WPL
- WP5.2 - Target-based and phenotypic-based medicinal chemistry platform: Drug Discovery ADME-Tox profiling and early preclinical development
- WP5.3 - Development of novel immunomodulatory approaches/therapies and evaluation of broad-spectrum antiviral molecules
- WP5.4 - Novel diagnostic tools
- WP5.5 - Innovative antimicrobial materials-antibiofilm-drug delivery strategies
Institutions involved
Researchers involved
Giovanni Maga
Research Node 5 Leader
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Biologist. CNR Research Director, head of the Laboratory of DNA Enzymology and Molecular Virology of the CNR Institute of Molecular Genetics in Pavia and Director of the CNR Department of Biomedical Sciences. Topics: Genome replication and repair in human cells and viruses. Development of antivirals. Author of 277 publications, H-index 54 (Scopus)
Giuseppe Campiani
Research Node 5 Co-Leader
Università degli Studi di Siena
iuseppe Campiani is full professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Siena, Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy and Adjunct Faculty Member at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences - Iran.
He started his career as a senior researcher in MedChem working at Siena University and in the early ’90s, he moved at Mayo Clinic Jacksonville-FL collaborating with Prof. Alan P Kozikowski on the development of new drugs against neurodegenerative diseases and later he continued his research activity at Columbia University in the City of New York-Department of Chemistry, as a visiting scientist collaborating with Prof. Koji Nakanishi. In 1999 he became Associate Professor of MedChem at Salerno University, in 2001 visiting professor at Trinity College Dublin-IRL and in 2002 full professor of MedChem at Siena University.
Exploration of chemistry and biology of naturally-occurring and synthetic organic molecules with therapeutic potential in infectious diseases is one of the main topic of research activity. These interests include target selection and the rational design of innovative drugs, the discovery of new synthetic methodologies and general strategies for synthesis, bioinformatics and the study of important structure-function relationships.