Marco Radi - Biography

Marco Radi studied at the University of Siena (MSc cum Laude in Medicinal Chemistry, 2000; PhD in Medicinal Chemistry, 2004), doing his doctoral studies in solid-phase synthesis and antiviral drug-discovery with Maurizio Botta. He then did postdoctoral research at the University of Georgia (with David C.K. Chu; 2005-2006) where he pioneered the application of sub-zero microwave assisted technology for the synthesis of antiviral and anticancer nucleosides. He returned to the University of Siena as postdoctoral researcher (2006-2010) and then as untenured Assistant Professor (2010-2011). In December 2011 he moved to the University of Parma as permanent Assistant Professor at the School of Pharmacy, where he became Associate Professor in 2014.

In March 2017 Prof. Radi received the national scientific qualification to the role of Full Professor.

Prof. Radi participated in different National (Programma per la Ricerca Regionale in Materia di Salute 2009; PRIN- 2007; PRIN-2008, PRIN-2010_2011, FIL-2012_2016) and International (TRIoH; COST Angiokem; ExCellENT-Hit; CHAARM; COST Glisten, Chiesi Foundation) multidisciplinary research projects. As PI or co-Investigator on these funded grants, he obtained innovative results that led to several papers/patents: i) three different families of anti-HIV agents for drug-resistant forms (within TRIoH and CHAARM); ii) the first small molecule inhibitors of the human helicase DDX3 as broad-spectrum antivirals (within ExCellENT-Hit, PRIN-2008) Programma per la Ricerca Regionale in Materia di Salute 2009); iii) novel competitive and allosteric kinase inhibitors active on many different solid tumors (within COST Angiokem and PRIN-2007); iv) first-in-class multitarget Dengue Virus inhibitors (within FIL-2012_2014) and v) multitarget broad-spectrum antiviral agents (with the Chiesi Foundation grant).

He was also actively involved in the exploitation of the obtained research results by participating to the exclusive agreement between the University of Siena and Virostatics Srl for the licencing of the antitumor/antiviral compounds object of the patent application WO2009034547. He was involved in the exclusive agreement between the University of Siena and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) for the licencing of the patent application WO2011073959. He was a co- author of the Business Plan “TKI Pharmaceutical”(based on the patent application WO2009034547) presented on 2006 at the scientific park Toscana Life Science. He was a co- author of the Business Plan “Lead Discovery Siena (LDS)” (based also on the patent application WO2009034547), winner of the 2009 edition of the Start Cup Toscana. He was a co-author and Proponent of the Business Plan “CoREX Pharm” (based on the patent application EP2388250) presented on 2012 at the scientific park Sardegna Ricerche. He was a co-author and Proponent of the Business Plan “AID-Discovery” (based on the patent application US 2012/0202814) presented on 2013 at the scientific park Sardegna Ricerche.

Prof. Radi is currently member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Chemistry (since 2012), MC member of the COST Action CM1207 "GLISTEN” (since 2013) and Erasmus Delegate for the Department of Pharmacy (since 2012). He is member of the Department of Food and Drug and of the teacher board for the PhD programme "Drugs, Biomolecules and Health Products" at the University of Parma, where he supervise several undergraduates and PhD students in the field of medicinal chemistry. His present teaching activities are: i) Laboratory of drug analysis; ii) Database search for project planning. He is a peer reviewer for National (PRIN, FIRB, SIR) and International (IOFM, Horizon2020) research programs and referee for several medicinal chemistry and organic chemistry journals. 

Prof. Radi’s research activities are currently focused at the development of broad-spectrum antivirals (enterovirus family, Flavivirus family, HIV), anticancer agents (GPCRs modulators, kinase inhibitors) and CNS related diseases (Parkinson's disease), with a special focus on the rational design of multitarget drugs . His research interests are in the field of antiviral and anticancer drug discovery, with particular attention at the development of novel combinatorial methodologies to quickly produce highly functionalized chemical probes. He has authored more than 80 papers, book chapters and patent applications in these fields.