People
Cristina Nativi graduated in chemistry (magna cum laude) at the University of Florence, Italy. Awarded with a grant from the Fond National Suisse, from 1987 to 1989 she worked as research fellow on “naked sugar” in the group of professor Pierre Vogel, at the University of Lausanne (CH). In 1991 she became assistant professor at the University of Florence and in 1993, awarded with a CNR-NATO grant, she moved to the Université de Montrèal (CDN) to study new glycosylation methods in the group of professor Stephen Hanessian. In 2000 she became associate professor at the University of Florence, where since Feb. 2005, she is full professor of organic chemistry. Awarded in 2019 with the prize of the Organic Division of the Società Chimica Italiana for her researches on Life Sciences and in 2020, she was selected by ACS Omega for the special collection “Women at the Forefront of Chemistry”. Cristina Nativi’s main scientific interests concern: the development of saccharidic anti-pathogens; the design and synthesis of antigen mimetics for immunotherapy; molecular recognition of carbohydrates and the development of saccharidic inhibitors of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMPs).
Oscar Francesconi graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (magna cum laude) at the University of Firenze, Italy, in 2005, where he received his PhD in 2010, working on the development of synthetic receptors for the molecular recognition of carbohydrates. After a period as visiting researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas in Madrid, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Firenze. In 2017 he was appointed as Assistant Professor (RTDA) in organic chemistry and in 2020 as Assistant Professor (RTDB) in tenure track. Currently he is Associated Professor in organic chemistry at the Department of Chemistry "Ugo Schiff" DICUS of the University of Firenze. His interests are in supramolecular chemistry and physical- organic chemistry, with particular focus on the biomimetic recognition of biological relevant molecules, in particular carbohydrates. He has received a Junior Research Award (2016) from the Italian Chemical Society, and Research Award 2018 from CINMPIS.
Stefano Roelens graduated in chemistry at the University of Roma, Italy in 1976. After five years at Montedison Chemical Company as a research scientist, in 1982 he joined the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), holding a permanent research position in the Centro Composti Eterociclici at the University of Firenze, where he was Project Leader from 1995. He has been research fellow at the University of Montréal (1993), Appointed Professor at the Universities of Messina (1993, 1995) and Firenze (1999, 2002). He has been Senior Scientist of the CNR at Centro Meccanismi di Reazione (CMR, Roma, 1999 – 2001), at Istituto Composti Organometallici (ICCOM, Firenze, 2001 – 2006), and at Istituto Metodologie Chimiche (IMC, Firenze, 2006 – 2015), leading research projects in Supramolecular Chemistry at the Chemistry department of the University of Firenze. From 2015 he is research associate at the Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali (INSTM), at the Chemistry department of the University of Firenze. His recent scientific interests are focused on molecular recognition and self-assembly by hydrogen bonding, design and synthesis of artificial receptors, host-guest interactions, molecular recognition of carbohydrates
PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers
Andrea Baldi
Andrea Baldi graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology (magna cum laude) from the University of Florence in 2023, with a research thesis on the development of synthetic receptors for molecular recognition of carbohydrates. In 2023, as a visiting student at the University of Bern (Switzerland) in the group of Prof. Jean-Louis Reymond, he worked on the synthesis of novel analogs of Polymyxin B. He is currently a PhD student in Structural Biology working on rational design, synthesis and screening of inhibitors in enzyme-mediated diseases.
Federica Cefalì
Federica Cefalì graduated in Organic Chemistry (summa cum laude) at University of Pisa in 2022, with an experimental thesis based on the synthesis of bis-thioureas to apply as chiral solvating agents for the enantiodiscrimination of amino acids through the NMR spectroscopy. After graduation she held the position of scholarship holder at the University of Pisa. Currently, she is a research fellow in Cristina Nativi’s group and her project is focused on the development of therapeutic vaccines against Triple-Negative breast-cancer.
Dr. Francesco Milanesi
Francesco Milanesi received his PhD in Structural Biology in 2022 at the University of Firenze. During his PhD he worked on the development of both synthetic receptors for carbohydrates and glycomimetics and he spent a period as visiting student at CIC bioGUNE (Derio, Spain). Currently he is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Firenze. His research interests are in supramolecular chemistry and carbohydrates chemistry.
Andrea Sodini
Andrea Sodini graduated in organic chemistry (summa cum laude) from the university of Florence. Currently he is a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Cristina Nativi working on the development of therapeutic vaccine against Triple-Negative breast cancer.
During his first year of PhD, as a visiting student, he spent a period abroad at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal) and at CIC bioGUNE (Derio, Spain) where he studied the interaction between cancer-related lectins and glycomimetics using NMR techniques.
Filippo Rimbaldi
Filippo Rambaldi graduated in Photochemistry and molecular materials (summa cum laude) at the University of Bologna in 2023, with a thesis based on the computational investigation of excitonic and excimeric singlet states of pyrene and azapyrene dimers. At present, he holds a research fellowship position in Cristina Nativi's group, working on the development of new glycosylation strategies to apply to breast-cancer vaccines.
