About Us

Barbara Campanini is associate professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma. She is interested in the biochemistry of amino acids metabolism and particularly in the functional characterization of enzymes and in the discovery of inhibitors for the modulation of their activity. Recently her interest has focused on the exploitation of cysteine biosynthetic enzymes as potential targets for antibiotics and/or enhancers of antibiotic therapy and on the functional characterization of pathogenic variants of the enzymes of the phosphorylated pathway of serine biosynthesis.

Stefano Bettati is full professor of Applied Physics at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Parma.
He is a biophysicist with main research focus on protein structure and dynamics. 
He is the National coordinator of a PRIN project for the exploitation of iron acquisition mechanisms in Staphlococcus aureus as potential targets for innovative antimicrobials, the ERASE Project.

Marialaura Marchetti is an Assistant Professor in Applied Physics at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Parma. She is interested in the study of the structural properties and conformational dynamics of virulence-associated bacterial proteins as putative targets to develop new antimicrobials. aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaa

Francesco Marchesani (FM) is a Post-Doc researcher at the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Parma. He is graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemisitry and Technology and has a PhD in ‘’Drugs, Biomolecules and Health Products’’. His main experties are related to enzymology and the evaluation of structure/function relationship of proteins of pharmaceutical interest. During his career, FM has mainly worked on projects concerning the study of enzymes involved in the metabolism of serine in the central nervous system . His actual project is related to the biochemical and biophysical characterisation of proteins involved in the iron assimilation by Staphylococcus aureus and the discovery of new molecular entities showing antimicrobial activity.

Jole D’Angelo is a PhD student in Drug Sciences at the University of Parma. She joined the Biochemistry group in January 2024 and graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology. She will be working on the recombinant expression and characterization of enzymes involved in the de novo L-cysteine biosynthetic pathway in P. aeruginosa, with a focus on cysteine synthases. 

Francesco Guggino is a research fellow at the University of Parma. He joined the Biochemistry group in October 2023, graduating in Translational Biomedical Sciences. He will be working on the recombinant expression and characterization of enzymes involved in the de novo L-cysteine biosynthetic pathway and the reductive sulfate assimilation pathway in P. aeruginosa. 

Emanuela Frangipani is Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino.
She is interested in bacterial physiology, genetics, gene regulation and antibiotic resistance. For the past 15 years she has investigated bacterial metabolisms  and applied this knowledge for the development of novel antibacterial strategies. Within the ENHANCE project she is responsible for the Microbiology research unit, whose main aim is to study the de novo L-cysteine biosynthetic pathway in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, by generating anche characterising deletion mutants unable to import and/or synthesise L-Cys.

Sarah Hijazi is a post-Doc researcher in the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology at the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. She has a MSc from the University of Geneva and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Technologies from the University of Roma Tre. During her career, she has worked on projects focused on developing new drugs to combat infections caused by pathogenic bacteria. Her main expertise is related to the setting up of defined experimental conditions to investigate bacterial metabolic pathways and their inhibition. Notably, she contributed to an innovative project entitled “Hijacking Bacterial Iron Metabolism Using the Post-Transition Metal Gallium”.

Rebecca Martedì is a PhD student in Biomolecular and Health Sciences at University of Urbino. She has joined the Molecular Microbiology group in November 2024 and will be working on the development and characterization of P. aeruginosa mutant strains, lacking specific enzymes involved in the de novo L-cysteine biosynthetic pathway.