Research
The activities of the Drug Design and Discovery group at the Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti e del Farmaco are focused on the following research lines:
GPCR ligands
- Design and QSAR analysis of MT1 and MT2 melatonin receptor ligands
Kinase inhibitors
- Design and synthesis of EGFR inhibitors
- Design and synthesis of FGFR inhibitors
Modulators of Protein-Protein Interaction
- Design and synthesis of small molecules acting as Eph-ephrin antagonists
- Design and synthesis of small molecules acting as FGF traps
Modulators of the Endocannabinoid System
- Design and QSAR analysis of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitors
- Design and QSAR of analysis N-acylethanolamine acid amidase (NAAA) inhibitors
- Design and synthesis of Monoglyceride Lipase (MGL) inhibitors
Areas of general interest for the Drug Design and Discovery group are
- Optimization of metabolic stability of drugs
- Discovery and development of thiol-interacting drugs
- Enzymatic reaction simulations by hybrid QM/MM approach
- Conformational analysis of small molecules in solutions
- Computational prediction of protein-ligand residence times
These research activities are managed in collaboration with other research teams of the Università di Parma:
Pharmacology Lab - Dipartimento di Scienze degli Alimenti e del Farmaco (Prof. Barocelli and Prof.Tognolini)
Experimental Oncology Lab - Dipartimento di Medicina e Chirurgia (Prof. Petronini and Prof. Alfieri)
or with groups belonging to other institutions:
Department of Drug Discovery & Development - Italian Institute of Technology, Genova, Italy
Piomelli Lab - Department of Pharmacology, University of California, Irvine, US
Mulholland Research Group - University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
Pasquale Lab – Sanford-Burnham Institute, La Jolla, California, US
Gobbi Lab - Neurobiological Psychiatry Unit – Dept. Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
