BIO-INSPIRED MATERIALS UNIBAS RESEARCH GROUP

The Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials (LaBIM) is located at Dept. of Science, University of Basilicata, Potenza (Italy). The Laboratory was founded by Antonio Mario Tamburro (R.I.P.) in 1980. The research was focused on the chemical synthesis of elastin peptides and their characterization by Spectroscopy and Electron Microscopy. Nowadays, we use our longstanding expertise in the chemical synthesis of bioinspired polymers, as elastomeric peptides, in order to develop innovative electrospun materials starting from biopolymers (cellulose, elastin, poly-lactic acid are few examples). The final aim is to use them as materials with minimal environmental impact.

Brigida Bochicchio

Brigida Bochicchio is Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry at University of Basilicata (Italy) and has received on 2017 the National Habilitation to Full Professor. She graduated in Chemistry at University of Basilicata on 1995. She started the Ph.D. in 2001 and on 4th March 2003 received the PhD in Chemistry from the University of Basilicata (Italy) and from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France) (Italy-France co-tutelle program) after defending her thesis entitled Synthesis of extracellular matrix proteins and related conformational studies. Supervisors were Professor Antonio Mario Tamburro (Italy) and Professor Alain Jean Paul Alix (France). Since 2007, she is assistant professor at University of Basilicata where teaches Bioorganic Chemistry and is involved in Organic Chemistry practices at the School of Chemistry. She is co-author of 55 papers, all published in International Peer-Reviewed Journals. She gave five lectures as invited speaker at International Meetings, three lectures at Elastin and Elastic Fibers Gordon Research Conferences (USA) and is co-author of 62 communications to congresses. She was twice Visiting Professor at Universitè de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (France). She was ( 2008-2012) teacher at Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne in the framework of Lifelong Learning Programme -ERASMUS. In the following research projects she was Principal Investigator:

1. 2010-2012: PRIN research projects 2008 (Research Projects of National Relevance) funded by the Italian Ministry of University. (Project: 2008X8RTZL_003) entitled ELASTIN-,ABDUCTIN-,AND RESILIN-INSPIRED BIOMATERIALS;

2. 2010-2011: The development of biomimetic hybrid material for stimulating bone remodelling” between University of Basilicata and Laboratory of Polymer Physic of Paul Sabatier University, Toulouse-France.

Research Statement: Protein-inspired nanostructured biomaterials. H-index: 19. Number of citations: 1036 (data referred to 2016).

Angelo Bracalello

Antonietta Pepe

Current position: Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry, Department of Science, University of Basilicata.

Education: MSc in Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Naples, 1994 (Prof. L. Mayol, supervisor).

PhD in Natural Product Sciences, University of Naples, 1998 (Prof. L. Mayol, supervisor).

Academic Career:

2005: Assistant Professor in Organic Chemistry; Department of Chemistry; University of Basilicata.

2016: Associate Professor in Organic Chemistry; Department of Science; University of Basilicata.

Training and fellowship appointment:

1998- 2004: Post-doc at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Basilicata (Prof. A. M. Tamburro, supervisor), funded by EC grants and university fellowships.

2000: EMBO Short-term fellowship, Biophysics Laboratories of University of Portsmouth, UK.

Awards:

1999: “Giacomino Randazzo” Prize for Best PhD Thesis awarded from the Italian Chemistry Society for the work entitled, “Physico-chemical studies on non-canonical DNA structures”.

1999: EMBO Practical Course “Structure Determination of Biological Macromolecules By Solution NMR”, Heidelberg, Germany. Travel Award

Research Interest: (current)

Her research interests are oriented towards molecular and supramolecular studies on model peptides of elastomeric proteins, such as elastin, abductin and lamprin, and resilin, focusing on the self-assembling process. These studies represented the basis for the synthesis and development of protein-inspired biomaterials. Recently the research interest are devoted to the design and production of peptide-based hydrogels and biopolymer-based electrospun scaffolds for tissue engineering.

She is co-author of 67 papers published in international peer-reviewed journals and 4 chapters on books.

Invited lecturer in 7 international conferences. Presented more than 95 contributions to national and international congresses as oral communications and posters. Chair of 2 international meetings.

Teaching activity:

2005/2006 Organic chemistry in Biological Processes (MSc Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Basilicata).

2006/2007: Physical methods in Organic Chemistry Processes (BSc Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Basilicata).

From 2006-2007 to 2009/2010: Spectroscopic Techniques in Organic Chemistry (MSc Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Basilicata);

Since 2009/2010: Spectroscopic Methods to study Bioactive Molecules(MSc Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, University of Basilicata)

Since 2016/2017: Spectroscopic Techniques in Organic Chemistry (BSc Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Basilicata)

Antonio Laezza (Tenure Track)

Antonio Laezza was born in Naples, Italy in 1987. In July 2013 he graduated with a 1st Class Honours in Chemical Sciences at the University of Naples Federico II and in March 2014, he started his PhD “Regioselective modifications of natural polysaccharides.” The project looked to regioselective chemical functionalization and O-glycosylations of natural polysaccharides, investigating then their biological functions.
In May 2016 Antonio joined Uhrin Group at the University of Edinburgh as a Visiting PhD student with a project on the evaluation of the interaction between semy-synthetic ligand and selectins through STD-NMR.
In January 2018 Antonio joined the Gibson Group as a Postdoc with a project entitled “Software-controlled chemoenzymatic approaches to new glycomaterials”.

In August 2019 Antonio joined Bioinspired Materials Group

as Researcher.

Teaching Activity

2019-2020: Organic Chemistry (University of Basilicata-Potenza- Agronomy School)