Name: Riccardo Di Leo
Contacts:
- phone: 0502219500
- e-mail: dileo@phd.unipi.it
Supervisors: Professor Armando Rossello
PhD Project Title: Development of new compounds for the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases
Research summary:
My PhD project consists of two parts. The first one deals with the development of inhibitors targeting thermolysin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To identify new selective inhibitors of the pathogen virulence factor could be a new promising strategy for the discovery of antibacterial drugs with a low risk of resistance. This research is a part of the project HNF1514-20, funded by “The Research Council of Norway”. The second part of my project is focused on the development of new antiviral compounds against the main protease (Mpro) of SARS-Cov-2. The design of new compounds will be developed in collaboration with the research group of Prof. Gerard Pujadas of Tarragona’s University. Moreover, the research group of Prof. F. Xavier Gomis-Rüth (IBMB, Barcelona) will produce the recombinant viral protein and will develop both inhibition HTS studies and RX complexation studies.