Giuseppe BIFULCO | Curriculum

PERSONAL PARTICULARS

Giuseppe Bifulco,

DATE OF BIRTH: Naples 01/03/1968.

NATIONALITY: Italian.

email:bifulco@unisa.it phone:+39089969741

http://www.unisa.it/Facolta/Farmacia/bifulco.php

CURRENT POSITION

Full Professor of Organic Chemistry at the Department of Pharmaceutical Science of the University of Salerno.

STUDIES

Degree in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology achieved at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Naples, on the 16/12/1991, vote 110/110 cum laude.

Thesis in Organic Chemistry titled "Isolation and Structural Elucidation of New Guanidine Alkaloids with Strong Cytotoxic Activity from The Marine Sponge Crambe-Crambe". Supervisor prof. Luigi Minale.

He had his PhD at University of Naples, in the Organic Chemistry group of prof. Minale. On the 9th of October, 1996 he discussed a thesis titled "Structural Studies on New Bioactive Compounds of Natural Origin and on Calcium Binding Protein".

AWARDS

He was awarded, in 2004, with the Italian Chemical Society (Organic Chemistry Division) "G. Ciamician" Medal, a national price for researchers.

WORKING EXPERIENCE:

From 03/90 to 12/91 he worked at his experimental thesis in the Department of Chemistry of Natural Products as an undergraduate student. From 01/92 to 12/92 he was scientific collaborator in the same Department. His activity as a PhD student was supervised, from 12/92 to 11/94, from prof. Luigi Minale (Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Naples "Federico II"). During this period he focused his attention on the study of Marine Natural Products. In particular prof. Bifulco put his efforts in the structural characterization of the products using homonuclear and heteronuclear One and Two Dimensional NMR techniques. The frequent use of NMR techniques has been integrated with mass spectroscopy (MS), UV e FT-IR.

From 11/94 to 11/95 his activity of PhD student was supervised from prof. Walter J. Chazin at the "Scripps Research Institute", San Diego, California. His research in this period has dealt with structural studies on biopolymer by multidimensional NMR. In particular, he worked on Calcium binding proteins (Calbindin) and on the interaction between the antibiotic anti-cancer agent Calicheamicin (head-head dimer) with a synthetic fragment of duplex DNA.In the period of July-August 1996 he was invited at the Scripps Research Institute as a guest scientist from prof. K. C. Nicolaou, chairman of the Department of Chemistry. During his journey he continued the studies on Calicheamicin, focusing his attention on the interaction between another synthetic dimer (head-tail) of this drug and a duplex DNA.

From 1997 to 1999 he has been a Post-Doc at University of Salerno in the group of prof. Riccio; from 1999 to 2005 he has been appointed Researcher at University of Salerno, where he has focused his attention on the study of Marine and Terrestrial Natural Products, in particular putting his efforts in the structural characterization of the products using homonuclear and heteronuclear One and Two Dimensional NMR techniques.

Currently, he is Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Science of the University of Salerno. He is involved in several research fields:, structural characterization of biological active natural organic compounds from marine and terrestrial sources; advanced NMR techniques in Organic Chemistry; Quantum Mechanical Calculation for the determination of the conformation and the configuration of natural compounds; structural studies on drug-DNA interactions; Molecular Docking and Anti-Tumour drug Design.

His research activity is proved by 84 publications on international journals and over 50 communications to national and international congresses.

GRANT FUNDING EXPERIENCE

2015 – 2018 Principal Investigator (PI) of a Grant funded by AIRC – IG 17440

2012 – 2015 Principal Investigator (PI) of a Grant funded by AIRC – IG 12777

2011 – 2013 Project Coordinator of the Research Unit (Salerno) of a Grant funded by MIUR (PRIN 2009)

2009 – 2011 Project Coordinator of the Research Unit (Salerno) of a Grant funded by MIUR – (PRIN 2006)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1998/1999 Physical Methods in Organic Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy).

1999-2003 Organic Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy)

2000-2004 Synthesis and Special Organic Techniques (Faculty of Pharmacy)

2001-2002 General Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy)

2002/2003 Physical Methods in Organic Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy).

2003/2006 Organic Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy)

2006-2009 Organic Chemistry I (Faculty of Pharmacy, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology degree course)

2006-2009 Stereochemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology degree course)

He permanently trains and teaches the PhD students of the Pharmaceutical Science of the University of Salerno for what concerns the structural study of biopolymer by multi-dimensional NMR and the theoretical aspects of the NMR.

He has been often invited to give lectures in national and international doctoral and post-doctoral schools:

2000 Florence, "1° Workshop: Tecnologie analitiche avanzate in fitochimica, "New NMR strategies in the study of natural products".

2005 "Total Synthesis of Natural Products" XXX Summer School "A. Corbella"-Seminari di Sintesi in Chimica Organica, Gargnano (BS), University of Milan.

2005 "Practical aspects of quantum mechanical calculation of NMR chemical shifts and coupling constants", COST D28: Training School and Annual Workshop, Ischia (NA, Italy).

2007 "NMR methods for the Configuration determination of biologically active natural products" VI Laboratorio di Metodologie Sintetiche in Chimica Farmaceutica" (Siena, Italy)

2008 "NMR methods for the Configuration determination of biologically active natural products" University of Catania, Doctoral School

2009 "Structure determination of complex molecules via NMR and computational methods: theory and application" (30/01/2009), Ecole Doctorale Thématique du FNRS - METAMORPHOSE University of Mons, Belgium.

He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the "European Winter School on Physical Organic Chemistry"; in 2007 (Brixen) he presented the lesson entitled "QM calculation of Chemical Shifts in the structural determination of medium size molecules".

2007

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE RESEARCH ACTIVITY

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The research activity of prof. Bifulco is focused on three main themes: the first focuses on the chemical study of marine invertebrates, the second on molecular recognition, in particular on the study of the mechanism of action of bioactive molecules with antitumor and anti-inflammatory activity, and the third concerns the development of new methodologies in the structural analysis of natural molecules using quantum mechanical calculations and advanced nuclear magnetic resonance techniques. The first research topic was addressed by the candidate since his first steps as a researcher, within leading groups in research on natural marine substances: first with the group of prof. Minale in Naples and then with the group of prof. Riccio in Salerno. prof. Bifulco's experience abroad during the course of his doctorate in the group of prof. W.J. Chazin allowed him to develop specific skills in the field of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance on biopolymers and began to tackle, in collaboration with the group directed by prof. K.C. Nicolaou, of the structural studies concerning drug-DNA recognition through the combination of NMR techniques and molecular dynamics.

prof. Bifulco has also developed several original methodologies for the structural elucidation and determination of the relative stereochemistry of natural organic substances through conformational analysis and calculation of NMR parameters at quantum mechanical level.

Recently, as regards the design and synthesis of compounds with potential anti-inflammatory and antitumor activity, new inhibitors of mPGES-1, a new and interesting target involved in the development of tumors and inflammation, Bcl-Xl, also an important target involved in the mechanisms of apoptosis, of the Hsp90 protein, and of the bromodomain BRD9 have been designed and synthesized.As part of the study of problems related to molecular recognition, prof. Bifulco has recently developed the "Inverse Virtual Screening" methodology. In this methodology, a panel of antitumor target structures has been proposed, on which it is possible to test compounds with potential antitumor activity from a computational point of view and to be able to identify the biological target.