Sabrina CASTELLANO | Curriculum

Education: 

Sabrina Castellano received her Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry in 1995, summa cum laude, from University of Trieste.
In January 1999 she obtained her Ph. D. in Medicinal Chemistry from University of Milan under the supervision of Prof. Giorgio Stefancich. Her thesis work involved the design, the synthesis and the biological evaluation of new antifungal agents. 
 

Research Experience and Academic Positions:   

In 1999, Sabrina Castellano got a Postdoctoral Fellowship from University of Trieste. She continued her research on antimicrobial agents and started a project on design, synthesis and biological evaluation of central nervous system active heterocyclic compounds.
In October 2001, she became assistant professor in medicinal chemistry at University of Trieste.
In March 3003, she move to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA, as visiting scientist, to study chemical genetics and diversity oriented synthesis in Prof. Ohyun Kwon’s laboratories. There, she completed a diversity-oriented combinatorial synthesis of a library of cyclic compounds, as well as a library of multicyclic scaffolds, that were successfully exploited in drug discovery programs.
In October 2004, she come back to Italy and joined the faculty as assistant professor at Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Salerno.
In 2013, she obtained the National Scientific Habilitation (ASN 2012) to become associate professor in medicinal chemistry.
From December 2014, Sabrina Castellano is associate professor at the Department of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Salerno.
 

Research Interests and Expertise 

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of small-molecule modulators of epigenetic enzymes (focusing on  DNA methyltransferase, protein methyltransferases, protein demethylases, of histone deacetylases, histone acetyl transferases) and epigenetic reader domains of proteins. 
Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of antimicrobial agents (focusing on  azole compounds).
Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of heterocyclic compounds active in the nervous system (focusing on  modulators of Translocator 18 kDa Protein (TSPO)).
Development of advanced procedures for the synthesis of heterocyclic compounds to be used in drug discovery projects (Classical synthesis in batch as well as microwave assisted synthesis, solid phase synthesis, flow chemistry).
Application of modern biomolecular and biophysical approaches (with particular reference to Surface Plasmon Resonance and fluorescence based methods as AlphaLISA, AlphaScreen, FRET, TR-FRET assays) to study the different aspects of protein – ligand interactions.

Author of more than 50 papers on high-impact international journals, 3 book chapters and 1 patent (PCT Int. Appl). 
 

Teaching:

Medicinal Chemistry, Drug design and development, Pharmaceutical Analysis.