ERIKA OSELLADORE

EXPERIENCE

• PRESENT 2024

  R&D Scientist - Medicinal Chemistry

  ABX ADVANCED BIOCHEMICAL COMPOUNDS GMBH

  At ABX, I lead and contribute to medicinal chemistry projects within the R&D department, specializing in the design and synthesis of radioligand precursors for cancer imaging and therapy.

  Key contribution:
  • Development of radioligands for prostate and other epithelial cancers – design and synthesis of SARdriven analogue libraries optimizing binding affinity and biodistribution, minimizing off-target effects
  • Design of dual-modality imaging probes combining radiolabelling moieties and fluorophores to enable both SPECT/PET and intraoperative fluorescence guidance through modular linker design
  • Process optimization for compounds production – evaluation of different catalyst systems and reaction conditions and routes, significantly improving overall yields
  • Custom synthesis of complex organic molecules for external clients and research institutes with high quality and purity standards for pre-clinical compounds.

• 2024 2020

  Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry

  University of Brescia

  Gained experience in drug discovery process leading research projects on the design of new compounds with potential pharmaceutical interest, from in silico library generation and screening to the synthesis of the desired compounds up to in vitro and in vivo testing.

  Research achievements:
  • Design and synthesis of a focused library of small molecules from different scaffold, use of CD, MS, NMR and molecular docking to characterize binding modes, leading to the identification of inhibitors with nanomolar affinity
  • Conduction of in silico drug-repurposing studies against SARS-CoV-2 targets using molecular docking and dynamics simulations

• 2023 2022

  Visiting Ph.D. Student

  Johann Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main

  International experience at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry & Centre for Biomolecular Magnetic Resonance (BMRZ),
  under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Harald Schwalbe

  Project: “Development of new ligands targeting G-quadruplex”
  • Execution of 1D NMR and CD titrations to screen the binding affinity of multiple compounds to the nucleic acid rearrangement
  • Advanced use 2D NMR techniques (NOESY, COSY, HSQC, HMBC) for the resolution of the three-dimensional structure of new ligands:G-quadruplex complexes

• 2023 2021

  Teaching Assistant

  University of Brescia

  Provided laboratory instruction and support for the “Drug Analysis” course of the Pharmacy Master’s Degree across three academic years. Taught the students the practical application of analytical techniques like UV/Vis spectroscopy, HPLC, TLC, NMR spectroscopy.

• 2020 2020

  Early-stage researcher, Medicinal Chemistry Lab

  University of Padova

  Working mainly on two research projects at the Medicinal Chemistry Lab of the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences under the supervision of Prof. Giuseppe Zagotto:
  • Development of semi-synthetic derivatives of natural products as new phosphodiesterase (PDE) inhibitors; computational screening of combinatorial libraries of compounds deriving from natural scaffolds and following synthesis of the hit compounds, leading to the identification of a PDE9 inhibitor with low nanomolar affinity.
  • Synthesis and design of novel organoselenium compounds applying strategic scaffold modifications such as thiol/selenol insertions and sulfoxide/selenoxide oxidation for the introduction of potential antioxidant properties alongside the serotonin reuptake activity and investigation of their selenoxide elimination kinetics through 1H-, 77Se-NMR, ESI-MS and DFT calculations; optimization of the linker length for achieving potential drug delivery applications

• 2020 2020

  Teaching Assistant

  University of Padova

  Supported the activity during laboratory practice of “Advanced methodologies in analytical pharmaceutical chemistry” course of the Chemistry and pharmaceutical techniques Master’s Degree. Taught the students the basis and the results of various analytical techniques, in particularly 1D and 2D NMR experiments.

• 2017 2010

  Guest service/Front desk agent

  Various luxury hotels and campsites, Venice area

  First as a summer job alongside my studies, then as a full job. Progressed from Front Desk Agent to Shift Leader. Together with standard Front Desk tasks (i.e. check-in, check-out, account inquiries), responsibility for the training of new staff, for delegating daily tasks and responsibilities and managing and resolving complex issues and complaints. I developed strong communication, problem-solving and leadership skills in high pressure, international environments.