PIGNATARO LUCA LUIGI

PERSONAL INFORMATION

Date of birth: 4th December 1978
Nationality: Italian

AFFILIATION AND OFFICIAL ADDRESS

Università degli Studi di Milano, Dipartimento di Chimica
Via Golgi, 19 - 20133 Milano, Italy
Phone: +39 02 503 14090 | Fax: +39 02 503 14159
E-mail: luca.pignataro@unimi.it

EDUCATION

November 2003-December 2006
PhD in Industrial Chemistry (PhD advisor: Prof. Franco Cozzi)
Università degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan)
Title of the thesis: “Novel chiral N-oxides as organocatalysts for the enantioselective allylation of aromatic aldehydes”

October 1997-March 2003
Master Degree in Industrial Chemistry (Master advisor: Prof. Franco Cozzi)
Università degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan)
Title of the thesis: “Synthesis of chiral phenantrolines and bipyridines as ligands for asymmetric catalysis”

July 1997
Grammar school diploma (“Maturità classica”)
Liceo Ginnasio “G. Pascoli”, Gallarate (VA)

CAREER

November 2020
National Scientific Qualification as Full Professor (‘Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale a professore di I fascia nel S.C. 03/C1 - Chimica Organica, ai sensi della legge 240/2010’, valid until 18th November 2029)

March 2019-present
Associate professor at the University of Milan (Department of Chemistry) – S.S.D. CHIM/06 | S.C. 03/C1

March 2016-February 2019
Tenure track researcher/assistant professor (“Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato di tipo B ai sensi della legge 240/2010”) at the University of Milan (Department of Chemistry)

October 2012-September 2015
Researcher/assistant professor (“Ricercatore a Tempo Determinato di tipo A ai sensi della legge 240/2010”) at the University of Milan (Department of Chemistry)

February 2009-November 2009
Post-doctoral fellow (“Assegnista di ricerca”) the research group of Prof. Umberto Piarulli at the “Università degli Studi dell’Insubria” (Como)

January 2008-January 2009 and February 2010-September 2012
Post-doctoral fellow (“Assegnista di ricerca”) in the research group of Prof. Cesare Gennari at the University of Milan (Department of Chemistry)

January 2007-January 2008
Post-doctoral fellow in the research group of Prof. David Leigh at the University of Edinburgh (UK)

June 2003-February 2004
Compulsory civil service (alternative to military service) as employed in a non-profit organization (Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”)

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

- Homogeneous transition metal catalysis: i) asymmetric catalysis; ii) design and synthesis of supramolecu-lar catalysts; iii) development of sustainable and efficient reduction methodologies; iv) photoredox catal-ysis.
- Synthesis of new peptidomimetics with anti-cancer activity: i) development of small molecule-drug conju-gates for the selective release of cytotoxic compounds in tumor tissues

SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS AND BIBLIOMETRICS

- Author of 67 publications in peer-reviewed journals (20 as corresponding author) and 1 book chapter (full list on Page 4); h index = 24
- ORCID number: 0000-0002-7200-9720 | ResearcherID: K-1332-2015 | Scopus Author ID: 8714417500

INVITED LECTURES

1) Keynote lecture at the XLV "A. Corbella" International Summer School on Organic Synthesis – ISOS 2021 (Webinar event, 14th-17th June 2021): “(Cyclopentadienone)iron Complexes for Hydrogen Transfer and More”

2) Lecture at the congress Incontro con l’Università, il CNR e l’Industria, organized by the Department of Chemistry of the University of Milan (Milano, 5 novembre 2018): “Challenges in the catalytic reduction of C-O and C-N multiple bonds”

3) Lecture at the Third China-Italy Bilateral Symposium on Organic Chemistry (Wuhan, China, 26th-28th April 2017): “Pushing the Limits of Asymmetric Hydrogenation”

4) Keynote lecture at the meeting Synthesis and biomedical applications of tumor-targeting peptidomimetics (Bologna, 14th-16th February 2016): “Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of RGD Peptidomimetic-Paclitaxel Conjugates for Tumor Targeting”

5) Keynote lecture at the XXV National Congress of the Italian Chemical Society (Arcavacata di Rende, 7th-12th September 2014): “Towards a new class of chiral Fe-catalysts for the enantioselective hydrogenation of ketones”



OTHER SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATIONS

Author of 5 oral communications and > 20 poster communications at international schools/conferences

EDITORIAL ACTIVITIES

2022 - Guest editor of a special collection of the European Journal of Organic Chemistry (https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0690.Cesare-Gennari-70)

ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCES/MEETINGS

April 2019-present
Head of the Scientific Seminar Committee of the Department of Chemistry – University of Milan (organising the scientific programme The Chemist’s Interactions,
http://www.chimica.unimi.it/ecm/home/ricerca/seminari-scientifici)

March 2016-January 2019
Secretary and member of the organizing/scientific committee of the “A. Corbella” International Summer School on Organic Synthesis – ISOS (http://www.corbellasummerschool.unimi.it/)

November 2012-January 2016
Organisation of 5 meetings of the “Marie Skłodowska Curie” EID-ITN network REDUCTO (“Affordable solu-tions for asymmetric reduction of industrially relevant substrates”, FP7, contract no. PITN-GA-2012-316371, coordinator: Prof. Cesare Gennari)

FUNDING PROGRAMMES INVOLVED IN

November 2019-present
Funding Programme: “Marie Skłodowska-Curie” ITN-ETN Network (Horizon 2020), contract no. 861316
Project title: “Small-Molecule Drug Conjugates for Targeted Delivery in Tumor Therapy” (MAGICBULLET::RELOADED)
Funding agency: European Commission
Coordinator: Prof. Norbert Sewald (University of Bielefeld, Germany)
Partner units: University of Milan (UMIL), 9 other academic partners and 5 industrial partners
Scientist in Charge of the UMIL unit: Prof. Cesare Gennari
Role within the project: member of the UMIL unit

October 2019-present
Funding Programme: PRIN 2017
Project title: “SURSUMCAT: Raising up Catalysis for Innovative Developments”
Project number: 20174SYJAF
Funding agency: Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR)
Coordinator: Prof. Pier Giorgio Cozzi (Università degli Studi di Bologna)
Role within the project: local coordinator of the ‘University of Milan’ research unit

June 2018-December 2019
Funding Programme: “Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca 2015-2017 (anno 2018 – Linea 2-Azione A)”
Project title: “Development of new iron-catalytic methodologies for challenging reactions involving reduction of carbon-heteroatom multiple bonds”
Funding agency: Università degli Studi di Milano
Role within the project: Principal Investigator

January 2018-September 2019
Funding Programme: “Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca 2015-2017 (anno 2017 – Linea 2-Azione A)”
Project title: “Synthesis of new chiral (cyclopentadienone)iron complexes featuring a stereogenic plane, and test of their catalytic properties in the enantioselective reduction of C=O and C=N bonds”
Funding agency: Università degli Studi di Milano
Role within the project: Principal Investigator

November 2017
Recipient of “Fondo per il finanziamento delle attività base di ricerca” (FFABR)
Funding agency: Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca (MIUR)

January 2015-December 2018
Funding Programme: “Marie Skłodowska-Curie” ITN-ETN Network (Horizon 2020), contract no. 642004
Project title: “Peptide-Drug Conjugates for Targeted Delivery in Tumor Therapy” (MAGICBULLET)
Funding agency: European Commission
Coordinator: Prof. Norbert Sewald (University of Bielefeld, Germany)
Partner units: University of Milan (UMIL), 6 other academic partners and 2 industrial partners
Scientist in Charge of the UMIL unit: Prof. Cesare Gennari
Role within the project: member of the UMIL unit

October 2012-September 2016
Funding Programme: “Marie Skłodowska-Curie” EID-ITN Network (FP7), contract no. PITN-GA-2012-316371
Project title: “Affordable Solutions for Asymmetric Reductions of Industrially Relevant Substrate” (REDUCTO)
Funding agency: European Commission
Coordinator: Prof. Cesare Gennari (University of Milan)
Partner units: University of Milan (UMIL) and DSM Innovative Synthesis BV (The Netherlands)
Role within the project: member of the UMIL unit

Other projects involved in: Piano di Sostegno alla Ricerca (PSR) – Università degli Studi di Milano: PSR 2020 (Line 2 - Action A), PSR 2019 (Line 2 – Action A), PSR 2018 (Action A), PSR 2017 (Line 2 – Action A), PSR 2016 (Line 3 – Action B); Piano di sviluppo dell’Ateneo – Università degli Studi di Milano (year 2014 – Line B.1); PRIN 2010-11 (prog. no. 2010NRREPL); PRIN 2008 (prog. no. 2008J4YNJY); PRIN 2006 (prog. no. 2006030449)

TUTORING/MENTORING ACTIVITY

- Supervision of 12 PhD students (6 foreign), > 15 MSc students, 1 Postdoc

CURRENT TEACHING ACTIVITY

- Teacher in the the course “Chimica Organica B”, Master Course in Chemical Sciences (“Laurea Magistrale in Scienze Chimiche”)
- Teacher in the course “Advanced Methods in Organic Synthesis” - delivered in English, Master Course in Chemical Sciences (“Laurea Magistrale in Scienze Chimiche”)