Marco Pieroni

Assistant Professor

biography

I graduated in 2003 in Pharmacy with a thesis regarding the synthesis of novel quinolones derivatives. I then joined the Prof Fravolinimedicinal chemistry group in Perugia as a PhD student, workingon novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of resistant infections. After graduation, I spent 3 years as a research assistant, first, and research assistant professor and Medicinal Chemistry lecturer, afterward, in the group of Prof Alan P. Kozikowski (a former student of E.J.Corey) at the UIC in Chicago. In 2011, I moved to the University of Hawai’i at Hilo, workingwith professor Ghee Tanin the synthesis of natural compounds analogues with antiparasitic activity. At the end of 2011 I joined the group of Prof Costantino, where I currently am a research assistant professor.

 

Area of Interest

Medicinal chemistry
Analytical chemistry, especially NMR, STD-NMR
Medicinal chemistry for infectious diseases
Medicinal chemistry for Tuberculosis
Structure activity relationships
Ligand Based drug design
Structure Based drug design
Hit to lead optimization
Drug discovery process


top publication

1. Annunziato, G.; Pieroni, M.*; Benoni, R.; Campanini, B.; Perthinhez, T. A.; Pecchini, C.; Bruno, A.; Magalhães, J.; Bettati, S.; Franko, N.; Mozzarelli, A.; Costantino, G. Cyclopropane-1,2-Dicarboxylic Acids as new Tools for the Biophysical Investigation of O-AcetylserineSulfhydrylases by Fluorimetric Methods and Saturation Transfer Difference (STD) NMR, J. Enzyme Inhibit. Med. Chem.2016, DOI 10.1080/14756366.2016.1218486, Accepted for publication.
2. Annunziato, G.; Angeli, A.;D'Alba, F.; Bruno, A.;Pieroni, M.;Vullo, D.; De Luca, V.;Capasso, C.;Supuran, C. T.; Costantino, G. Discovery of New Potential Anti-Infective Compounds Based on Carbonic Anhydrase Inhibitors by Rational Target-Focused Repurposing Approaches,ChemMedChem,2016, in press DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.201600180.
3. Vucicevic, J.;Srdic-Rajic, T.;Pieroni, M.;Laurila, J.M.M.;Perovic, V.;Tassini, S.; Azzali, E.; Costantino, G.;Glisic, S.;Agbaba, D.;Scheinin, M.; Nikolic, K.; Radi, M.;Veljkovic, N.A. Combined Ligand- and Structure-Based approach for the identification of rilmenidine-like compounds which synergize the antitumor effects of doxorubicin, Bioorg. Med. Chem., 2016, 24, 3174-3183.
4. Pieroni, M.; Annunziato, G.; Beato, C.; Wouters, R.; Benoni, R.; Campanini, B.; Perthinhez, T. A.; Bettati, S.; Mozzarelli, A.; Costantino, G. Rational design, synthesis, and preliminary Structure Activity Relationships of α-substituted-2-phenylcyclopropane carboxylic acids as inhibitors of Salmonella typhimurium O-acetylserinesulphydrylase, J. Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 2567-2578.
5. Pieroni, M.*; Tipparaju, S.K.; Synthesis of 7-Desmethyl Analogs of (+) and (-)-Huperzine A, Heterocycles, 2015, vol 91, 12, 2285-2294.
6. Winglee, k.; Lun, S.; Pieroni, M., Kozikowski, A. P.; Bishai, W.; Mutation of Rv2887, a marR-Like Gene, Confers Mycobacterium tuberculosis Resistance to an Imidazopyridine-Based Agent. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2015, 59(11), 6873-6881.
7. Pieroni, M.*; Machado, D.; Azzali, E.; Santos Costa, S.; Couto, I.; Costantino, G.; Viveiros, M. Rational Design and Synthesis of Thioridazine Analogues as Enhancers of the Antituberculosis Therapy. J. Med. Chem.2015, 58(15), 5842-5853
8. Pieroni, M.*; Wan, B.; Zuliani, V.; Franzblau, S.; Costantino, G.; Rivara, M. Discovery of antitubercular 2,4-diphenyl-1H-imidazoles from chemical library repositioning and rational design. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2015, 100, 44-49.
9. Campanini, B., Pieroni, M., Raboni, S., Bettati, S., Benoni, R., Pecchini, C., Constantino G., Mozzarelli, A., Sulfurassimilationpathwayas a source of antibiotic targets. Current Med. Chem. 2015, 22, 187-213.
10. Beato, C.; Pecchini, C.; Cocconcelli, C.; Campanini, B.; Marchetti, M.; Pieroni, M.; Mozzarelli, A.; Costantino, G. Cyclopropane derivative sas potential human serine racemase inhibitors: unveiling novel insights into a difficult target. J. Enzyme Inhibit. Med. Chem.2015 Jul 2:1-8.