Ersilia De Lorenzi
Ersilia De Lorenzi
e-mail:
affiliation: Università di Pavia
research area(s): Chemical Biology, Molecular Biology
Course: Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology
University/Istitution: Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori, Pavia
Ersilia De Lorenzi graduated and obtained her PhD in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Pavia. As a PhD student she worked at Bradford University (UK), working on enantiomeric separations of drugs by protein-based stationary phases for HPLC and also spent a period (1995) at McGill University (Montreal, Canada) working on proteins as additives to the CE background electrolyte and on chiral analytical method transfer from HPLC to CE. In 1994 she was appointed as Researcher at the University of Pavia. In 1999 she was recipient of the “Farmindustria Award to the new generation”. From 2001 she is Associate Professor at the same University, where she lectures for the courses “Advanced Methodologies in Pharmaceutical Analysis” and “Analysis of Biotechnological drugs”.
Ersilia De Lorenzi has a strong analytical background, mainly on the use of separation techniques (high performance liquid chromatography HPLC, capillary electrophoresis CE, capillary electrochromatography CEC, LC-MS) for molecular recognition and drug discovery.
Over the past 10 years her scientific interests have focussed on two main projects 1) studies on the molecular basis of amyloid diseases, with the ultimate aim of finding new entities of pharmaceutical interest for these pathologies 2) characterisation of “tailor made” synthetic receptors (molecularly imprinted polymers, MIPs), designed for recognition of a specific molecule (template), and therefore useful for extraction, separation or sensing.
To these ends, she has set up new methodologies for the determination of binding constants of drugs for proteins (or of template for MIP) by HPLC frontal analysis or Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis ACE; for a medium-throughput screening of drug-protein binding by ACE and ultrafiltration combined with CE or a high throughput screening by high resolution MS; for characterising folding equilibria, refolding and fibrillogenesis kinetics of amyloidogenic proteins by CE; for testing novel MIP-based stationary phases for HPLC, microLC or CEC.
Ersilia De Lorenzi is author of about 60 publications (including 6 review articles and a book chapter) in peer-reviewed journals, of several oral presentations and keynote lectures given at national and international conferences. She is referee for Electrophoresis, J.Chromatography B, Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Microscale Bioseparations 2008. She has been responsible for the Pavia Unit within an EU funded project (HPRN-CT-2002-00189) and from 2003 she is consultant for training in CE at Agilent Technologies. Since January 2010 is member of the Council of the Medicinal Chemistry Division of the Italian Chemical Society. From 2011 she is member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Chromatography B.
All the ongoing projects exploit the potential of analytical techniques (high performance liquid chromatography HPLC, capillary electrophoresis CE, capillary electrochromatography CEC, LC-MS) for molecular recognition and drug discovery through protein-drug interaction studies, affinity-based screenings of chemical libraries, protein refolding monitoring and studies on protein folding equilibria, separation of protein oligomers as drug targets.
The main research activity are centered on 1) studies on the molecular basis of amyloid diseases, with the ultimate aim of finding new entities of pharmaceutical interest for these pathologies 2) characterisation of “tailor made” synthetic receptors (molecularly imprinted polymers, MIPs), designed for recognition of a specific molecule (template), and therefore useful for extraction, separation or sensing.
•Sulfonated molecules that bind a partially structured species of 2-microglobulin also influence refolding and fibrillogenesis.
C. Carazzone, R. Colombo, M. Quaglia, P. Mangione, S. Raimondi, S. Giorgetti, G. Caccialanza, V. Bellotti, E. De Lorenzi.
Electrophoresis 29 (2008) 1502-1510.

•A pTyr-imprinted polymer receptor for the recognition of tyrosine-phosphorylated peptides.
M. Emgenbroich, C. Borrelli, S.Shinde, I. Lazraq, F. Vilela, A. J. Hall, J. Oxelbark, E.De Lorenzi, J. Courtois, A.Simanova, J.Verhage, K.Irgum, K. Karim, B. Sellergren.
Chemistry- A European Journal, 14 (2008) 9516-9529

•CE can identify small molecules that selectively target soluble oligomers of amyloid beta protein and display antifibrillogenic activity.
R. Colombo, A. Carotti, M. Catto, M. Racchi, C. Lanni, L. Verga, G. Caccialanza, E. De Lorenzi.
Electrophoresis, 30 (2009) 1418-1429.

•A combined high resolution mass spectrometric and in silico approach for the characterisation of small ligands of 2-microglobulin.
L.Regazzoni, L.Bertoletti, G.Vistoli, R. Colombo, G.Aldini, M.Serra, M.Carini, G.Caccialanza, E. De Lorenzi.
ChemMedChem., 5 (2010) 1015-1025.

•Screening of Fibrillogenesis Inhibitors of 2-microglobulin: Integrated Strategies by Mass Spectrometry, Capillary Electrophoresis and in Silico Simulations
L.Regazzoni, R.Colombo, L.Bertoletti, G.Vistoli, G.Aldini, M.Serra, M.Carini, Maffei Facino R., Giorgetti S., Stoppini M., G.Caccialanza, E.De Lorenzi
Analytica Chimica Acta, 685 (2011) 153–161.
No projects are available to students for the current accademic year.