Giovanni Bottegoni
Giovanni Bottegoni is an Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences of the University of Urbino and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Pharmacy of the University of Birmingham. In 2006, he obtained his doctorate in medicinal chemistry from the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Faculty of Pharmacy. He spent two years as a research fellow the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA – USA and later joined the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), first as a postdoctoral fellow and eventually as a team leader at the Dept. of Drug Discovery and Development – Computation. In 2014, together with four other scientists, he co-founded BiKi Technologies. After a stint in Heptares Therapeutics, now Nxera, he went back to an academic role, joining the School of Pharmacy at the University of Birmingham and, eventually, the University of Urbino with the current position. Giovanni Bottegoni is a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and, since 2023, he is a member of the board of directors of the QSAR, Chemoinformatics and Modeling Society (QCMS).
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovannibottegoni/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1251-583X
Mattia Bernetti
Mattia Bernetti is an Assistant Professor (RTD-B), at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences of the University of Urbino. He obtained the Ph.D. in Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Bologna in 2018, working in the group of Prof. Cavalli and spending six months abroad in the lab of Prof. Amaro at the University of California San Diego, USA. As a postdoctoral fellow, he joined the Molecular and Statistical Biophysics group at Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA), Trieste, for three years under the supervision of Prof. Bussi, and a further three years in the Computational and Chemical Biology unit at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Genova, in the group of Prof. Cavalli. Mattia has experience in the use of computational methods, particularly molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to characterize structure and dynamics of pharmaceutically relevant biomolecules, including the emerging class of non-coding RNAs.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/mattia-bernetti
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4373-9310
Gian Marco Elisi
Gian Marco Elisi is a Post-doctoral Researcher (RTD-A) and Lecturer in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Urbino and he is currently employed in the supervision of the VITALITY HPC platform. He earned his degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in 2019, followed by a Ph.D. in Drug Sciences from the University of Parma in 2023, working in the group of Prof. Mor. As part of his doctoral studies, mostly centered on the study of melatonin receptors, he also completed a three-month research secondment at the University of Geneva, in the group of Prof. Gervasio. Later, Dr. Elisi joined Evotec as a Senior Scientist in the Molecular Architects department. In the current position, his research focuses primarily on computational medicinal chemistry, with expertise in free-energy simulations for perspective drug design and the application of virtual screening protocols to ultra-large libraries.
LinkedIn: https://it.linkedin.com/in/gianmarcoelisi
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9071-5621
Adriana Coricello
Adriana obtained her Master’s Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at University of Calabria (Cosenza) in 2016. She then graduated with a II Level Master in Drug Design and Development at University of Pavia for the academic year 2017-2018 (Pavia). Subsequently, she joined a PhD program in Life Science at University of Catanzaro during the years 2019/2022 and she is currently a post-doctoral researcher in the CAMD Lab at University of Urbino. In 2025 she was awarded a Fondazione Umberto Veronesi post-doctoral fellowship to study multitarget agents potentially useful in nicotine addiction.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriana-coricello-8b2200118/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3306-9261
Federico Ricci
Federico Ricci is a post-doctoral researcher. His project here, in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and FISM foundation, has as main goal the identification of multitarget compounds for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis.
Prior to its post-doctoral experience, his PhD project focused on computational studies on metalloenzymes and concluded in 2023 at the University of Messina. During PhD, he spent a year abroad in the group of Prof. Wolber at the Freie Universität Berlin. He previously obtained his master degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Messina in 2020.
Lara Davani
Lara Davani is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Urbino. Her expertise lies in the development and application of advanced analytical techniques to support drug discovery. Currently, her research focuses on biophysical methods for the characterization of ligand–target interactions. She graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Bologna in 2017 and obtained her PhD at the same university in 2022, under the supervision of Prof. Andrisano. During her doctoral studies, she spent six months in the research group of Prof. Laemmerhofer at the Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tübingen (Germany).
From 2022 to 2024, she held a postdoctoral position at the University of Bologna in collaboration with CIRI-MAM (Advanced Mechanics and Materials) at the Rimini Tecnopolo. Her research was primarily carried out within a project funded by Eni S.p.A. on the development and application of analytical methods for the characterization of algal flours and extracts for cosmetic and nutraceutical applications.
In 2024, she joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Milan as a Postdoctoral Researcher, where she was involved in the application of quantitative proteomics approaches in the field of drug discovery.
Vittorio Lembo
Vittorio Lembo is a current PhD student in the XXXVIII cycle, working under the supervision of Professor Giovanni Bottegoni in the Computer-Assisted Molecular Design lab at the Department of Biomolecular Sciences, University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. He graduated in Pharmacy from the same university with 110/110 cum laude in July 2022.
LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vittorio-lembo-920385282/
ORCID:
https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9007-7847
David Sotillo Núñez
David Sotillo Núñez is a PhD student in the XXXVIII cycle of the ReMeST program at the University of Urbino under the supervision of Professor Giovanni Bottegoni. He graduated in Biochemistry at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2018, followed by a Masters program in Bioinformatics for Health Sciences, finalized in 2021. He is currently advancing his research as a member of the ALLODD consortium, under a Marie Skłodowska-Curie funded by the European Union.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsotilllo/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6414-8970
Matilda Ymeraj
Matilda Ymeraj is currently enrolled as a PhD student, advancing her research in the Computer-Assisted Molecular Design lab supervised by Professor Giovanni Bottegoni. Matilda graduated in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo” in March 2023. She is now spending a six-month secondment at the University of Bristol, perfectioning her skills in QM-MM simulations.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matilda-ymeraj-b1674624a/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4763-4875
Dominga Evangelista
Dominga Evangelista is a PhD student in the XXXVII cycle under the supervision of Professor Giovanni Bottegoni and Marinella Roberti in Biotechnological, Biocomputational, Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological sciences at the University of Bologna. She graduated in Chemistry at University of Bologna in March 2021.
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dominga-evangelista-42405b20b
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2721-6033
Sonja Peter
Sonja is an Early-Stage researcher in the Computational Chemistry group of Nxera Pharma UK and PhD student of the University of Urbino. Before moving to Cambridge, she worked as Process Engineer for Janssen Vaccines on the production side of vaccine research. Prior to that, she graduated with a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Biotechnology from ETH Zurich. In between, she worked at Lonza and did a Master Thesis on a CADD project at MIT Boston.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonja-peter-52b29b17b/
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6354-6979