Pavia Chemistry Book
Derrick Drescher
Non-eu students residing abroad who would like to enroll in a study course completely taught in Italian, have to prove their knowledge of the language through an Italian language test.
The test will be organized by CISIA, in collaboration with the University of Pavia. To find out the dates and how to register consult the website at this page .
The following categories are excluded from this obligation:
1. students who intend to enroll in degree courses in English;
2. students in possession of an Italian language certification of level B2 or higher (such as CILS, CELI, Roma3 or PLIDA)
Functions acquired in a work context:
- Conduction of basic and applied chemical research activities or activities that require the application of chemistry procedures and protocols;
- Development and certification new products, production processes and methodologies for chemical, environmental and certification analyzes;
- Performing scientific and technological research activities at universities, public or private research organizations, with possible opening to teaching.
Among the identified career opportunities, we highlight:
1. Public and private research bodies;
2. Analysis, control and quality certification laboratories;
3. Public and / or private bodies and companies, as a freelance employee or consultant.
4. Industries and work environments requiring advanced knowledge in the field of chemistry;
5. University teaching.
The chemistry department promotes and coordinates research in many sectors of Chemistry. It manages the three-year and master's degree courses in Chemistry, the LM +.
The Department participates in the PhD in Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Industrial Innovation.
This book is a continuing evolution of materials that we use in our own courses, both as a supplement to our organic chemistry lecture course series and also as the principal textbook in our upper-division and graduate courses in spectroscopic methods and advanced NMR techniques. Explanations and examples that we have found to be effective in our courses have been incorporated into this edition.
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Growing evidence supports the view that disruption of metal homeostasis in the brain is linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson's diseases. Toxic effects of metal ions such as iron and copper may be directly associated with the possibility to promote and stabilize oligomers of neuronal peptides, but in most cases these effects depend on the redox properties of metal ions and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). In particular, the interaction of these ions with neuronal peptides has an influence on: (i) the metal redox potential and hence their reactivity towards dioxygen or hydrogen peroxide, which leads to ROS production, (ii) the ability to promote oxidation of reactive catecholamine neurotransmitters present in the brain, and (iii) the post-translational modifications of the endogenous peptides and their aggregation properites. It is therefore of extreme importance to clarify to which extent and in which conditions (e.g. solution vs. membrane environment) the interaction of metal ions with neuronal peptides has pro-oxidant effects.
Recent research in our group focused on a systematic investigation of the binding and reactivity of copper and iron ions (both heme and non-heme) with peptide fragments of b-amyloid (Ab), a-synuclein (aS), tau protein (Rnt), and prion protein (PrP), containing the residues which act as binding sites for the metal ions. Neuronal toxicity of ferric heme is particularly relevant under conditions of heavy heme release occurring, e.g. on traumatic brain injury. More generally, toxic effects of trace metal ions become significant when their reactivity is prolonged for extended periods of times, resulting in chronic neuronal inflammation.
Luigi Casella graduated in Chemistry cum laude at the University of Milano (Italy) in 1973, and then he served as a Navy officer until 1975. In the period 1978-1979, he did postdoctoral work with professor James A. Ibers at the Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (U.S.A.). He became assistant professor (1977) and, subsequently, associate professor (1983-1990) at the University of Milano. In 1990, he moved to the University of Pavia, where he was appointed as full professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry.
He has been the project coordinator of several networks of national and European research teams. In particular, at the European level, he was the coordinator of a Human Capital and Mobility program on "Dinuclear and polynuclear metal centres in biology: enzymes and synthetic analogues", an INTAS project on "The basic chemistry of peroxynitrite and related species: reactions with antioxidants, metalloproteins and their models", and the Chairman of the European COST Chemistry Action D21 "Metalloenzymes and chemical biomimetics", involving more than 100 laboratories.
The primary focus of my research group is supramolecular chemistry. Non-covalent supramolecular interactions are pervasive in Nature. They have also evolved into a powerful and versatile tool in the hands of chemists, for instance in the directed assembly of complex functional structures otherwise unattainable through covalent architecture, or in the design of molecular sensors for analytical purposes.
Making molecular sensors from DNA using pattern-based recognition: We intend to use DNA strands immobilized on a solid support as molecular recognition motifs in connection with fluorescence signaling and pattern recognition methods. In fact, an array of non-selective receptors responds to analytes through a signal pattern, whose shape (intensity vs. position) is typical of the species that generated it. Data treatment through chemometric pattern recognition techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) or artificial neural networks (ANN) will allow us to classify these patterns and thus construct specific sensing systems. Concurrently, we will carry out in-depth physicochemical characterization of the modes of interaction between dyes and DNA through a range of fluorescence techniques: an improved understanding of the nature of these interactions at the fundamental level will allow us to further fine-tune our sensing systems.
Fluorescent liposomes as water-dispersed nanoreactors: Liposomes can be used as water-compatible nanoreactors for confinement of solutions at the nanoscale. We are interested in constructing liposome-based reactor vessels and reagent delivery systems equipped with traceable fluorescent labeling as a general-purpose method for diversity-oriented synthesis in aqueous solution. Embedding of fluorescent labels in the liposome membranes will allow tracking of each reactors contents, thus greatly simplifying library screening and deconvolution compared to current methods. Fluorescently tagged liposome-based libraries also lend themselves to further automation using methods drawn from the biologists toolbox.
The worldwide community has recently celebrated with the International Year of Crystallography (IYCr2014, UN A/RES/66/284) the revolution brought in modern science by the discovery of X-ray diffraction and the development of crystallography. The capability of determining and visualizing the 3D structure of crystalline materials allowed scientists to successfully address very complex issues such as how structure may determine and tune properties, how structure and crystal chemistry depend on crystallization conditions, how structure is related to functional properties in geological, biological and technological processes.... Because scientists now have a detailed knowledge of most of the materials which play roles in our environment and even in our body, they can optimize their properties to better achieve present and future goals. This is true in chemistry, in pharmacology, in biology and in medicine, in Earth and materials sciences, in the conservation of our cultural heritage, etc.
All the research projects are addressed, in collaboration with scientists working in IGG or worldwide, in a strongly multidisciplinary way both as far methodologies (other diffraction- or spectroscopy-based techniques) and expertises (mineralogy, geochemistry, petrology) are concerned. Moreover, the lab provides companies or university labs with crystallographic data or structural models on a service basis..
We collect diffracted intensities, correct them for experimental parameters, treat the results taking into account the correct symmetry, solve the crystal structure, refine the crystal-chemical model which best reproduces atomic arrangement and site composition, check the electron density map to detect missing atoms, positional disorder or any feature that may improve the model, and eventually show up the crystal structure on our pc screen.
If the sample under investigation is a rock-forming mineral, we compare the results in the framework of our databases and improve the description in terms of composition and cation order, and then detect and quantify light and volatile elements based on the results of the structure refinement.
If needed, we use spectroscopic techniques (XAS, FTIR, FTIR imaging, Mssbauer) to double-check and improve information on oxidation states, local order, sample heterogeneity, chemical zoning or HT diffusion throughout the crystal.
The staff is currently engaged in the characterization of new minerals and in completing the systematics of the amphibole supergroup (with particular attention paid to the oxo-component) and its modelling. Simple and accurate relations are being developed to allow calculation of crystal-chemical composition and cation order starting from the results of the structure refinement. They will be made available to the scientific community worldwide. Moreover, deprotonation processes in amphiboles and other hydrous minerals are currently studied by HT in situ experiments.
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