CHIMICA È. . . CULTURA
COLLANA DI FONDAMENTI E DIVULGAZIONE DELLA CHIMICA
Direttore
Vincenzo VUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata
Comitato scientifico
Giovanni VIstituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici, CNR
Vincenzo SUniversità degli Studi di Firenze
Maurizio D’AUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata
Stefano SUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata
Luciano D’AUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata
Gaetano GUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata
CHIMICA È. . . CULTURA
COLLANA DI FONDAMENTI E DIVULGAZIONE DELLA CHIMICA
Il cielo stellato sopra di me, la legge morale dentro di me.
Immanuel K
La collana nasce con una vocazione dichiaratamente interdisciplinare:la Chimica viene intesa come link di un network molto più ampio,una scena nel grande affresco della cultura moderna.
Mentre è difficile sopravvalutare il ruolo della Chimica nella societàmoderna per le sue infinite utili applicazioni, è facile sottovalutarnele implicazioni culturali dal punto di vista concettuale, al di là deipuri tecnicismi.
Quali sono i fondamenti culturali della Chimica: la ricchissima storia,la visione della natura, il rapporto con le arti, la riflessione filosoficae più in generale il contributo ad una società sostenibile? Tutti questiaspetti e implicazioni sono i temi approfonditi dai volumi pubblicatiin questa collana.
Piero Angeli
Receptor Chemistryat Camerino University
The Birth of a “School”
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Ist edition: December
Contents
Defining a “School”
Chapter IHow the School of Receptor Chemistry was born in Camerinoat the start of the s
Chapter IIThe state of medicinal chemistry in Italy and internationallyduring the s
Chapter IIIThe Camerino Symposium series
Chapter IVThe Camerino diaspora
Chapter VThe hardcore
Chapter VIThe other Camerino groups
Conclusions
Biographical notes
References
Defining a “School”
The march of research is punctuated by various ‘Schools’, whichserve as points of reference to guide the scholar in tracing the threadof scientific progress. There is no set definition of a School. Oneperson’s definition may include certain criteria that are shared byother people’s definitions, while also highlighting peculiarities thatseem less important to other people. In the end, however, we canall agree that a School is formed when a group of researchers, ina specific time and place, produce new quality research which isrecognized by the national and international scientific community.
Chapter I
How the School of Receptor Chemistrywas born in Camerino at the start of the s
Fulvio Gualtieri graduates in Rome in with Prof. GiordanoGiacomello. In , Gualtieri moves to the Institute of Organic andMedicinal Chemistry at Camerino University, a small institution inthe Marches region. He is appointed External Teacher in IndustrialOrganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences.
In , he is named Assistant to the Chair of Organic Chem-istry within the same Faculty. In , he moves to the Faculty ofPharmacy at the same university as Ordinary Assistant to the Chairof Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry. He remains in thisrole until . In , during the International Meeting of Ther-apeutic Chemistry in Lyon, he meets Prof. Bernard Belleau, who isworking in the fascinating world of receptors. That year, Gualtieri
Figure .. Fulvio Gualtieri and Bernard Belleau
Receptor Chemistry at Camerino University
spends six months with Belleau’s group at McGill University (Mon-treal, Canada). There, he synthesizes an adrenergic ligand markedwith S. It’s love at first sight. In –, he presents abstracts atfive congresses [–]. This precedes the publication of his first pa-per on cholinergic receptors ‘A cyclopentane analog of muscarone’in the prestigious Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (, , ) withco–authors Mario Giannella, Maria Pigini, and Carlo Melchiorre[].Giannella and Pigini have been Gualtieri’s co–workers since ,and Melchiorre since , when he joined Camerino University toreplace Gualtieri during his experience in the United States.
Figure .. Mario Giannella and Maria Pigini (Nelly)
Figure .. Carlo Melchiorre and Piero Angeli
. The birth of the Receptor Chemistry School
With this paper’s publication, Gualtieri and co–workers introducethemselves to the international “receptorology” scene. They thusjoin the area of research into how the ether oxygen and the ketogroup of muscarine and muscarone, two fundamental ligands of thecholinergic receptor, affect activity. The following year, Piero Angelijoins the group, as their research continues with the synthesis andstudy of the biological activity of desetermuscarine and its isomersallo–, epi– and epiallo–desetermuscarine [–]. This leads to a highnumber of authoritative publications.