ZAPPALA' Maria

CURRENT POSITION:
Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry II (Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology degree course) at the Department of Chemical, Biological, Medicinal and Environmental Sciences of the University of Messina.

EDUCATION
1983 Degree in Pharmacy with honours (legal course 4 years) / Faculty of Pharmacy/University of Messina
1990 Degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology with honours (legal course 5 years) / Faculty of Pharmacy/University of Messina

POSITIONS AND EMPLOYMENT
1987-1998 Assistant Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of Messina, Italy
1998-2002 Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Messina, Italy
2002-present Full Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Messina, Italy

ACADEMIC RESPONSABILITIES AND PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
1987-present Member of the Italian Chemical Society
1998-present Tutor of undergraduate students of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology degree courses for the preparation of their experimental thesis and final dissertations
1998-present Referee of Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journals
1999-2000 Member of the Committee “Scientific-Disciplinary Area 03 (Chemical Sciences)” for the evaluation of Ateneo Research Projects (PRA) – (1999-2000)
2000-present President or component of examination board for qualification to exert the profession of Pharmacist
2002-2004 Member of scientific and organizing committee of the Inter-faculty Degree Course in Biotechnology
2001-2013 Member of the Scientific Committee of the PhD program in ‘Pharmaceutical Sciences’
2013-present Member of the Scientific Committee of the PhD program in ‘Chemical Sciences’
2004-present Supervisor of PhD students of PhD course in ‘Pharmaceutical Sciences’and ‘Chemical Sciences’
2008-2013 President of the Degree Course in Pharmacy
2013-2015 Head of the Department of Drug Sciences and Product for Health
2014-2015 Member of the Academic Senate
2018-2021 Member of the Executive Committee of the SICILY Section of the Italian Chemical Society
2021-2024 President of the Degree Course in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology

HONOURS AND AWARDS
2014 XXIV Award Anassilaos Raffaele Piria for Arts, Culture, Economics, Sciences, Reggio Calabria, Italy

SCIENTIFIC SUPERVISION AND TUTORIAL ACTIVITY
• Scientific supervisor of post-doc fellows
• Tutor of numerous Ph.D students of Ph.D courses in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemical Sciences

RESEARCH PROJECTS
• Principal Investigator of a research project financed by the Italian Ministry of University , FISR COVID-19 2020
• Scientific Responsible of research projects financed by the University of Messina (PRA2004, PRA2005, PRA2006/2007, PRA2008/2009, FFABR2019, FFABR2020)
• Member of research teams financially supported by Italian Ministry of University (PRIN2004, PRIN2005, PRIN2008, PRIN2010-2011, FISR2019)
• Member of research teams financially supported by Italian-German University (Vigoni Project 2008/09 and 2012/2013)

RESEARCH ACTIVITY
The scientific research activity is documented from about 160 publications on the main international journals, two patents and beyond 100 contributions to scientific symposia. The main areas of interest of the scientific search were the design and synthesis of new anti-tumor and anti-AIDS drugs, as well as of noncompetitive AMPA-receptor antagonists.
At present, the research is focused on the following themes:
Design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of inhibitors of cysteine protease as antiprotozoan and antiviral agents.
Design, synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of proteasome and immunoproteasome inhibitors

BIBLIOMETRIC INFORMATIONS
Orcid 0000-0002-8942-797X
Source: Scopus (30/05/2023)
Total Papers 167
H-Index: 39
Total Citations: 5330

MAIN SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATIONS
Institute of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Mainz, Germany (Prof. Dr. T. Schirmeister)
Institute of Organic Chemistry & Macromolecular Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany (Prof. U. Hellmich)
Department of Chemistry, and Center for Neuroscience Research, University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, USA (Prof. L. Niu)
Department of Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, USA (Prof. P. J. Rosenthal)
DiSTABiF, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Italy (Prof. S. Cosconati)
Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Biologiche Chimiche e Farmaceutiche (STEBICEF), Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy (Proff. AM Almerico, M. Tutone)
Drug Discovery Laboratory, Dipartimento di Farmacia Università degli Studi di Napoli, Via Montesano 49, 80131 Napoli (Proff. E. Novellino, A. Lavecchia)

REVIEWER ACTIVITY
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry., Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Bioorganic Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry. ChemMedChem, Natural Product Research, Chemistry Select