Curriculum
Denise Bellotti obtained her master's degree in Chemistry with final grade 110/110 cum laude at University of Ferrara, obtaining the Ferrara School of Chemistry diploma of excellence.
In 2021, under the supervision of prof. Maurizio Remelli and prof. Magdalena Rowińska-Żyrek, she obtained the international double doctoral degree in Chemistry at both University of Ferrara (Italy) and University of Wrocław (Poland) with laude and certification of Doctor Europaeus. The PhD thesis was titled: “Study of the metal ions transport phenomena involved in the expression of pathogenic virulence”. In the framework of her PhD program, she was a visiting PhD student in the research group of prof. Michel Meyer at the Institut de Chimie Moléculaire de l'Université de Bourgogne in Dijon (France).
She was a post-doc researcher in Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences of the University of Ferrara under the supervision of Prof. Maurizio Remelli.
Since 01/07/2021 she is employed as Research Fellow at the University of Ferrara, first in Ecology at the Department of Environmental and Prevention Sciences, and currently in Analytical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences.
Since 2021 she is also the PI manager of the 3-year NCN-PRELUDIUM project "A peptidomimetic strategy to improve the antimicrobial properties of calcitermin" at the University of Wrocław in Poland. The project concerns the synthesis of derivatives of the antimicrobial peptide calcitermin, with the aim of obtaining novel therapeutic agents with higher proteolytic stability by modifying the native structure introducing D-amino acids, beta-amino acids, non-proteinogenic amino acids, amino- and carboxy-terminal protection.
She also participates as a collaborator in the following international projects: COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology: "NECTAR - Network for Equilibria and Chemical Thermodynamics Advanced Research" and NCN-SONATA BIS: "Antimicrobial peptide-metal interactions: understanding the correlation between coordination chemistry, structure , thermodynamics and mode of action".
She has been awarded the 13th edition of the “Pulidori Prize” by the International Group for the Thermodynamics of Complexes.
The scientific activity of Dr. Bellotti ranges from analytical chemistry to biological inorganic chemistry and mainly focuses on metal coordination chemistry in aqueous solution and thermodynamic aspects of complex-formation equilibria. Her main scientific interests concern the study of metal interactions in biological relevant and/or pharmacological systems. The research activity includes the study of metal homeostasis in pathogenic species, the interaction of metals with natural or synthetic antimicrobial peptides, the role of metals in the development of neurodegenerative phenomena and the study of model systems that mimic the in vivo formation of metal-proteins or of metal complexes with possible therapeutic and/or diagnostic imaging application.
