Ferroni Claudia
Ferroni Claudia

Ferroni Claudia

Researcher

e-mail:  claudia.ferroni @isof.cnr.it

Office telephone: +39 051 639 8286 -8255

Building: Isof 12 – Floor: 1

Office number: 310

I am a pharmaceutical organic chemist, with a strong expertise in synthesis, drug discovery and nanoparticle based anticancer drug delivery systems.
I earned a MSc degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technologies and the Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Bologna.
From June 2007 to June 2018 I was a research fellow at the Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity of CNR ,under the guidance of Dr. Greta Varchi. In 2011, I spent a training period at the National Cancer Institute laboratories (Frederick, Maryland USA) with the group of Prof Sanjay Malhotra. In 2015, I was hosted by Dr Lucarelli at the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute (Bologna), for training and working on cancer and primary cells cultures. From 2018 to June 2020, I became a RTD researcher and in July 2020, I gained a permanent researcher position at ISOF.
During the course of my career, I had the opportunity to explore many aspects of organic chemistry and life sciences. My research interests have been focused on three pivotal topics:

  • Pesticides synthesis
  • Synthesis and characterization of different classes of non-steroidal antiandrogens for prostate cancer treatment
  • The possibility of using nanomaterials for inducing a precise and highly controlled anticancer effect in order to improve drugs PK profiles.

My contribution in this last field was consolidated by my active participation to several AIRC founded projects, (IG2015 #16740 and MFAG2015 #IG16941), mainly focused on two different approaches: the design and synthesis of multi-modal conjugates for cancer therapy and the chemical functionalization and preparation of (nano)-biomaterials for anticancer.
I have been supervisor of several Laurea thesis. I have authored 28 scientific publications on international peer-reviewed journals and 1 book chapter, I have been invited to present my research activity at 4 international conferences. Since 2017, I am Review Editor in Organic Chemistry for the journal Frontiers in Organic Chemistry. Publications: 

Selected pubblication:

  1. Duchi S, Sotgiu G, Lucarelli E, Ballestri M, Dozza B, Santi S, Guerrini A, Dambruoso P, Giannini S, Donati D, Ferroni C, Varchi G. Mesenchymal stem cells as delivery vehicle of porphyrin loaded nanoparticles: effective photoinduced in vitro killing of osteosarcoma. J. Control Release 2013, 168, 225-237.
  2. Guerrini A, Tesei A, Ferroni C, Paganelli G, Zamagni A, Carloni S, Di Donato M, Castoria G, Leonetti C, Porru M, De Cesare M, Zaffaroni N, Beretta LG, Del Rio A, Varchi G. A new avenue towards androgen receptor pan-antagonists: C2-steric hindered substitution of hydroxy-propanamides. J. Med. Chem. 2014, 57 (17), 7263–7279.
  3. Ferroni C*, Bassetti L, Borzatta V, Capparella E, Gobbi C, Guerrini A, Varchi G. Polyenylcyclopropane carboxylic esters with high insecticidal activity. Pest Manag. Sci. 2015, 71 (5), 728-736.
  4. Chini MG, Ferroni C, Cantone V, Dambruoso P, Varchi G, Pepe A, Fischer K, Pergola C, Werz O, Bruno I, Riccio R, Bifulco G. Elucidating new structural features of the triazole scaffold for the development of mPGES-1 inhibitor. MedChemComm. 2015, 6, 75-79.
  5. Rapozzi V, Ragno D, Guerrini A, Ferroni C, Della Pietra E, Cesselli D, Castoria G, Di Donato M, Saracino E, Benfenati V, Varchi G. Androgen receptor targeted conjugate for bimodal photodynamic therapy of prostate cancer in vitro. Bioconjugate Chem. 2015, 26 (8), 1662-1671.
  6. Ferroni C*, Sotgiu G, Sagnella A, Varchi G, Guerrini A, Giuri D, Polo E, Orlandi VT; Marras E, Gariboldi M, Monti E, Aluigi A. Wool keratin 3D scaffolds with light-triggered antimicrobial activity. Biomacromolecules, 2016, 17(9), 2882-2890.
  7. Ferroni C*, Pepe A, Kim YS, Lee S, Guerrini, Parenti MD, Tesei A, Zamagni A, Cortesi M, Zaffaroni N, De Cesare M, Beretta GL, Trepel JB, Malhotra SV, Varchi G.1,4-Substituted Triazoles as Nonsteroidal Anti-Androgens for Prostate Cancer Treatment, J. Med. Chem., 2017, 60 (7), 3082-3093.
  8. Foglietta F, Varchi G, Muraro MG, Ballestri M, Guerrini A, Ferroni C, Aluigi A, Sotgiu G, Spagnoli GC. Anticancer activity of paclitaxel-loaded keratin nanoparticles in bi-dimensional and perfused tri-dimensional breast cancer models, Int. J. Nanomedicine, 2018, 13, 4847-4867.
  9. Ferroni C*, Varchi G. Non-Steroidal Androgen Receptor Antagonists and Prostate Cancer: A Survey on Chemical Structures Binding This Fast-Mutating Target. Curr. Med. Chem., 2018, 25. doi: 10.2174/0929867325666180913095239.
  10. Martini C, Ferroni C, Gariboldi MB, Donnadio A, Aluigi A, Sotgiu G, Liscio F, Dambruoso P, Navacchia ML, Posati T. et al. Intercalation of Bioactive Molecules into Nanosized ZnAl Hydrotalcites for Combined Chemo and Photo Cancer Treatment. ACS Appl. Nano Mater. 2018, 1 (11), 6387–6397.
  11. Martella E, Ferroni C, Guerrini A, Ballestri M, Columbaro M, Santi S, Sotgiu G, Serra M, Donati DM, Lucarelli E, Varchi G, Duchi S. Functionalized Keratin as Nanotechnology-Based Drug Delivery System for the Pharmacological Treatment of Osteosarcoma. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2018, 19 (11), 3670.
  12. Busi A, Aluigi A, Guerrini A, Boga C, Sartor G, Calonghi N, Sotgiu G, Posati T, Corticelli F, Fiori J, Varchi G, Ferroni C. Unprecedented Behavior of (9 R) -9-Hydroxystearic Acid-Loaded Keratin Nanoparticles on Cancer Cell Cycle. Mol. Pharm. 2019, 4, 931-942.
  13. Fabini E, Manoni E, Ferroni C, Del Rio A, Bartolini M. Small-molecule inhibitors of lysine methyltransferases SMYD2 and SMYD3: current trends. Future Med. Chem. 2019 10.4155/fmc-2018-0380
  14. Bolognesi M, Moschetto S, Trapani M, Prescimone F, Ferroni C, Manca G, Ienco A, Borsacchi S, Caporali M, Muccini M, Peruzzini M, Serrano-Ruiz M, Calucci L, Castriciano M,Toffanin S. Non-covalent functionalization of 2D Black Phosphorus with Fluorescent Boronic Derivatives of Pyrene for Probing and Modulating the Interaction with Molecular Oxygen. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2019, 11(25), 22637-22647
  15. Gaio E, Guerrini A, Ballestri M, Varchi G, Ferroni C, Martella E, Columbaro M, Moret F, Reddi E. Keratin nanoparticles co-delivering Docetaxel and Chlorin e6 promote synergic interaction between chemo- and photo-dynamic therapies. J. Photochem. Photobiol. B, 2019, 199, 111598
  16. Ferroni C, Martini C, Manoni E, Del Rio A, Varchi G. Light-induced therapies for prostate cancer treatment. Frontiers in Chemistry – Medicinal and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, 2019, 7,719

A complete list of my publications can be found on my profiles:

Scopus Author ID: 50261618600
WoOrcid ID: 0000-0002-7386-1624
LinkedIn: in/claudiaferroni
Research Gate: Claudia_Ferroni
Google Scholar: hO2gaLMAAAAJ
Mendeley: Claudia Ferroni