Giulio Nannetti
Lecturer
- nannettig@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4485
- Room 1.73, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am currently a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Cardiff University, under the Darlithwyr Disglair (Brilliant Lecturers) development programme, with 10 years of research experience in the field of Virology and antiviral drug discovery.
I joined Cardiff School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2018 when I was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship to carry out a project to develop new antiviral drugs for the treatment of dengue virus infection.
My primary research interest focuses on the application of a multidisciplinary approach for the identification and characterisation of new antiviral agents to treat major virus infections. I am particularly interested in developing new antiviral strategies based on the disruption of crucial viral protein-protein interactions to fight viral pathogens.
Biography
In 2010, I received a Master’s degree in Medical Biotechnologies at the University of Siena (Italy). After that, I moved to the University of Padua (Italy) to join the laboratory of Prof. A. Loregian and Prof. G. Palù for a PhD in Biomedicine. While in this position, I was involved in a project focused on the development of anti-influenza compounds targeting the protein-protein interactions of the viral polymerase subunits. After concluding my PhD studies, I conducted some follow-up research at the University of Padua as a Postdoctoral Research Associate, where I mainly identified and characterised new antiviral agents against influenza virus. In 2018, I was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship and I joined the laboratory of Prof. A. Brancale at Cardiff University to carry out a project which aims to develop new antiviral drugs for the treatment of dengue virus infection. In May 2020, I took the position as a Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences of Cardiff University under the Darlithwyr Disglair/Brilliant Lecturers development scheme.
Career profile
- May 2020 - Oct. 2021 - Lecturer – Darlithwyr Disglair Scheme (Teaching & Research), School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University
- May 2018 - Apr. 2020 - Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Research Fellow (MSC-IF 2017) School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Cardiff University
- Feb. 2014 - Apr. 2018 - Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua (Italy)
- Jan. 2011 - Jan. 2014 - PhD student in Biomedicine, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padua (Italy)
- Sep. 2008 - Oct. 2010 - Trainee - Master’s degree thesis in Medical Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Siena (Italy)
- Mar. 2008 - Sep. 2008 - Trainee - Bachelor’s degree thesis in Biotechnology, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Siena (Italy)
Education
- 2014 - PhD in Biomedicine, University of Padua, Italy.
- 2011 - National authorization to practice as a biologist, University of Siena, Italy.
- 2010 - Master's degree in Medical Biotechnology with full marks, University of Siena, Italy.
- 2008 - Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology with full marks, University of Siena, Italy.
Professional memberships
- 2015 - ongoing - Member of ISAR (International Society for Antiviral Research)
- 2013 - ongoing - Member of ESV (European Society for Virology)
- 2011 - ongoing - Member of SIV - ISV (Italian Society of Virology).
Committees and reviewing
- 2020 - ongoing Reviewer Board Member of Life.
- 2017 - ongoing - Ad Hoc Reviewer for The Journal of Infectious Diseases; International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Antiviral Research; Chemical Biology & Drug Design; Scientific Reports; Life and Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy.
Publications
2022
- Giancotti, G. et al. 2022. Structural investigations on novel non-nucleoside inhibitors of human norovirus polymerase. Viruses 15(1), article number: 74. (10.3390/v15010074)
2021
- Flude, B. M. et al. 2021. Targeting the complement serine protease MASP-2 as a therapeutic strategy for coronavirus infections. Viruses 13(2), article number: 312. (10.3390/v13020312)
- Massari, S. et al. 2021. Synthesis and characterization of 1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-2-carboxamide-based compounds targeting the PA-PB1 interface of influenza A virus polymerase. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 209, article number: 112944. (10.1016/j.ejmech.2020.112944)
2019
- Nannetti, G. et al. 2019. Potent and broad-spectrum cycloheptathiophene-3-carboxamide compounds that target the PA-PB1 interaction of influenza virus RNA polymerase and possess a high barrier to drug resistance. Antiviral Research 165, pp. 55-64. (10.1016/j.antiviral.2019.03.003)
2018
- Nannetti, G., Pagni, S., Palù, G. and Loregian, A. 2018. A sensitive and validated HPLC-UV method for the quantitative determination of the new antifungal drug isavuconazole in human plasma. Biomedical Chromatography 32(11), article number: e4333. (10.1002/bmc.4333)
- D'Agostino, I. et al. 2018. Synthesis and biological evaluation of a library of hybrid derivatives as inhibitors of influenza virus PA-PB1 interaction. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 157, pp. 743-758. (10.1016/j.ejmech.2018.08.032)
- Messa, L., Celegato, M., Bertagnin, C., Mercorelli, B., Nannetti, G., Palù, G. and Loregian, A. 2018. A quantitative LumiFluo assay to test inhibitory compounds blocking p53 degradation induced by human papillomavirus oncoprotein E6 in living cells. Scientific Reports 8(1), article number: 6020. (10.1038/s41598-018-24470-4)
2017
- Desantis, J. et al. 2017. Exploring the cycloheptathiophene-3-carboxamide scaffold to disrupt the interactions of the influenza polymerase subunits and obtain potent anti-influenza activity. European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 138, pp. 128-139. (10.1016/j.ejmech.2017.06.015)
- Massari, S. et al. 2017. Efficient and regioselective one-step synthesis of 7-aryl-5-methyl- and 5-aryl-7-methyl-2-amino-[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine derivatives. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry 15(37), pp. 7944-7955. (10.1039/C7OB02085F)
- Nannetti, G. et al. 2017. Development and validation of a simple and robust HPLC method with UV detection for quantification of the hepatitis C virus inhibitor daclatasvir in human plasma. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 134, pp. 275-281. (10.1016/j.jpba.2016.11.032)
2016
- Parisi, S. G. et al. 2016. Daclatasvir plasma level and resistance selection in HIV patients with hepatitis C virus cirrhosis treated with daclatasvir, sofosbuvir, and ribavirin. International Journal of Infectious Diseases 49, pp. 151. (10.1016/j.ijid.2016.06.020)
- Trist, I. M. L. et al. 2016. 4,6-diphenylpyridines as promising novel anti-influenza agents targeting the PA–PB1 protein–protein interaction: structure–activity relationships exploration with the aid of molecular modeling. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 59(6), pp. 2688-2703. (10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b01935)
- Nannetti, G., Pagni, S., Parisi, S. G., Alberti, A., Loregian, A. and Palù, G. 2016. Development of a simple HPLC-UV method for the determination of the hepatitis C virus inhibitor simeprevir in human plasma. Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis 121, pp. 197-203. (10.1016/j.jpba.2016.01.019)
- Mercorelli, B., Luganini, A., Nannetti, G., Tabarrini, O., Palù, G., Gribaudo, G. and Loregian, A. 2016. Drug repurposing approach identifies inhibitors of the prototypic viral transcription Factor IE2 that block human cytomegalovirus replication. Cell Chemical Biology 23(3), pp. 340-351. (10.1016/j.chembiol.2015.12.012)
2015
- Massari, S. et al. 2015. A broad anti-influenza hybrid small molecule that potently disrupts the interaction of polymerase acidic protein-basic protein 1 (PA-PB1) subunits. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 58(9), pp. 3830-3842. (10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00012)
2014
- Loregian, A., Mercorelli, B., Nannetti, G., Compagnin, C. and Palù, G. 2014. Antiviral strategies against influenza virus: towards new therapeutic approaches. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 71(19), pp. 3659-3683. (10.1007/s00018-014-1615-2)
- Lepri, S. et al. 2014. Optimization of small-molecule inhibitors of influenza virus polymerase: From thiophene-3-carboxamide to polyamido scaffolds. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 57(10), pp. 4337-4350. (10.1021/jm500300r)
2013
- Massari, S. et al. 2013. Structural investigation of Cycloheptathiophene-3-carboxamide derivatives targeting influenza virus polymerase assembly. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 56(24), pp. 10118-10131. (10.1021/jm401560v)
2012
- Saladini, F. et al. 2012. Near full-length sequence analysis of HIV Type 1 BF recombinants from Italy. AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses 28(3), pp. 299. (10.1089/aid.2011.0002)
Teaching
Contribution to MPharm modules:
- PH3101 Optimisation of drug design
- PH3110 Optimisation of pharmaceutical care
- PH4116 Pharmacy Research Project
My research interests have always been focused in the area of virology and antiviral drug discovery.
I am currently involved in a multidisciplinary project to develop innovative antiviral compounds against the dengue virus, a mosquito-borne viral pathogen that can cause a severe and potentially fatal disease in humans. This project, entitled “FINDER”, has recently been funded by the European Commission within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSC-IF 2017, grant no. 798105). FINDER aims to develop anti-dengue inhibitors able to disrupt protein-protein interactions between viral proteins, which are essential for the virus life cycle. This research is carried out at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Brancale, in partnership with the lab of Prof. Arianna Loregian at the University of Padua (Italy). To know more about this research, please visit CORDIS (EU research results).
Previously, I was involved in a variety of antiviral drug discovery researches, in particular in projects to identify anti-influenza inhibitors that act by disrupting subunit interactions of the viral polymerase. In addition, I also developed some new analytical methods for the quantification of antimicrobial drugs in samples of human plasma.
You can find out more about me and my previous research studies on my personal LinkedIn webpage.