Rita Scarpelli studied at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (Italy) where she earned her Degree in Chemistry (1995) and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (1998). She joined then the group of Professor K.C. Nicolaou at The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, (CA, USA) as Postdoctoral Research Associate. After this experience, she moved to the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’ (Italy) where she became Researcher (C06X) at the Department of Chemical Science and Technologies (2000). In 2001, she started her carrier in the pharmaceutical industry, joining the Medicinal Chemistry Department of Merck Sharp & Dohme at Istituto di Ricerche di Biologia Molecolare (IRBM)-Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in Pomezia (Rome, Italy) as Senior Research Chemist. In IRBM-MRL, she worked on different drug discovery programs and gave key contributions, as team member, to the discovery of two drugs, currently on the market: Raltegravir - Isentress® (antiviral, HIV integrase inhibitor) and Niraparib - Zejula® (anti-cancer, poly(ADP-ribose)polymerase inhibitor). In late 2009, she joined Fondazione Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genoa (Italy), as Team Leader in Medicinal Chemistry. Since then, her research activity has been focused on the identification of new potential drugs for the treatment of inflammatory, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Some of these projects have been funded by international Industrial Partners. She is currently the Coordinator of the Medicinal Chemistry and Technologies for Drug Discovery and Delivery (MCTD3) Facility at IIT. Dr. Scarpelli has published 46 papers in leading international journals and is an inventor in 22 granted patents.
Rita Scarpelli
Medicinal Chemistry And Technologies for Drug Discovery and Delivery
Phone
+39 010 2896 233
Research center
CCT@Morego
About
Top Publications
2023
Palomba M., Vecchio D., Allavena G., Capaccio V., De Mei C., Scarpelli R., Grimaldi B.
Identification of a Dual Autophagy and REV-ERB Inhibitor with in Vivo Anticancer Efficacy
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
2020
Caputo S., Di Martino S., Cilibrasi V., Tardia P., Mazzonna M., Russo D., Penna I., Summa M., Bertozzi S.M., Realini N., Margaroli N., Migliore M., Ottonello G., Liu M., Lansbury P., Armirotti A., Bertorelli R., Ray S.S., Skerlj R., Scarpelli R.
Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of a Series of Oxazolone Carboxamides as a Novel Class of Acid Ceramidase Inhibitors
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 63, (no. 24), pp. 15821-15851
2020
Di Martino S., Tardia P., Cilibrasi V., Caputo S., Mazzonna M., Russo D., Penna I., Realini N., Margaroli N., Migliore M., Pizzirani D., Ottonello G., Bertozzi S.M., Armirotti A., Nguyen D., Sun Y., Bongarzone E.R., Lansbury P., Liu M., Skerlj R., Scarpelli R.
Lead Optimization of Benzoxazolone Carboxamides as Orally Bioavailable and CNS Penetrant Acid Ceramidase Inhibitors
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, vol. 63, (no. 7), pp. 3634-3664
All Publications
2023
Ugolini A., Vecchio D., Scarpelli R., Grimaldi B.
A new class of autophagy inhibitors for the treatment of cancer (P36)- September 10-13, 2023, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
XXII Medicinal Chemistry Symposium - SCI / RSC
Poster
Conference
2023
Palomba M., Vecchio D., Allavena G., Capaccio V., De Mei C., Scarpelli R., Grimaldi B.
Identification of a Dual Autophagy and REV-ERB Inhibitor with in Vivo Anticancer Efficacy
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
2023
Scarpelli R., Palomba M., Vecchio D., Ottonello G., Mandrup Bertozzi S., Summa M., Armirotti A., Bertorelli R., De Mei C., Grimaldi B.
Identification of a dual REV-ERBβ and autophagy inhibitor with in vivo anticancer efficacy (P222)- September 3-7, 2023, Zagreb (Croatia)
IX EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry
Poster
Conference
2023
Palomba M., Vecchio D., Allavena G., Capaccio V., De Mei C., Scarpelli R., Grimaldi B.
Lead optimization of a class of dual REV_ERB and autophagy inhibitors with in vivo anticancer efficacy (P45)- September 10-13, 2023, Cambridge (United Kingdom)
XXII Medicinal Chemistry Symposium - SCI / RSC
Poster
Conference
2023
Scarpelli R., Palomba M., Vecchio D., Allavena G., Capaccio V., De Mei C., Grimaldi B.
Lead optimization of the diarylalkyl amine series as dual REV_ERB and autophagy inhibitors with in vivo anticancer efficacy (P83)- September 17-20, 2023, Chieti (Italy)
XXVIII National Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry
Poster
Conference
Scientific Talks
2023
Anselmi M., Russo D., Penna I., Bellina F., Quaia R., Panosetti M., Scarpelli R., Veronesi M., Girotto S., Bertozzi F., Duca M., and Bandiera T.
Discovery of small-molecule modulators of microRNA-21 expression
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia
Institute
2022
Scarpelli R.
Identification of ARN21641, an orally available and CNS penetrant Acid Ceramidase inhibitor with target engagement in mouse models of Gaucher and Krabbe diseases
27th National Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry (NMMC27) - Invited Talk (Keynote 6)
Conference
2013
Scarpelli R.
Peripherally-restricted FAAH inhibitors as potential analgesic agents
31st Camerino-Cyprus-Noordwijkerhout Symposium, Receptor Chemistry Skyline. Camerino, Italy
Conference
Oral presentations
2023
Scarpelli R., Palomba M., Vecchio D., Ottonello G., Mandrup Bertozzi S., Summa M., Armirotti A., Bertorelli R., De Mei C., Grimaldi B.
Identification of a dual REV-ERBβ and autophagy inhibitor with in vivo anticancer efficacy (P222)- September 3-7, 2023, Zagreb (Croatia)
IX EFMC International Symposium on Advances in Synthetic and Medicinal Chemistry
Conference
2023
Scarpelli R., Palomba M., Vecchio D., Allavena G., Capaccio V., De Mei C., Grimaldi B.
Lead optimization of the diarylalkyl amine series as dual REV_ERB and autophagy inhibitors with in vivo anticancer efficacy (P83)- September 17-20, 2023, Chieti (Italy)
XXVIII National Meeting on Medicinal Chemistry
Conference