CHIMICA È. . . CULTURA

COLLANA DI FONDAMENTI E DIVULGAZIONE DELLA CHIMICA

Direttore

Vincenzo VUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata

Comitato scientifico

Giovanni VIstituto di Chimica dei Composti Organometallici, CNR

Vincenzo SUniversità degli Studi di Firenze

Maurizio D’AUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata

Stefano SUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata

Luciano D’AUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata

Gaetano GUniversità degli Studi della Basilicata

CHIMICA È. . . CULTURA

COLLANA DI FONDAMENTI E DIVULGAZIONE DELLA CHIMICA

Il cielo stellato sopra di me, la legge morale dentro di me.

Immanuel K

La collana nasce con una vocazione dichiaratamente interdisciplinare:la Chimica viene intesa come link di un network molto più ampio,una scena nel grande affresco della cultura moderna.

Mentre è difficile sopravvalutare il ruolo della Chimica nella societàmoderna per le sue infinite utili applicazioni, è facile sottovalutarnele implicazioni culturali dal punto di vista concettuale, al di là deipuri tecnicismi.

Quali sono i fondamenti culturali della Chimica: la ricchissima storia,la visione della natura, il rapporto con le arti, la riflessione filosoficae più in generale il contributo ad una società sostenibile? Tutti questiaspetti e implicazioni sono i temi approfonditi dai volumi pubblicatiin questa collana.

Piero Angeli

Receptor Chemistryat Camerino University

The Birth of a “School”

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Ist edition: December

Contents

Defining a “School”

Chapter IHow the School of Receptor Chemistry was born in Camerinoat the start of the s

Chapter IIThe state of medicinal chemistry in Italy and internationallyduring the s

Chapter IIIThe Camerino Symposium series

Chapter IVThe Camerino diaspora

Chapter VThe hardcore

Chapter VIThe other Camerino groups

Conclusions

Biographical notes

References

Defining a “School”

The march of research is punctuated by various ‘Schools’, whichserve as points of reference to guide the scholar in tracing the threadof scientific progress. There is no set definition of a School. Oneperson’s definition may include certain criteria that are shared byother people’s definitions, while also highlighting peculiarities thatseem less important to other people. In the end, however, we canall agree that a School is formed when a group of researchers, ina specific time and place, produce new quality research which isrecognized by the national and international scientific community.

Chapter I

How the School of Receptor Chemistrywas born in Camerino at the start of the s

Fulvio Gualtieri graduates in Rome in with Prof. GiordanoGiacomello. In , Gualtieri moves to the Institute of Organic andMedicinal Chemistry at Camerino University, a small institution inthe Marches region. He is appointed External Teacher in IndustrialOrganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences.

In , he is named Assistant to the Chair of Organic Chem-istry within the same Faculty. In , he moves to the Faculty ofPharmacy at the same university as Ordinary Assistant to the Chairof Pharmaceutical and Toxicological Chemistry. He remains in thisrole until . In , during the International Meeting of Ther-apeutic Chemistry in Lyon, he meets Prof. Bernard Belleau, who isworking in the fascinating world of receptors. That year, Gualtieri

Figure .. Fulvio Gualtieri and Bernard Belleau

Receptor Chemistry at Camerino University

spends six months with Belleau’s group at McGill University (Mon-treal, Canada). There, he synthesizes an adrenergic ligand markedwith S. It’s love at first sight. In –, he presents abstracts atfive congresses [–]. This precedes the publication of his first pa-per on cholinergic receptors ‘A cyclopentane analog of muscarone’in the prestigious Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (, , ) withco–authors Mario Giannella, Maria Pigini, and Carlo Melchiorre[].Giannella and Pigini have been Gualtieri’s co–workers since ,and Melchiorre since , when he joined Camerino University toreplace Gualtieri during his experience in the United States.

Figure .. Mario Giannella and Maria Pigini (Nelly)

Figure .. Carlo Melchiorre and Piero Angeli

. The birth of the Receptor Chemistry School

With this paper’s publication, Gualtieri and co–workers introducethemselves to the international “receptorology” scene. They thusjoin the area of research into how the ether oxygen and the ketogroup of muscarine and muscarone, two fundamental ligands of thecholinergic receptor, affect activity. The following year, Piero Angelijoins the group, as their research continues with the synthesis andstudy of the biological activity of desetermuscarine and its isomersallo–, epi– and epiallo–desetermuscarine [–]. This leads to a highnumber of authoritative publications.