Manuela Benvenuti

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Manuela-Benvenuti

Italian

University of Siena

Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy

via Aldo Moro, 2 - 53100 SIENA - Italy

PhD in Chemistry from University of Florence, and was Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Physics, University of Paris-Sud, and in the Polymer Engineering Department of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (USA)

She has worked on the synthesis and physico-chemical characterisation of biomaterials for medical applications at the Department of Chemistry, University of Siena.
From 1996 the main field of her research was: bioinorganic chemistry and structural biology.
The present scientific interests are focused on the study of enzyme and metallo-enzyme catalysis, of the metal ion transport by metallo-chaperones and of the protein-protein interactions, with particular emphasis on the chemistry occurring at the metal sites as revealed by accurate structural data. Such data are obtained by X-ray crystallography and by X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS, XANES, EXAFS).
The correlation between the structural data and other mechanistic information coming from kinetic/thermodynamic studies, UV-vis spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy etc., allows the proposal of accurate models for enzyme-catalyzed reactions.
Concerning methodology, she is involved in the crystallization for structure/function relationship of enzymes and proteins.

Her main research topic in recent years concerns X-ray crystallography application to the study of the mechanism and of the inhibition of enzymes relevant in human pathology like β-lactamases of all classes and human and bacterial enzymes of the folate pathway.
These studies aim to the discovery and optimization of new inhibitor molecules valuable as lead for drug development.
She is author of 66 publications in international scientific journals and books.
She has Technical and Data Analysis Skills on : HPLC, UV-Visible, Calorimeter, Potentiometer, DSC, Fluorimeter, Circular dichroism instruments, synthesis of hemocompatible polymers, surface chemical modification of polymeric materials for cardiovascular prostheses, synthesis of new materials with improved blood compatibility for artificial heart and membranes for hemodialysis.
Purification and crystallization techniques for proteins and / or enzymes, high resolution protein crystallography (X-ray- synchrotron light) and spectroscopy X-ray absorption (EXAFS - Synchrotron light).
She is responsible for organizing educational workshops, and she has also organized several conferences, meetings, and schools with both national and international participants.

01/07/2019 – 05/07/2019 - STAFF MOBILITY FOR TRAINING - ERASMUS +, KA1 2018/19 - at Membrane Structural and Functional Biology Group Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute, 152-160 Pearse Street, Dublin 2, Ireland – Supervisor: Martin Caffrey - Fellow Emeritus , Biochemistry.

03/09/2018 – 08/09/2018 - STAFF MOBILITY FOR TRAINING ERASMUS +, KA1 2017/18 at Laboratorio de Estudios Cristalográficos -IACT, (CSIC-UGR) Av. de las Palmeras, 4__ 18100 Armilla (Granada) – Supervisor : José A. Gavira Gallardo - Senior Research Scientist at the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC, Spanish abbreviation)