Personale docente

Since the beginning of his career (Ph. D. course, 1988-1991), Prof. Casnati’s research activity has been mainly devoted to Supramolecular Chemistry. In particular, Prof. Casnati studied the synthesis of phenol-formaldehyde macrocycles, namely the calixarenes, and their chemical modification in order to obtain receptor able to selectively recognise charged or neutral guests. Some of the synthetic aspects of calixarene chemistry and of their transport abilities through supported liquid membranes (SLMs’) have been carried out during a post-doctoral period (1990) by Prof. D.N. Reinhoudt’s Laboratories of Supramolecular Chemistry at the Twente University of Ensched (NL). During his research activity, Prof. Casnati obtained the synthesis of highly selective receptors for the complexation of cations, anions and neutral molecules. Among the most interesting cation receptors are the calix-crowns which show a K+ o Cs+ selectivity among the highest observed for synthetic and/or natural receptors (comparable or higher than Valinomycin). More recently Prof. Casnati became interested in the synthesis of calix[4]arenes bearing amino acids or sugar derivatives at the upper rim and some of these compounds showed a biological activity based on molecular recognition phenomena.
He was member of the Organising Committee of the 4th International Conference on Calixarenes (Parma, 1997) and of the NATO Workshop "Supramolecular Science: Where we are and where we are going" (Lerici, 1998). In 1997 he was awarded the “Giacomo Ciamician” Medal of the Italian Chemical Society. In 1998 he was appointed Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry and in 2015 Full Professor at university of Parma. In 2012 was awarded the Research Prize for Organic Chemistry in its aspects on molecular interactions and in 2019 the gold Medal "Angelo Mangini" of the Italian Chemical Society. From 2005 to 2011 he served as european coordinator of WG COST D34/0001/05 "Multivalent ligands for cholera toxin inhibition and sensing" and from 2008 local coordinator of the FP7 Collaborative Programme "ACSEPT" and from 2013 of SACSESS". He is currently (2018-2021) principal investigator in "GENIORS" a RIA project of H2020- Euratom. He has been member of the Management Committees of the EU COST actions CM1005 "Supramolecular Chemistry in water" and CM1102 "MultiGlycoNano". He has been the local coordinator of a PRIN2008 and PRIN2010 projects and is currently national coordinator of PRIN2017 project "BacHound". He is member of the scientific committee of the National Congress of Supramolecular Chemistry and member of the International Congress of Calixarenes. He is member of the editorial board of Supramolecular Chemistry and edited two special issues, one on Supramolecular Chemistry and the other on Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry. Prof. Casnati is author of more than 250 papers on international journals, 20 reviews articles and 7 international patents. His h index is 60.