Italian student gained experience not only in testing organometallic complexes

A three-month work placement in the Biologically Active Complexes and Molecular Magnets group has been completed by University of Pisa student Sara Stocchetti thanks to the Erasmus program. Her task in Olomouc was to test the biological activity of organometallic compounds developed at her home laboratory in Italy and to use the results in her master thesis. The Olomouc team has been working on biologically active complex compounds for a long time and cooperates, among others, with the laboratory of Professor Fabio Marchetti in Pisa.  Her other activity was participation in a GACR project entitled Anti-tumor active coordination compounds with multimodal effect (reg. no. 21-19060S), where she collaborated in the synthesis of copper and zinc complexes. “This was my first international experience and despite all the difficulties, I consider it a great opportunity and a significant step for my personal and professional growth. Certainly the people I met here at CATRIN, who helped me in difficult moments and supported me the entire time, have contributed to this,” said the student.

The idea of doing a work placement at CATRIN came from the cooperation between the head of the local research group Biologically Active Complexes and Molecular Magnets Zdeněk Trávníček and her Italian supervisor Fabio Marchetti. “The cooperation with Sara was motivating for me as well, primarily because of her enthusiasm and commitment to work,” said Zdeněk Trávníček. “The internship focused on bio-assayed compounds from Pisa and on syntheses in the field of bioinorganic chemistry. Novel coordination compounds of copper and zinc containing biologically relevant ligands that could exhibit anticancer effects were prepared, characterized and thoroughly biologically evaluated,” the student specified. Upon her return to Italy, she will incorporate the results of the internship into her master thesis.  “I don’t know what I will do in the future, but I would be thrilled if we could continue this collaboration,” she concluded.