
Dr. Maria Duca
CNRS Research Director
Director of TNA research group
Institute of Chemistry of Nice (ICN)
UMR7272 Université Côte d'Azur - CNRS
28 avenue Valrose 06100 Nice FRANCE
Curriculum vitae
- "Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches" (2012) from University of Nice Sophia Antipolis (now Université Côte d'Azur), Nice, France
- PhD in Molécular Biochemistry (2005) from Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Paris, France
- "Laurea" in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology (2001) from the Faculty of Pharmacy - University of Bologna, Italy
Academic Responsibilities
- Associate Editor for RSC Medicinal Chemistry (Royal Society of Chemistry)
- Chair of the Chemical Biology Initiative for the European Federation of Medicinal Chemistry
- Chair of the Scientific Committee of the French Medicinal Chemistry Society (SCT)
- Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of ChemMedChem (Wiley)
- Member of the Communication Committee of the International Chemical Biology Society (ICBS)
Awards and Honours
- Alexandre Joël Award from Fondation ARC (2004)
- Michel Delalande Award from the French Pharmacy Academy (2007)
Key Publications
Di Giorgio A., Duca M.* New Chemical Modalities Enabling Specific RNA Targeting and Degradation: Application to SARS-CoV-2 RNA. ACS Cent. Sci. 2020 6, 1647
Joly J.P., Gaysinski M., Zara L., Duca M.*, Benhida, R. Functionalized C-nucleosides as remarkable RNA binders: targeting of prokaryotic ribosomal A-site RNA. Chem. Commun. 2019 27, 10432
Staedel, C., Tran, T.P.A., Giraud, J., Darfeuille, F., Di Giorgio, A., Tourasse, N.J., Salin, F., Uriac, P., Duca, M.* Modulation of oncogenic miRNA biogenesis using functionalized polyamines. Scientific Reports 2018 8, 1667
Vo D.D., Staedel C., Zehnacker L., Benhida R., Darfeuille F., Duca M.* Targeting the production of oncogenic microRNAs with multimodal synthetic small molecules. ACS Chem. Biol. 2014 9, 711.
Duca, M., Trindle, C.O., Hecht, S.M. Structural basis for the exceptional stability of bisaminoacylated nucleotides and transfer RNAs. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 11368.
Selected Media
- Presentation of 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry - Nobel Day Nice
- Chemistry World Interview (Royal Society of Chemistry) about RNA targeting with small molecules
- Interview for Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) about the use of RNA ligands against SARS-CoV-2
- Presentation in Chemistry Views (Chemistry Europe) of our ChemPlusChem 2020 article