Vito Foderà
  • Source: Scopus
20072024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Short presentation

I am Professor of Biophysics at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences University of Copenhagen, Denmark leading a highly interdisciplinary research team working at the interface between physics, biology and pharmaceutical sciences.

Team website: http://www.vitofodera.com/

Key Scientific Interests

  • Protein and peptide self-assembly
  • Stability of protein drug formulations
  • Sustainable smart materials for drug delivery
  • Biophysics of protein-membrane interactions
  • Advanced neutron and X-ray scattering for biomolecules

CV

Previous Appointments and Education

2016 November-2023 June: Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy,  University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

2014 September-2016 October: Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy,  University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

2012-September/2014-September: Marie Curie IEF Fellow Dept. of Drug Design and Pharmacology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-November/2012-September: Research Associate at the Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

2009-January/August: Fellowship at the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

2009-March: PhD in Physics. Department of Physical and Astronomical Sciences of the University of Palermo.

2005 – July: Master degree in Physics at the University of Palermo, Italy

2000/2005: Undergraduate student at the Department of Physical and Astronomical Sciences (DSFA) of the University of Palermo, Italy.

 

Teaching

2014- today: Bachelor Course: Pharmaceutical Physical Chemistry I/II (lectures, lab sessions and excercise classes)

2015- today: Director of the PhD course Analytical Methodology in Protein Formulation Development

 

Commissions of trust

Member of the steering committee for CPHSAXS, Small Angle X-ray scattering facility at SUND, KU

Member of the Lund Institute of Advanced Neutron and X-ray Science (LINXS)

Member of the Teaching board, the Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Member of the Italian Society of Biophysics 

Member of the Integrative Structural Biology (ISBUC), UNiversity of Copenhagen.

 

Current research

We use tools derived from physics and chemistry to address the complexity of nano- and micro-scale systems of biological relevance. We love working with proteins and peptides with the aim of understanding the physics laws ruling their stability, self-assembly mechanisms, and interactions with both biological interfaces and other biomolecules. We aim at translating this fundamental knowledge into novel high-impact applications, with a main focus on creating advanced materials for nano-medicine and drug delivery, improving safety of protein drug formulations and understanding the etiology of protein-related neurodegenerative diseases.

To achieve our goals, we use theoretical frameworks in combination with experiments mainly based on UV-Vis spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron scattering and optical and electron microscopies. We work in close connection with both international collaborators in academia, large-scale facilities and national and international industrial entities.

Details on our research projects can be found here.

Postdocs

  • Samuel Lenton
  • Mai Bay Stie
  • Marco Polimeni

PhD students

  • Kleopatra Kalouta
  • Xuedan Sun
  • Inna Brakti
  • Giorgia Puleo
  • Filippo Vitale
  • Xuezhi Zhou
  • Gabriele Lo Buglio

Master students

  • Asmaa Mohamed
  • Haya Munzer Azrak
  • Sama Yalmaz Hassan
  • Ipak Arianpour
  • Ebru Kücükköse 
  • Mathilde Dyberg Skandov
  • Tobias Winckler-Carlsen

 

Selected Recent Funding

Villum Young Investigator Plus Award, 2023-2026, ~4 M DKK

Novo Nordisk Foundation Research Project, 2024-2025 ~2 M DKK

China Scholarship Council, PhD stipend,2022-2025, ~420,000 DKK

Novo Nordisk A/S  Industrial PhD 2022-2025 ~2 M DKK 

Novo Nordisk Foundation Research Project, 2021-2023 ~2 M DKK

Villum Young Investigator Award, 2018-2025, 8.6 M DKK 

 

 

 

Education/Academic qualification

Physics, PhD, University of Palermo

1 Jan 200617 Mar 2009

Award Date: 17 Mar 2009

Physics, Master Degree, University of Palermo

1 Nov 199921 Jul 2005

Award Date: 21 Jul 2005

Keywords

  • Former Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Biophysics
  • Protein Aggregation
  • Applied Physics
  • Structural Biology
  • Physical-Chemistry
  • Spectroscopy
  • X-ray Scattering

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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