Dr. Maria Duca
Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS
Institute of Chemistry of Nice
Nice FRANCE

Email: maria.duca@univ-cotedazur.fr

Web-page: http://sgiicb.wixsite.com/sghomepage

Dr. Maria DUCA is head of « Targeting of Nucleic Acids » research group in the Institute of Chemistry of Nice (Université Côte d’Azur - CNRS). After undergraduate studies in Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry (Faculty of Pharmacy, Bologna, Italy), she obtained her PhD in Molecular Biochemistry under the supervision of Dr. Paola B. Arimondo (National History Museum, Paris, France) working on topoisomerase II inhibitors targeting specific DNA sequences. A 2-year post-doctoral training in Sydney Hecht’s lab (Departement of Chemistry, University of Virginia, USA) allowed her to pursue the study of nucleic acids/small molecules interactions working on targeted protein mutagenesis upon tRNA chemical modification. After CNRS recruitment as a Research Scientist in 2007, her research activities focus on the targeting of non-coding RNAs using synthetic small molecules toward innovative therapeutic approaches both in anticancer and antimicrobial applications.