Researcher Law 240/10 for a fixed term

Francesca Clemente graduated cum laude in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the Alma Mater StudiorumUniversity of Bologna in 2015. In 2017, she obtained a second-level Master’s degree cum laude in Natural Organic Substances from the University of Rome-La Sapienza. From 2017 to 2021, she completed a PhD in Chemical Sciences at the University of Florence under the supervision of Prof. F. Cardona, which included a research stay at Tel Aviv University. In 2023, after a postdoctoral research period, she became a fixed-term researcher at the University of Florence within the framework of the NextGenerationEU-PNRR program (MNESYS project: An Integrated Multiscale Approach to the Study of the Nervous System in Health and Disease). Since 2017, her research has focused on the synthesis of nitrogen-containing glycomimetics (mono-, multivalent and stimuli-responsive iminosugars) as potential pharmacological chaperones for the treatment of metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, she is engaged in the development of pharmacological chaperones for the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase, whose deficiency causes Gaucher disease (the most common lysosomal storage disorder) and is also linked to Parkinson disease. She is further involved in the biological evaluation of these compounds as chaperones in ex-vivo models of Gaucher and Parkinson diseases, in collaboration with Prof. A. Morrone (AOU Meyer-IRCCS). In this field, she has authored 21 peerreviewed manuscripts and 2 chapters in scientific books, and has been rincipal Investigator on 2 research grants funded by the Telethon ETS Foundation in collaboration with the Italian Gaucher Association, as well as by the Cassa di Risparmio di Pistoia e Pescia Foundation. She is also passionate about sharing science beyond the lab, taking part in conferences, public events and outreach activities to promote awareness and make knowledge accessible to everyone, especially patient associations and their families.