Carlotta Figliola

Medicinal chemistry, selective photodynamic therapy, organic and stimuli-responsive photosensitizers, fluorophores, singlet oxygen/triplet excited state emission, molecular engineering, boron complexes, pyrrole-based bioinspired molecules

My research goal is the design, synthesis and study of activable and disease-directed photosensitizers to perform efficient antimicrobial and anticancer photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a photochemistry-based medical treatment using the light at a specific wavelength, a photosensitizer (PS) and molecular oxygen. The absorption of the light by the PS produces the reactive oxygen species, including singlet oxygen, both causing cell death followed by an inflammatory and immune response. PDT has been known for over 30 years as a promising anticancer and antimicrobial treatment, because it gives better outcomes in terms of systemic side effects and it reduces the development of microbial resistance, respectively. To accomplish these goal, new scaffolds are explored as potential PS and they are based either on boron complexes, such as BODIPYs and BF₂-DIPYRs, or on the bioinspired structure. Molecular engineering of the above scaffolds is performed to draw a clear structure-activity relationship for an optimized PDT activity.  Subsequently, the most promising PS are modified to be responsive to stimuli, such as the acidic pH or the high concentration of glutathione and directed to the targeted disease. Each synthetic structural modification is accompanied by photophysical studies thanks to the extensive equipment in the laboratory as well as theoretical and biological evaluation thanks to the established collaborations with Pr. Denis Jacquemin (Université de Nantes), specialist in ab initio calculation, and with Pr. Pascal Didier (Université de Strasbourg) and Dr. Halina Anton (Université de Strasbourg) for in vitro experiments.

1. Niogret, G.; Chériaux, C.; Bonhomme, F.; Levi-Acobas, F.; Figliola, C.; Ulrich, G.; Gasser, G.; Hollenstein, M. A toolbox for enzymatic modification of nucleic acids with photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy. RSC Chem. Biol. 2024, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D4CB00103F.
2. Figliola, C.; Sutter, A.; Papineau, T. V.; Chériaux, C.; Retailleau, P.; Jacquemin, D.; Ulrich, G. Difluoro Dipyridomethene Boron Complexes: Synthesis, Characterization, and Ab Initio Calculations. J. Org. Chem. 2024, 89, 3020, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.joc.3c02491.
3. Figliola, C.; Anton, H.; Sutter, C.; Chériaux, C.; Sutter, A.; Mazan, V.; Elhabiri, M.; Didier, P.; Jacquemin, D.; Ulrich, G. Lysosomes Targeting pH Activable Imaging‐Guided Photodynamic Agents. ChemBioChem 2023, 24, e202300139, https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cbic.202300139.
4. Figliola, C.; Marchal, E.; Groves, B. R.; Thompson, A. A step-wise synthetic approach is necessary to access γ-conjugates of folate: folate-conjugated prodigiosenes. RSC Adv. 2019, 9, 14078, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C9RA01435G.
5. Savoie, H.; Figliola, C.; Marchal, E.; Crabbe, B. W.; Hallett-Tapley, G. L.; Boyle, R. W.; Thompson, A. Photo-induced anticancer activity and singlet oxygen production of prodigiosenes. Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2018, 17, 599, http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C8PP00060C.

• Since 2021: Chercheur CNRS Strasbourg, France
• 2020-2021: Postdoc, CEA Saclay, France (with Davide AUDISIO and Fédéric TARAN)
• 2018-2019 : Postdoc, ENS Lyon, France (with Frédéric CHAPUT, Hélène ELLEAUME and Anne-Laure BULIN)
• 2017-2018: Postoc, iSm2 Marseille, France (with Olivier CHUZEL, Gaëlle CHOURAQUI and Jean-Luc PARRAIN)
• 2015-2017: Postdoc, Halifax University, Canada (with Alison THOMPSON)
• 2010-2014: PhD in Chemistry, University of Birmingham, England (supervisor Richard GRAINGER)
• 2005-2010: Bachelor and Master degree in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmaceutics