Dr. Michela Pellizzoni, of the Adolphe Merkle Institute’s Macromolecular Chemistry group, has been awarded an Ambizione grant worth over CHF 900,000 by the Swiss National Science Foundation, one of four attributed at the University of Fribourg.

Ambizione grants are aimed at young researchers who wish to conduct, manage and lead an independent project at a Swiss higher education institution.

Pellizzoni’s four-year project aims to expand the catalytic repertoire of enzymes introducing “new to nature” reactivity combining advantages of both homogeneous and enzymatic catalysis. These new biocompatible catalysts (Bio-ATRA), will be able to perform reactions under mild and physiological conditions. The development of this selective method could have a strong impact on several fields such as protein engineering, synthetic biology, material science, polymer chemistry, therapeutics protein, and drug delivery and development.

Before joining Prof. Nico Bruns’ group at AMI in 2017, Pellizzoni was a postdoc in the Chemistry department at University of Basel in the group of Prof. Thomas Ward.