Attilio Cesàro

PROFESSOR OF MACROMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY

Department of			Office: 233 - Bd. C11
Life Sciences (DSV)			Phone:39-040-5583684
University of Trieste			Fax: 39-040-5583691
I-34127 Trieste, Italy			Email:cesaro@units.it

Last update: //2011

Reserved links (send mail to get passwords):
Corso di Chim. Macrom. e di Lab. di Chim. Macrom.
Corso di Chim. Macromol. (Laurea Triennale)
I.R.C.A.W.
AIM
Dottorato Nanotecnologie
Corso Scienze Beni Culturali
Scienza e Tecnol. Polimeri
Laurea honoris causa a David Brant
Villa Manin
Nanobiopharma

EDUCATION AND APPOINTMENTS

University of Naples, Studies in Chemistry and Dottore in Chimica, 1966;
University of California, Irvine, Post-doctoral Researcher, 1967-1968;
University of Trieste, Assistant Professor of Physical Chemistry (1973);
University of California, Irvine, Visiting Professor of Physical-Chemistry (1979);
University of Trieste, Associate Professor (1982);
University of Trieste, Full Professor Macromolecular Chemistry (1990);

His teaching and research activity has been carried out abroad as Visiting Professor at:
Université Lille I, France (2003 and 2004), Cornell University Ithaca, USA (2002), Universidad Paulista, RioPreto, Brasil (1989), Universidad Nacional de SanLuis, Argentina (1988) and, UC Irvine, USA (1979 and 1975).

Awards, Honours and Memberships

Fulbright Fellowship (1975);
Award Price of Biothermodynamics by Swiss Society, STK (Basel 1989);
Award Price of AICAT-SETARAM (Porto 2011);

Member of the Ass. Ital. Scienze Tecnol. Macromolecole (AIM) since the foundation;
Member of the Ass. Ital. Calorimetria e Analisi Termica (AICAT) since the foundation;
Member of the Board (1980-82 and 82-84) and President (1990-1993) of the AICAT;
Chairman of European Symposium of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (1994-1998);
Member of the Editorial Board of Carbohydrate Research (2001-), of Food Biophysics (2005-), and of Acta Chemica Slovenica (1998-).Past Regional Editor of J.Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (1998-2004).

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

The scientific activity focuses mainly on the correlation between structure, conformation and function of industrial biopolymers and other non-reactive bio-systems (polysaccharides and small sugars, polyesters, food proteins). Experimental approaches (isothermal calorimetry and differential scanning calorimetry, but also spectroscopies and rheology) and theoretical methods (statistical mechanics, polyelectrolytic theories, Monte Carlo) have been used to determine and rationalise the thermodynamic properties of amorphous and locally ordered biomolecules.

Nowadays, the Research Group established at DSV is involved in several research projects aimed at the understanding the properties and at the developing applications of natural polymers (mainly polysaccharides) in several fields from foods to pharmaceuticals by using novel concepts at nano-scale and innovative investigations including synchrotron radiation beam-lines (scattering, spectroscopy, surface). The strong fundamental background in applied physical chemistry and in macromolecular biophysics is also emphasized.

Among the scientific projects presently carried out:

- Nanoscale Functionalities for Targeted Drug Delivery of Biopharmaceutics (European Project NANO-BIO-PHARMACEUTICS).

- Bioprotection: structure, interactions, dynamics and transitions in trehalose solutions and solid poly(a)morphs.

- Nanoscale and mesoscale interactions in aqueous solutions of pharmaceutical and food compounds.

Most relevant publications:

P. Pittia, A. Cesàro.
Water Biophysics: How Water Interacts with Biomolecules. Food Biophysics 2011, 6, 183–185.

B. Bellich, M. Borgogna, M. Cok, A. Cesàro.
Water evaporation from gel beads. A calorimetric approach to hydrogel matrix release properties. J Thermal Anal Calorim. 2011, 103, 81-88

A. Cesàro, F. Sussich
Trehalose amorphization and crystallization Carbohydr. Res., 2008, 343, 2667-2674.

O. De Giacomo, A. Cesàro, L. Quaroni
Synchrotron based FTIR spectromicroscopy of biopolymer blends undergoing phase separation
Food Biophysics 2008, 3, 77-86.

S. Di Fonzo, C. Masciovecchio, F. Bencivenga, A. Gessini, D. Fioretto, L. Comez, A. Morresi, M.E. Gallina, O. De Giacomo, A. Cesàro
Concentration-temperature dependencies of structural relaxation time in trehalose-water solutions by Brillouin Inelastic UV Scattering
J. Phys. Chem., A 2007, 111, 12577-12583.

A. Cesàro
Bioprotection: All dried up
Nature Materials 2006, 5(8), 593-594.

S. Furlan, G. La Penna, E. Chiessi, A. Perico, A. Cesàro
Conformational Dynamics of Hyaluronan in Solution. 3. Molecular dynamics from Monte Carlo replica-exchange simulations and mode-coupling diffusion theory
Macromolecules, 2004, 37, 6197-6209

F. Sussich, S. Bortoluzzi, A. Cesàro
Trehalose dehydration under confined conditions
Thermochim. Acta, 2002, 391, 137-150.

F. Sussich, C. Skopec, J. W. Brady, A. Cesàro
Reversible dehydration of trehalose and anhydrobiosis: from solution state to an exotic crystal? Carbohydr. Res., 2001, 334, 165-176.

A. Cesàro, F. Sussich
Plasticization: The softening of materials.
in "Bread Staling" P. Chinachoti, Y. Vodovitz Eds. (2000) CRC Press BocaRaton, capt 2, 19-59.

A. Perico, M. Mormino, R. Urbani, A. Cesàro, E. Tylianakis, P. Dais, D. A. Brant
Local Dynamics of Carbohydrates: I. Dynamics of Simple Glucans with Different Chain Linkages.
J. Phys. Chem. 1999, 103, 8162-8171.

F. Sussich, R. Urbani, F. Princivalle, A. Cesàro
Polymorphic Amorphous and Crystalline Forms of Trehalose
J. Amer. Chem Soc. 1998, 31, 7893-7899.

LIST OF PAPERS (since 1990)