Aurora received her M.Sc. in Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technology at University of Rome La Sapienza in 2021, supervised by Prof. S. Valente. In November 2021 she started her doctoral studies at the same university, as part of the group of Prof. C. Villani, in the Department of Organic Chemistry. In April 2023, she moved to the University of Barcelona as part of the ChemInFlow group to continue her research under the supervision of Prof. J. Puigmartí-Luis. She completed her doctorate in December 2024 and began as a postdoc in the ChemInFlow group in February 2025.
During her MSc project, her research focussed on the synthesis of molecules which exhibit antimalarial activity with nanomolar potency against specific strains of Plasmodium that have developed resistance to several drugs already available commercially.
The focus of her PhD research was the study of different types of materials, emphasizing the structural differences in terms of characteristics and field of applications. In particular the focus was on the synthesis and characterization of two bis-amido Pirkle-type selectors whose chiral recognition capabilities were tested through different techniques. Then she designed and synthesized a Covalent Organic Polymer which was coordinated with copper and used as heterogeneous catalyst in the reaction of Copper-Catalysed Alkyne-Azide Cycloaddition (CuAAC). Finally, during her period in Barcelona she focused on the development of a micellar-type synthetic approach in order to obtain Metal Organic Frameworks at the nanoscale.
As a postdoctoral researcher, Aurora’s current work is focused on the synthesis of different materials, mainly MOFs and COFs or heterostructures. The synthesis of these will be performed through different synthetic approaches such as confined reaction spaces or microfluidic technologies, providing control over the self-assembly processes.
