Born in Crevalcore (BO) in 1970. Laurea (1995) and Ph.D (2000) in Chemistry at the University of Padova (supervisor Umberto Tonellato). Post-doc at the University of Toronto in the group of Jik Chin in 2001-2002.
In 1999 he was appointed as Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry by the Department of Chemistry of the University of Padova, where he later become Associate Professor (2010) and finally Full Professor (2016).
In 2014 he was awarded with the “Research Prize for Molecular Interactions” from the Italian Chemical Society (SCI). From 2016 to 2018 he was member of National Scientific Habilitation (ASN) panel for Organic Chemistry (03/C1). In 2021 he was member of the final panel for the FWO/F.R.S.-FNRS Excellence of Science Grants.

Since academic year 2000-2001 he has been teaching several basic Organic Chemistry courses for the Degrees in Chemistry, Industrial Chemistry, Materials Sciences and Molecular Biology. At the moment he teaches Organic Chemistry III for the degree in Chemistry, Organic Chemistry of the degree in Human and Henvironmental Health, Organic Chemistry and Veterinary Biochemistry for the degree in Veterinary Technical Assistance Sciences.
In academic years 2010-2015 he held the advanced courses of Nanobiotechnology and Nanosystems for the Degree in Industrial Biotechnology. Actually he is teaching Supramolecular Chemistry for the Master Degree in Chemistry.
He aldso lectured on Supramolecular Chemistry of Materials for the Ph.D. Program in Material Sciences (2008 and 2012) and for the “Scuola Galileiana” for High Studies at the Univeristy of Padova, and on Self-Organization for the Ph.D. Program in Molecular Sciences (2014). He was appointed member of 11 doctoral examination committees by Italian and international (Oviedo, San Sebastian, Geneve, EPFL, Auckland, Gent) universities.

He received a University of Padova Young Researchers Grant in 2003 ("Artificial Nucleases"), a University of Padova Research Grant ("New optical sensors, based on the molecular self-organization and on the properties of nanosystems, for the detection of metal ions in solution") in 2004-2005, a research contract on the "Synthesis of nanoparticles for toxicity investigations" from Veneto Nanotech in 2008-2009, an ERC Starting Grant ("MOSAIC: Patterning the surface of monolayer-protected nanoparticles to obtain intelligent nanodevices") in 2010, an ERC Proof of Concept Grant (INSIGHT: New chemical detection methods based on NMR and nanoparticles) in 2015, a Cariparo Foundation Excellent Research Grant (SELECT: Selective catalysis in supramolecular confined spaces) in 2019 and an AIRC Foundation Investigator Grant (Nanoparticle-Based Receptors for Catecholamine Profiling in Diagnosis and Prognosis of Neuroblastoma) in 2020.

His research interest is focused on supramolecular and nanochemistry, with particular interest in the exploitation of self-organization as strategy to design and realize chemical systems capable to perform complex functions. These include catalysis of hydrolytic reactions (in particular artificial metallonucleases), fluorescence and NMR-based chemosensors, and biomedical applications.

He is co-author of about 130 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals, 6 book chapters and 2 patent applications.

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