The Department is focused on the study and preclinical research of innovative drugs. To pursue its objective, the Department is composed of Research Units (i.e., Laboratories). With their multidisciplinary nature, they contribute to create a scientific environment in which individual researchers can draw on extremely diverse but complementary skills, which are now essential for the identification of new therapeutic approaches.

The Department is composed of Research Units (i.e., Laboratories) that contribute to create the multidisciplinary environment essential for education and innovation in modern drug design

In particular, the Department develops its research activity around focused topics, identification of new molecular entities with therapeutic potential, their characterization and formulation in drug delivery/health products, also considering the regulatory and normative aspects as here detailed:

1. identification of new active hit compounds through in silico design and synthesis, performed by conventional and advanced methodologies, of drugs or molecules of biological interest, their chemical-physical characterization, the isolation and structural characterization of organic substances of plant origin;
2. identification of new therapeutic targets and innovative pharmacological approaches through the study of etiopathogenic mechanisms of diseases of the nervous, pneumo-cardiovascular and immune systems and infective pathologies;
3. isolation, analysis and structural/biological characterization of bioactive components of foods in order to develop functional foods and food supplements (nutraceutics);
4. pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and crystallographic analyses; determination of actives in complex matrices, quantitative "omics" approaches with the use of advanced analytical methodologies: separation techniques, high resolution tandem mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics and statistical analysis;
5. pharmacokinetic studies with chemical-toxicological analysis on biological and non-biological materials, evaluation of the chemical or metabolic stability in vitro and of the pharmacokinetic or metabolic profile in vivo; toxicological (also forensic) studies and evaluation of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in biological fluids;
6. pharmacodynamic studies with biomolecular and pathophysiological characterization of drug action;
7. design, preparation and control of conventional and modified-release dosage forms containing active ingredients of natural, synthetic and biotechnological origin and spectroscopic and structural characterization of biosystems as vectors for transfection in gene therapy;
8. legislation and regulatory aspects related to the production, intermediate distribution and trade of medicines, medical devices, cosmetics and food supplements, and their socio-economic implications.