Biografia

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Research Director, Institute for Biostructures and Bioimaging (IBB-CNR), Naples
Senior researcher (2010-2020) and Researcher of the IBB-CNR 2001-2010.
Since 2014, Abilitation as Full Professor, Class 03/A2.

D'Alembert Fellow 2017-2018 at the University Paris-Saclay

Otto Mønsted Grant 2022 at the DTU Lingby

2020: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Society for Photobiology

2012-2018: Member of the Executive Committee of the European Photochemistry Association

Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Naples "Federico II", 1998

Coordinator of the European training Network (Marie Curie Actions) LightDyNAmics

Interessi di ricerca

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Development, validation and application of theoretical models and quantum mechanical computational methods for the study of large size molecules, both in gas and in condensed phase

Photophysics and Photochemistry of Nucleic Acids

Structure and dynamics of biological systems and materials, with special reference to the reactivity of the excited electronic states

Computational spectroscopy

Pubblicazioni scelte

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1)DNA Photodamage: From Light Absorption to Cellular Responses and Skin Cancer
Editors: R. Improta, T. Douki Pag. 1-345
Publisher. Royal Society of Chemistry 2021
2) Quantum Mechanical Studies on the Photophysics and the Photochemistry of Nucleic Acids and Nucleobases
R. Improta*, F. Santoro, L. Blancafort,
Chemical Reviews 116, 3540-3593 (2016)

3) Nucleic Acids as a Playground for the Computational Study of the Photophysics and Photochemistry of Multichromophore Assemblies
L Martínez Fernández, F Santoro, R Improta*
Accounts of Chemical Research 55, 2077-2087 (2022)

4) Ultrafast Formation of a delocalized triplet-excited state in an epigenetically modified DNA duplex under direct UV excitation
X. Wang, L. Martínez-Fernández, Y. Zhang, P. Wu, B. Kohler, R Improta,* J. Chen
Journal of the American Chemical Society 146 (3), 1839-1848 (2024)

5) On the nature of the triplet electronic states of naphthalene dimers
L. Martínez-Fernández, P. Wu, L.T. Bao, X. Wang, R.H. Zhang, W. Wang, HB. Yang, J. Chen, R Improta*
Chemical science 16, 4469-4479 (2025).

Progetti in evidenza

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Last 5 years:
1) PRIN 2022 project (2022K3AY2K) “Design and engineering of genetically encodable unnatural photoreceptors”, Coordinator of the CNR unit
2) CNR/RS (UK) bilateral project “Modelling Exciton and Charge Transfer Dynamics in Multichromophoric Systems , Coordinator of the CNR unit (2024-2025)
3) Responsible of a project financed in the framework of CN3, National Center for Gene Therapy and Drugs based on RNA technology. 2022-2026
4) Marie Sklodowska-Curie ETN Action: LightDynamics. “LightDyNAmics: DNA as a training platform for photodynamic processes in soft materials” Coordinator of the whole project financing 3800 K€ and coordinator of the CNR unit (2018-2023)
5)UCATG44: progetti@cnr.. Unified Computational Approach for Tagging viral G-quadruplexes Coordinator K€ (2022-2026)