Daniela Verga

Background

About Daniela Verga

I hold a PhD in Organic chemistry (2010) on the synthesis of photoactivatable DNA cross-linkers (supervisor: M. Freccero, University of Pavia). During my PhD, I worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Gary B. Schuster’s lab to study photodamages induced on DNA and biochemistry. I was Postdoc at the Institut Curie in M-P. Teulade-Fichou’s group (2011-12) where I worked on the synthesis of covalent G4 DNA binding compounds and their biochemical application and then I moved to Germany as a Postdoc awarded with a von Humboldt fellowship (2013-15) working in the field of chemical biology in A. Marx’s group (Konstanz, Germany), where I deepened my knowledge in DNA biochemistry and biology. Since December 2015, I am a young permanent researcher (Chargée de recherche CNRS, CRCN) in the Chemistry and Modelling for the Biology of Cancer (CMBC) research unit at the Institut Curie (UMR9187-U1196 headed by M-P. Teulade-Fichou). More precisely, I work in the "Probes and Drugs of Nucleic acids Secondary Structures" team, directed by M-P. Teulade-Fichou, where I lead a small group (2 PhD students, working at the interface between chemistry, biochemistry, and biology, and 1 technical staff (IE) expert in organic synthesis) working on the synthesis of selective non-alkylating and alkylating G4 ligands with the aim to employ them to unlock biological processes. In 2018 I was awarded with a young researcher grant funded by the Agence National de la Recherche (JCJC ANR) to develop her own research.