Professor Emeritus at the ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
Pier Luigi received his scientific education at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. In 1970, he became professor at the Institut für Polymere at the ETH-Zürich and since 2006 he is part of the biology department of the University of Roma Tre. As a biochemist, he pioneered an active research in the self-organization of synthetic and biological systems, the origin of life, and semi-synthetic cellular systems (the so-called "mininal life"). Interested in the interface between science and humanities, in 1985 he founded Cortona week, legacy to this Todi-week, and participated, in 1987, to the foundation of Mind and Life in Dharamsala, India, with Francisco Varela and the Dalai Lama.
1963 Laurea in chimica alla Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, magna cum laude.
1963 – 1969 Post-doc alla università di S. Petersburg, Russia, poi all’Università di Uppsala, Svezia, research fellow all’istituto di biologia molecolare in Eugene, Oregon.
1970 – 1982 Assistente al Politecnico Federale di Zurigo (all’ETH-Z), poi assistant professor, extraordinarius in chimica macromolecolare. Fondatore con il prof. Pino e prof. Meissner dell’Istituto dei Polimeri all’ETH-Z.
1984 Ordinario di chimica macromolecolare all’ETH-Zürich.
Dal 1985 organizzatore e direttore della settimana internazionale “Cortona-week”, ( scienza e la interezza della vita”) per l’integrazione tra le scienze naturali e umanistiche.
Dal 1987 al 2000 professore invitato alle Università di Nagasaki, Harvard, Saclay, Seoul, Osaka, San Diego.
1984 – 2002 chair per quattro volte dell’Istituto dei Polimeri all’ETH-Z
1991 Fondatore e presidente del Swiss Group Colloid Sceince.
1992 – 2000 chair di tre azioni cost “recognition chemistry”, “supramolecular chemistry”, “origin of life and early evolution”
Oct 96 – oct 98 chair of the department of chemistry at the ETH-Z
Settembre 2003 lascia l’ETH-Z con il titolo di Professore Emeritus
Novembre 2003 professore di biochimica alla Università di Roma3.
The various phases of the scientific activity of prof. PLL
for the paper numbers, see the list under papers; for the papers published monthly in WSI, see at the end of the same section.
1. synthetic polymers, conformational studies.
The scientific activity begins with the thesis work at the Pisa University, under the direction of prof. Piero Pino, on isotactic vinyl polymers, with a thesis work carried out in (at that time) Leningrad, Soviet Union, in the group of prof. Volkenstein, under the direction of Dr. T. Birsthein. This work was continued in Pisa, with emphasis on optically active isotactic vinyl polymers and their low molecular weight compounds, also with interest in copolymers, as described in the first 11 papers. See also papers 14,16, 18, 20, 25,31, 49, 64, 77, 82, 88.
2. Enzymology and dehydrogenases
Following ca. 2 years of postdoc work in Eugene, Oregon, in the group of molecular biology of prof. Sidney Bernhard, there are work on alcohol dehydrogenase from horse liver, other enzymes and other dehydrogenases (in particular octopine dehydrogenases), carried out with stopped-flow techniques and fluorescence work, see papers 12,13, all the other till 32, (excluded the ones mentioned under 1) but see also 37, 40, 41,47, 48,49, 51,52, 53,54a, 56,57, 62, 87, 90, 93
3. Synthesis and spectroscopic properties of aromatic peptides.
work described in the papers 42-45,50, 61,65,66, 76, 79,80, 89,97
4. Proteases for the synthesis of peptide bonds, proteases in general, thioredoxin, protein folding
in papers 54,54a, 58,59, 68,69, 95,104, 107, 110, 115,118, 119, 128, 165, 174, 199,
5. micellar enzymology (and cell in reverse micelles)
see papers 55, 60, 63, 70, 71,72-75, 78, 86,96,98-103,105, 106, 108,109, 111-114,116,117,120-123, 125-127, 129, 132-129, 136, 139-146, 151, 154-156,158 a and b, 159-164, 167-168, 171, 172a, 175, 178, 179, 182, 186,187, 193,194, 196, 198, 208, 214, 216, 219, 222, 224,225, 288,318, 447
6. organogels
in papers 124, 130, 131, 159, 171, 173, 176, 180, 188, 204, 206, 210, 211, 220, 274, 280,282, 350
7. general reviews, philosophy, emergence, consciousness, AI,
67,83, 84,91, 92, 149, 177, 197, 201, 212, 252, 295, 298, 307, 316, 325, 326,327, 332-334, 347, 353, 354, 375, 386-388, 391, 442,467, 487, 517, 526, 529, 530, 532, 534,550b,
8. nucleic acids
see 85,96, 157, 214, 218, 267, 297, 300, 305, 309, 310, 339, 368, 373, 382, 398,408, 489, 537
9. autopoiesis, ool, chirality
170, 172, 180, 181, 184, 192, 231, 232, 245, 251, 253, 255, 273c, 275, 284, 295, 298, 338, 348, 355, 365, 370, 375, 379-381, 386, 394, 396, 405, 409-410, 414,424,a and b, 427,438,447,452,463,472, 478, 480, 484,485, 510, 519, 535,536,552,568,569, 571, 582
10. proteins in liposomes, liposomes, vesicles
166,183, 241,242, 243, 246, 248, 249, 267, 278, 283, 296, 304,305, 319, 325, 326, 328,329, 331-334, 336, 349, 351,352, 355-358, 377,378, 380, 386, 389,390, 395-397,399,401,402,406,407, 409-411, 413,431, 433, 449-451,458, 481-482, 598,
11. cubic phases
185, 215
12. giant vesicles
247, 259, 273b, 276, 311, 337, 339, 341-344, 346, 392, 528
13. minimal cell, synthetic biology
260, 267, 360, 374,379, 365, 374, 380,381, 400, 410, 422,424, 430, 433, 434, 448,450, 456,457,460,462,466,471,474,476b,473, 477,483, 488,489, 490-492,494-495, 498,499,501,502,504,505, 508, 511, 515,516,518, 522-525, 528, 538-541, 544,545,549,555,557,558,566, 578,586,587,
14. never born proteins
416-418, 420, 422, 423,426, 439,440, 503,504, 514
15, overcrowding
493,500,513,550, 567, 570
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Papers published monthly on Wall Street International (WSI):
this is the link to the papers in English: https://wsimag.com/authors/492-pier-luigi-luisi and this for the articles in italian: https://wsimag.com/it/authors/492-pier-luigi-luisi