I have been awarded in 2003 with the Farmaindustria/SCI prize as best young researcher in medicinal chemistry, and with the XVI Friederich Merz Fellowship for his research on molecular modeling of glutamate receptors.

In my career I have investigated the role of glutamate receptors in neuroprotection and stroke and the role of nuclear receptors in metabolic diseases, an effort which ended up with obeticholic acid (Ocaliva®), a marketed drug against primary biliary cyrrosis.