Prof. Elias Maccioni holds a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Cagliari, Italy, He was appointed Assistant Professor of medicinal chemistry in 1992. From 1993 to 1994 he was Visiting Researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Bangor, North Wales. In 2005 he was appointed Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Cagliari. He now leads a research group of Drug Design and Synthesis at the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Cagliari. He is member of the Italian society of Medicinal Chemistry and is coordinator of the Paul Ehrlich Network of European Medicinal Chemistry PhD schools for the University of Cagliari. His research is mainly directed towards the identification, design, and synthesis of small molecules for the therapy of cancer, viral infections and neurodegenerative disorders.