Sergio Lociuro is Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) at BioVersys AG where he leads the research and development of novel chemical entities that, upon binding to bacterial transcription regulators, are able to control/inhibit expression of resistance to given antibiotic classes, biofilm formation and virulence factors.
Sergio has over 30 years’ experience in applied sciences and drug discovery gained in academia and pharma. He has held several positions in small and large pharmaceutical companies, such as a scientific coordinator at MMD (Lepetit), Director of Medicinal Chemistry and International Project Leader at GSK, Head of Peptide Epitope Mimetics in Polyphor, Head of Research and Scientific Communication at Arpida AG, and CSO at Adenium and C10 Pharma.
Sergio’s background spans from early drug discovery phases to late preclinical development. He has conducted phase I clinical studies, participated in late clinical studies and in discussions with both the US Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency.
He has contributed to the discovery and development of numerous antibacterial classes including diaminopyrimidines, thiazolyl-peptides, glycopeptides and lipoglycopetides, peptides, rifamycins, carbapenems and oxazolidinones.
Sergio has authored or co-authored over 30 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals; and over 70 posters and oral presentations given at international meetings such as the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) and the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC). He is also a named inventor on 14 patents related to six drug classes.
Sergio received his Laurea degree in chemistry from the University of Rome and after a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Italian Research National Council, he moved to the University of New Brunswick, Canada, where he received his PhD in 1987. That year he also started his career in the pharmaceutical industry as a medicinal chemist.
Sergio is the founder of THOT consulting Sagl, a Swiss consulting firm providing services in the research and development of anti-infectives and pharmaceutical drugs in general.