The scientific community of Povo, and in particular the people who worked closely with Daniele Catorci in the research path that he had just started as a PhD student at the University of Trento, still mourn his tragic loss, which occurred in a climbing accident on Gran Paradiso in the morning of 27 June.
A little more than a month has passed since then, and the research group he used to work with within his doctoral programme (professor Graziano Guella, Laboratory of Bio-Organic Chemistry of the Department of Physics) would like to remember him by suggesting an article that he co-authored and which just appeared in the prestigious international journal "Scientific Reports" on 30 July.
The work is the result of a collaboration between the research unit led by professor Graziano Guella (which included Federico Bonaldo and Daniele Catorci) with professor Fulvio Mattivi and researcher Panagiotis Arapitsas of Fondazione Edmund Mach.
This in-depth study explores the molecular mechanisms through which bisulfite ions (sulfur dioxide) can be added to various natural compounds belonging to one of the major classes of polyphenols, flavonoids.
Previous works by Panagiotis Arapitsas, Fulvio Mattivi and Graziano Guella had already established that the addition of sulfur dioxide to natural matrices (like wine, for example), could generate stable sulfonated flavonoids but, for the first time, this study reports on quantitative (thermodynamic and kinetic) process data; Daniele Catorci made a significant contribution to the study by suggesting a valid hypothesis on the complex molecular mechanisms that govern addition processes.
The authors remember Daniele with a note at the end of the publication that reads as follows:
Daniele Catorci passed away on June 27, 2020 in a climbing accident. His gentle smile was as great as his love for Nature. He will always remain in our hearts