The nature and the strength of non covalent interactions in ligand-receptor couples is at the basis of a large number of phenomena of contemporary interest in chemistry, material science and biology. For control of selectivity and maximization of binding energies, acquiring detailed knowledge on the stereospecific interactions within the couple is a major point. Such information may be crucial, in the case of drug-biomolecule systems, for developing new therapeutical strategies, for limiting undesirable side effects or target a drug selectively. We use spectroscopic and photochemical techniques to gain insight into ligand-receptor interactions. Indeed absorption of photons by the ligand or the receptor leads to population of excited electronic states, whose deactivation pathways (emission of a different photon, transmission of heat, transfer of energy/electrons or chemical reaction) are extremely sensitive to the environmental interactions and can be utilized to understand the role of H-bonds, Van der Waals and electrostatic forces in ligand-receptor binding. In this context aromatic molecules and specific drug families are currently investigated either included in cyclodextrin hosts or bound to proteins and nucleic acids. Since the complex organization of host molecules in macrocycles, helices or sheets display "handedness", the (intrinsic and/or induced) circular dichroism (CD) is also investigated. Detailed structural information is obtained by combining computational techniques of Molecular Mechanics (MM) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) to CD spectroscopy and quantum mechanical calculation of induced rotational strengths. Selected antibacterials, anti-inflammatory drugs, anticancer and antimalarial drugs are currently studied.

Updated(18/06/2009)