Giuseppe Cilento

{{Short description|Brazilian biochemist (1923-1994)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Giuseppe Cilento | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date |1923|7|21}} | birth_place = Sorrento, Italy | death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|10|31|1921|7|21}} | death_place = São Paulo | citizenship = | nationality = | fields = chemistry<br />molecular biology | workplaces = | alma_mater = | doctoral_advisors = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = photochemistry | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | footnotes = | other_names = }}

'''Giuseppe Cilento''' (July 21, 1923 in Sorrento, Italy – October 31, 1994 in São Paulo) was a Brazilian chemist who was born in Italy. He held a professorship at the University of São Paulo and was Professor Emeritus at the State University of Campinas.

== Early life and education == Cilento attended the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Philosophy, Science and Letters, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

Cilento completed a post-doc at Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Special Highlights {{!}} Redoxoma Newsletter|url=http://redoxomanewsletter.iq.usp.br/taxonomy/term/13|access-date=2021-06-01|website=redoxomanewsletter.iq.usp.br}}</ref>

== Awards and honors == He received the ''grã-cruz'' ("Great Cross") of the ''Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico'' ("National Order of Scientific Merit") of Brazil<ref>[http://www.abc.org.br/sjbic/curriculo.asp?consulta=GIC Giuseppe Cilento – Membros da ONMC]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and the TWAS Prize in 1993.<ref name="Prizes and Awards">{{Cite web |url=http://twas.org/opportunities/prizes-and-awards |title=Prizes and Awards |date=2016 |publisher=The World Academy of Sciences}}</ref>

Cilento was awarded fellowship by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1977 and 1981.<ref>{{Cite web|title=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation {{!}} Giuseppe Cilento|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/giuseppe-cilento/|access-date=2021-06-01|language=en-US}}</ref>

The Rockefeller Foundation awarded $4,905 to Cilento and Heinrich Hauptmann for biochemistry research in 1958.

== Contributions == Throughout his career, Cilento published over 150 papers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=001. Science and Literature: Global and Local Perspectives|url=http://isheastm.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/ICHST_Symposium-Sessions_ISHEASTM-Highlighted.pdf}}</ref>

Cilento was an early pioneer of the paradoxical hypothesis of "photochemistry without light".<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Baader|first1=Wilhelm J.|last2=Stevani|first2=Cassius V.|last3=Bechara|first3=Etelvino J. H.|date=2015|title="Photo" Chemistry Without Light?|journal=Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society|language=en|doi=10.5935/0103-5053.20150257|issn=0103-5053|doi-access=free}}</ref> The hypothesis was based on chemiluminescence and bioluminescence originating from enzymatic and non-enzymatic pathways that produce unstable peroxide intermediates such as 1,2-dioxetanes that fluoresce, ejecting a photon within "dark" biological organisms potentially triggering physiological or pathophysiological responses.<ref name=":0" /> He had profound interest in horseradish peroxidase.

An example mechanism resides in keto acids such as phenylpyruvic acid, which under certain circumstances tautomerizes to form a reactive enol. Peroxidation, initiated by reactive oxygen species by enzymatic peroxidases or non-enzymatic pathways, react with the benzylic carbon and alpha-keto carbonyl to form a "squaric" 1,2-dioxetane/dioxetanol. This intermediate is unstable, resulting in the ejection of a photon and subsequent formation of oxalic acid and benzaldehyde in the triplet state.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hopper|first1=Christopher P.|last2=De La Cruz|first2=Ladie Kimberly|last3=Lyles|first3=Kristin V.|last4=Wareham|first4=Lauren K.|last5=Gilbert|first5=Jack A.|last6=Eichenbaum|first6=Zehava|last7=Magierowski|first7=Marcin|last8=Poole|first8=Robert K.|last9=Wollborn|first9=Jakob|last10=Wang|first10=Binghe|date=2020-12-23|title=Role of Carbon Monoxide in Host–Gut Microbiome Communication|url=https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00586|journal=Chemical Reviews|volume=120|issue=24|pages=13273–13311|doi=10.1021/acs.chemrev.0c00586|pmid=33089988 |s2cid=224824871 |issn=0009-2665|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The pathway competes with formation of a peroxylactone that forms benzaldehyde and carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Cilento and Villablanca were interested in the biological significance of this specific pathway among others.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Hopper|first1=Christopher P.|last2=Zambrana|first2=Paige N.|last3=Goebel|first3=Ulrich|last4=Wollborn|first4=Jakob|date=2021|title=A brief history of carbon monoxide and its therapeutic origins|url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1089860321000367|journal=Nitric Oxide|language=en|volume=111-112|pages=45–63|doi=10.1016/j.niox.2021.04.001|pmid=33838343 |s2cid=233205099 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Among Cilento's collaborators, many publications on dark-photochemistry were authored with Prof. Waldemar Adam at University of Würzburg. Cilento and Adam described how 1,2-dioxetanes can induce chemical modification of DNA including formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and oxidation of guanine (from a triplet-state carbonyl and subsequent reactivity with oxygen, exemplified by the phenylpyruvate 1,2-dioxetanol pathway).<ref name=":0" />

==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070311032505/http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/GiuSilen.html Biography] (Portuguese)

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cilento, Giuseppe}} Category:1923 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Brazilian scientists Category:Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Category:People from Sorrento Category:Academic staff of the University of São Paulo Category:Academic staff of the State University of Campinas Category:Italian emigrants to Brazil Category:TWAS laureates