The major research interests are: 1) the design and synthesis of biologically active compounds, especially antitumor agents, 2) development of new methodology for the synthesis of nitrogen heterocycles These studies involve chemical reactions, spectral analysis as well as the study of antitumoral activity of the new molecules in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (USA). The long term goal is the discover of new antitumoral leads

Valentina Onnis obtained a master degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology at Cagliari University in 1989 and a master degree in Pharmacy in 1990. She has been Assistant Professor since April 2001. Prior to that she was a graduated technician at the University of Cagliari (1991-2001)

M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V.Onnis Synthesis and antitumour activity of 4-hydroxy-2-pyridone derivatives Eur. J. Med. Chem., 35, 545-552 (2000)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V.Onnis Synthesis and In Vitro Antitumoral Activity of New N-Phenyl-3-pyrrolecarbothioamides Bioorg. Med. Chem. 11, 495- 503 (2003)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V.Onnis New bis(pyridyl)methane derivatives from 4-hydroxy-2-pyridones: synthesis and antitumoral activity Eur. J. Med. Chem., 38, 37-47 (2003)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V. Lilliu, V.Onnis Synthesis of new N-(2-(trifluoromethyl)pyridin-4-yl)anthranilic acid derivatives and their evaluation as anticancer agents. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett., 14 (23), 5787-5791 (2004)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V. Lilliu, V.Onnis Synthesis and antiproliferative activity of 2,6-Dibenzylamino-3,5-dicyanopyridines on human cancer cell lines Eur. J. Med. Chem., 40 (12), 1365-1372 (2005)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V. Lilliu, V.Onnis New Potential Anticancer Agents Based on the Anthranilic Acid Scaffold. Synthesis and Evaluation of Biological Activity J. Med. Chem. 48 (26), 8245-8252 (2005)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V. Lilliu, V.Onnis Synthesis and In Vitro Antitumoral Activity of New Hydrazinopyrimidine-5-carbonitrile Derivatives. Bioorg. Med. Chem., 14 (2), 366-372 (2006)
M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu, V. Lilliu, V.Onnis Synthesis and in vitro antitumoral activity of new 3,5-dicyanopyridine derivatives Bioorg. Med. Chem., 15 (4), 1859-1867 (2007)
C. Congiu, M. T.Cocco, V.Onnis Design, synthesis, and in vitro antitumor activity of new 1,4-diarylimidazole-2-ones and their 2-thione analogues. Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 18 (3), 989-993 (2008)
V.Onnis, V. Lilliu, M. T.Cocco, C. Congiu Synthesis and evaluation of antitumoral activity of ester and amide derivatives of 2-arylamino-6-trifluoromethyl-3-pyridinecarboxylic acids. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 2007 Nov 29; [Epub ahead of print]