My research work contributed to the recent advances of the emerging research field of nanomedicine. In 2020 I have been appointed to lead nanoformulation and nanocosmetic platform within the interdepartmental infrastructure “Nanotechnology for precision medicine and personalized beauty and Healthcare” NanoCosPha. In 2019, I was awarded with the first prize of the “Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Premio Giovani Talenti dell'Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca”.
1) I developed novel nanoconstructs based on nanoparticles functionalized with peptides, monoclonal antibodies or antibody fragments, as innovative tools for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Moreover, in the last few years my research interest has been focused on the investigation of new nanoparticles administration routes alternative to the intravenous one, in particular oral, topical and intranasal delivery (Morelli et al. Pharmaceutics, 2019; Musazzi et al.J. Nanobiotechnol.;2017; Salvioni et al.Pharmacol. Res.,2016).
2) I contributed to the invention related to a Patent (WO2014013473-A1) describing the development of a multifunctional nanoconstruct useful for therapeutic purposes with potential in the preclinical and clinical treatment of cancer, inflammatory diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders.
3) Several high-impact publications reporting on the development of new methodologies for the synthesis, loading and bioconjugation of nanoparticles as drug delivery systems. I developed a new platform for tailoring the surface of nanoparticles. (Colombo et al. Nat. Commun.;2016).
4) I am author of 108 publications: 14 as first author and 24 as corresponding author with an IF of 34;(Scopus).
5) I have been the Principal Investigator of a My First AIRC Grant 2014 and AIRC Investigator Grant in 2022. These grant allowed me to establish and consolidate a new independent laboratory to conduct my research in nanomedical field and to develop a new targeted nanobased-tool.
Prof Giuseppe Battaglia (GB) is an ERC Consolidator grantee, and ICREA Research Professor. In 2019 GB was appointed senior group leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia. GB also holds a chair in molecular bionics at the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Physics of Living System at the University College London. GB's position is 50/50 between ICREA/IBEC and UCL but will move 100% in Barcelona from 2022. GB was awarded the 2009 HFSP Young Investigator award, the 2011 APS/IoP Polymer Physics Exchange Award Lecture, the 2011 GSK Emerging Scientist Award, the 2012 Award for special contribution to Polymer Therapeutics, the 2014 RSC Thomas Graham Award Lecture, and the 2015 SCI/RSC McBain Medal for Colloid Science. GB was awarded a prestigious EPSRC Established Fellowship in 2016, an ERC Starting Grant in 2011, and an ERC Consolidator in 2018. GB was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining. GB has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers and been named inventor in 13 patents.
GB leads a strong team of chemists, physicists, mathematicians, engineers, and biologists who work alongside to design bionic units that mimic specific biological functions and introduce operations that do not exist in Nature. A constructionist approach mimics biological complexity in design principles to produce functional units from simple building blocks and their interactions; this approach is Molecular Bionics. The GB group is particularly interested in how molecules, macromolecules, viruses, vesicles, and whole cells traffic across our body barriers. The group combines novel microscopic tools with theoretical and computational physics to study biological transport from single molecules, cell membranes, and whole organisms. The acquired knowledge is thus translated to bioengineer novel nanomedicines, combining soft matter physics with synthetic chemistry.
Professor Rosaria Rinaldi is currently Full Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the Department of Mathematics and Physics “E. De Giorgi” of University of Salento, and she is a member of the Academic University Senate. Since 2019 she is Member of the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) Evaluation Committee for Flag Projects and Interest Projects to be implemented by public research institutions. Prof. Rinaldi is currently in charge of the research center in "Nanomedicine, Nanobioelectronics and Nanobiotechnology", at University of Salento. In 2005 R.R. was awarded the medal of "Le Scienze" and the medal of the President of the Republic (Carlo Azeglio Ciampi) for research carried out in the field of Nanobiotechnology. Since 2010, she was head of the Natural Sciences Area of and vice-director of University excellence school ISUFI till 2020. In 2015 she was visiting professor, winning an international selection for the "Eleonore Trefftz" chair, at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany. She was the coordinator of the doctoral school in Interdisciplinary Sciences and Technologies and Nanoscience at S.S. ISUFI and the coordinator of the doctoral school in Physics and Nanoscience, till 2020. She won the "ITWIIN-High Education" award (2016) and was one of the finalists for the 2017 EuWIIN “European Women Inventors and Innovators Network” contest prize. R.R. has coordinated or been a partner in more than 30 scientific projects at regional, national and EU level, in the last 15 years. R.R. is author and co-author of about 310 papers published in international scientific journals,13 monographs and book chapters, and 12 patents (H-index:40).
Nuno C. Santos was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1972. He graduated in Biochemistry from the Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, in 1995, and received his PhD in Theoretical and Experimental Biochemistry in 1999 from the same University, although all the experimental work was conducted at Instituto Superior Técnico (Technical University of Lisbon) and University of California (Santa Barbara). Currently, he is Associate Professor with Habilitation of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, and Head of the Biomembranes & Nanomedicine Unit at the Institute of Molecular Medicine (iMM). Among other distinctions, his research work was awarded with the Gulbenkian Prize for young researchers (2001), Dr. José Luis Champalimaud Prize – Basic Research (2004), Dr. José Luis Champalimaud Prize – Applied Research and Technology (2005) and the ULisboa – Caixa Geral de Depósitos Prize (2017). He is (co)author of 170 articles in per-reviewed international journals, which received more than 8300 citations (h-index 49 and i10-index 131, publishing since 1996), presenting a Journal Citation Reports impact factor sum of 876.1 (average 5.2 per article). In addition to these publications, he (co)authored 10 articles in Portuguese scientific journals, 15 book chapters (mostly published outside Portugal, in English), 3 books (editor, published by Wiley, Springer and MDPI) and 2 international patents. Among different National and International research projects, he was the coordinator of a consortium funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union (FP7), including 10 different research groups from Europe and Brazil. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Biophysical Societies’ Association (EBSA) since 2019, and the Director of the M2B-PhD Doctoral Program in Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics (involving 5 different institutions) since 2016. He was President of the Portuguese Biophysical Society from 2015 to 2021. He has supervised 11 completed PhDs, 8 as main supervisor and 3 as co-supervisor.
Prof. Biana Godin earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the School of Pharmacy, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel. During her Ph.D. studies, Dr. Godin focused on designing a non-invasive treatment for the hard-to-treat deep skin infections and on nasal delivery of proteins. She completed postdoctoral fellowship in Cancer Nanotechnology at the Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston. Her postdoctoral research focused on design and evaluation of injectable nanotherapies for cancer treatment and imaging. Dr. Godin is a Scientist in the Department of Nanomedicine at Houston Methodist Research Institute. Current research in Dr. Godin's lab, funded by federal, state and foundation grants, focuses on developing physiologically relevant in vitro and in vivo disease models and exploiting physical and biological mechanisms to improve currently available therapeutic options in oncology, infectious diseases and obstetrics. Dr. Godin is a translational scientist on the interception of biological and physical sciences, with the ultimate goal of bringing advanced and safe therapies and therapy personalization methods into the clinic to benefit patients. Dr. Godin has > 200 scientific publications, received multiple federal and foundation-based grants and participates in national and international grant review panels. She holds academic positions at the Department of Nanomedicine and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Institute of Academic Medicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Cancer Center Houston Methodist Hospital, as well as Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine and Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M.
Mónica López Fanarraga (MLF) is full professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Cantabria. She received a B. Vet. Med. (Hons) at the University of Zaragoza in 1989 and obtained her PhD in neurobiology 1993 at the University of Glasgow (UK). MLF is also a Doctor in Medicine and Surgery (PhD) by the University of Cantabria (1999). She has been a postdoctoral scientist at the Hubrecht Institute (Holland, 1994) and at the European Molecular Biology Laboratorium (EMBL, Germany 2000-01). She has been visiting scientist at the University of Wisconsin (USA, 1993), the University of the Basque Country (Spain, 1994) and has been recipient for several competitive fellowships, among others: Erasmus, HFSP or EMBL. MLF has been researcher of the Ramón y Cajal Program (2005-2009), has a recognized research trajectory for the effects of program I3 and was accredited by the ANECA as full professor in 2014.
MLF has a H index of 27 (index i10 =44) and more than 50 peer-reviewed including papers in Nature, JCB, ACS Nano, Adv. Healthc. Mat., Nanoscale, Nanomedicine, Current Pharm. Res., most as first or corresponding author in the areas of nanomedicine/cellular/ molecular biology/neurobiology. In nanomedicine, MLF has led more than 20 papers, most published in Q1-D1 journals, and 3 patents in nanobiotechnology. To date, MLF has participated in more than 30 research competitive national and international projects and is currently PI of 2 competitive national multidisciplinary projects in Nanomedicine with collaborators of the Nanomedicine-IDIVAL Team that she leads since 2014 (http://mlfanarraga.wix.com/grupo-nanomedicina).
Research interests:
The Nanomedicine group investigates the biosynthetic relationship between nanomaterials and proteins, cells or tissues to apply this knowledge in the development of unique nano-tools for treatment of complex disease where conventional therapeutic compounds have failed, including cancer or neurodegeneration. The major interest of the team is to develop new biocompatible therapeutic systems based in nanobiotechnology and spectroscopy expertise.
Academic achievements and interests:
M. L. Fanarraga has lectured in Molecular Cell Biology, Genetics and Nanomedicine, in undergraduate and postgraduate programs at the University of Cantabria. She is a qualified professional PhD supervisor (2015) and has so far directed 8 PhD thesis (all outstanding, cum laude) and numerous master's/grade projects, 9 of them in Nanomedicine.
Edit Csapó obtained her Master degree in 2006 in Chemistry at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. She received her PhD in Chemistry in 2010; now she is assistant professor at the University of Szeged, Hungary. She is the head of the MTE-SZTE Lendület “Momentum” Noble Metal Nanostructures Research Group supported by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. She has been working on the development of novel biofunctionalized noble metal (mainly gold and silver) nanostructures for nearly 12 years, with a particular focus on the potential use of these new nanostructured materials synthesized by cost-effective, green chemical approaches in catalysis, sensing, and biomedical applications. In the last 5 years a new research topic is also started where the design of serum protein- and polymer-based colloidal carriers for targeted drug delivery is in focus of interest. She published more than 70 research papers (impact factor > 320) in international journals, which received nearly 800 independent citations to date.
Bożena Kamińska was born in 1961 in Bielsk Podlaski. She graduated from the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw in 1985, after which she began her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. She defended her doctoral dissertation in 1991. In 1997, she received habilitation at the same institution. She became a full professor of biological sciences in 2003.
Professor Kamińska-Kaczmarek specializes in molecular biology and neurobiology. She currently works at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. She is the Head of the new Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology in the Neurobiology Center of the Nencki Institute, Director of the Molecular Medicine Laboratory at the Medical University of Warsaw, and a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
She worked in many international research centers. She did postdoctoral training at McGill University in Canada, cooperated with the American Brain Research Institute UCLA, and was a visiting professor (Nanshan Scholar) at Guangzhou Medical University.
In her career, Kamińska-Kaczmarek has pursued more than 44 domestic and international research grants. Among them were grants from Poland’s National Science Centre (Maestro, Harmonia, Symfonia, OPUS), the National Center for Research and Development (Strategmed 1, 2, 3), and the Foundation for Polish Science (Master, Team-Tech Core Facility). International grants included the NATO grant, European Union subsidies in two Framework Programs, and ERANET grants. She promoted 27 doctorates, three habilitations, and 10 Master’s theses.
Her achievements include 134 scientific publications (e.g. in Nature Communications and Cell) and 10 chapters in scientific books, reaching over 6000 citations and the Hirsch index of 42.
For her scientific work, she has been honored with numerous awards, among others, the Prime Minister’s Award for Outstanding Habilitation, the Silver Cross of Merit, the Golden Cross of Merit, the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, the Medal of the Commission of National Education.
Lorena obtained her Master degree in 2011 in Molecular biology and Biomedicines at the University of Cantabria and she made her PhD in Nanomedicines in 2016, which qualification was outstanding "cum laude". In addition, she has been awarded with the Extraordinary Doctorate Prize and Juan María Parés award. She did her postdoctoral position at International Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal (the first International Intergovernmental Organization (OIG) in Europe focused on Nanosciences and Nanotechnology) and in the Biorobotics Institute, Italy. In 2020 she was awarded a competitive contract at Valdecilla Research Institute, Spain, and from May 2022 she has a competitive postdoctoral contract “Juan de la Cierva” at the University of Cantabria, Spain.