Cancelled Event - IMX Seminar Series - Life on nano: engineering surfaces of colloidal nanoparticles for life science applications

In the last years, the extraordinary advances in the field of nanomaterial science have resulted in a great potential for applications in life science. A variety of preparative and post-preparative colloidal routes have demonstrated the ability to obtain a wide choice of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) and nanocrystals (NCs), with different compositions, that can be achieved with a high control on size, shape and surface chemistry, ultimately tailoring their electronic, optical, magnetic, thermal and chemical size dependent properties.
A range of functionalization strategies have been developed to suitably engineer the surface of NPs and NCs and tune their specific chemical reactivity towards the surrounding environment. The control of nano-bio interfaces has demonstrated to be essential to enable nanomaterials conjugation and combination with biologically relevant entities, thus producing advanced materials for diagnosis and therapy.
The ability of engineering the surface of specialized nanomaterials, such as semiconductors, plasmonic and magnetic nanostructures, with tailored procedures, allowing to ingeniously combine NPs and NCs with peptides, drugs and other significant biological systems, is decisive for their application in diagnosis and treatment of different diseases, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. Examples of drug delivery, labelling, diagnostic and theranostics systems, based on the combination of NIR photoactive nanomaterials, plasmonic nanostructures and magnetic NPs with relevant biological functions will be illustrated.

- C. Ingrosso, M. Corricelli, F. Bettazzi, E. Konstantinidou,  G. V. Bianco, N. Depalo, M. Striccoli, A. Agostiano, M. L. Curri, I. Palchetti  (2019) J. Mater. Chem. B., 7, 768-777
- N. Depalo, M. Corricelli, I. De Paola, G. Valente, R. M. Iacobazzi, E. Altamura, D. Debellis, D. Comegna, E. Fanizza, N. Denora. V. Laquintana. F. Mavelli. M. Striccoli, M. Saviano, A. Agostiano, A. Del Gatto, L. Zaccaro, M. L. Curri (2017) ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 9 (49), 43113–43126.
- N. Depalo, R. M. Iacobazzi, G. Valente, I. Arduino, S. Villa, F. Canepa, V. Laquintana, E. Fanizza, M. Striccoli, A. Cutrignelli, A. Lopedota, P. Porcelli, A. Azzariti, M. Franco, M. L. Curri, N. Denora (2017) Nano Research, 10, 2431–2448.
- G. Valente, N. Depalo, I. de Paola, R. M. Iacobazzi, N. Denora, V. Laquintana, R. Comparelli, E. Altamura, T. Latronico, M. Altomare, E. Fanizza, M. Striccoli, A. Agostiano, M. Saviano, A. Del Gatto, L. Zaccaro, M. L. Curri (2016) Nano Research, 9, 644-662.
- E. Fanizza, R. M. Iacobazzi, V. Laquintana, G. Valente, G. Caliandro, M. Striccoli, A. Agostiano, A. Cutrignelli, A. Lopedota, M. L. Curri, M. Franco, N. Depalo, N. Denora (2016) Nanoscale, 6, 3350-3361
Bio: M. Lucia Curri received her PhD from the University of Bari in 1997, between 1995 and 1996 was Research Assistant at Chemistry Department of University College London (UK), then in 1997 she started working at CNR, first as research scientist and since 2010 as senior research scientist. In October 2018 she has been appointed full professor of Physical Chemistry at Chemistry Department of University of Bari Aldo Moro.
She has a solid expertise in surface engineering of nanoparticles and nanocrystals, in order to achieve bioconjugation, organization into mesoscale structures (films, 2/3 D assemblies) with tailored functional collective properties and integration in nanocomposites for their micro/nano fabrication by means of conventional and innovative techniques.
She is involved in the development of synthetic strategies for the preparation and functionalization of colloidal nanocrystals based inorganic materials, both for fundamental and application studies. In particular, the potential of such nanomaterials in biomedical field, including theranostic systems for diagnosis and therapy of different diseases, in environmental technologies, including detection and degradation of pollutants, and in energy conversion is investigated.
She has been and is coordinator and research unit PI in several National and International research projects in the field of synthesis, functionalization and applications of colloidal nanoparticles, and has also coordinated the European Project 7th FP LIMPID "Nanocomposite Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Pollutants" (G.A. 310177).
Lucia Curri has been and is member of several Conference Committees and Boards, of Panel PE5 for ERC Consolidator grant (2016-2018) and expert evaluator for European Commission (FP7 and H2020 projects) and various other International funding agencies.
She is member of the Chemical Science Doctoral Board at University of Bari and member of evaluation committees for international PhD theses.
She is co-author of over 220 papers, including more than 170 articles on JCR peer-reviewed journals and many other publications such as 10 chapters in books and several conference proceedings in national and international conferences, also as invited speaker ( (H index= 40 source Scopus, H index= 42, source Google Scholar - Jan 2020).