BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Memento EPFL// BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:IMX Seminar Series - Molecular Bionics DTSTART:20221107T131500 DTEND:20221107T141500 DTSTAMP:20260530T053537Z UID:ca3248e8a8d6ce8bfd0b74e592d0aa2f129c28108a5ff9b3e20fc902 CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars DESCRIPTION:Prof. Giuseppe Battaglia\, IBEC\, Barcelona\, Spain\nSoft mate rials for Phenotypic (nano)medicines\nThe central dogma in biological inte ractions and its application to drug design states that the higher the dru g or ligand affinity (i.e. the most negative binding energy) to its cognat e receptor\, the higher its ability to target cells or tissues expressing the same receptor. However\, such a maximal selectivity at the single mole cules imposes that high-affinity ligands target indiscriminately any cells expressing the given receptor. The chemical nature of biological units ex tends beyond single molecules. As biomolecules combine into single cells\, the number of configurations increases so much that we can confidently sa y that each cell of our body is different from the other. Perhaps we do no t need to dissect the complexity of the single cell down to the quantum le vel to create more selective drugs. Still\, we need to upgrade our molecul ar design to include more holistic effects to distinguish biological targe ts more precisely. In the last decade\, we have assessed biological target s’ internal state energetic configurations matching them with complement ary multivalent units to favour selective associations based on multiple b onds. We have borrowed statistical and soft matter physics tools to addres s this challenge. We know  [1] that multivalent units interact via the c ollective effect of the single affinities (or avidity) and association cha nges with receptors or ligand numbers not linearly\, giving rise to entrop y-driven interactions. This unique nature means that if we combine low-aff inity ligands\, we can have association only when receptors are high in nu mbers\, effectively targeting cells that overexpress the desired receptor. We have proposed a new theoretical framework and proven it experimentally [2-4]\, demonstrating that the overall interaction combines the specific ligand/receptor bonds with mean-field repulsive potential from steric effe cts.  Using such a formalism\, I will show that we can adapt soft materi als such as block copolymers to molecularly engineer multivalent units tha t can be used as carriers to deliver drugs more efficiently or exert spec ific actions and become drugs.\n\n[1] F.J. Martinez-Veracoechea and D. Fre nkel\, ‘Designing super selectivity in the multivalent nano-particle bin ding’. PNAS\, 108\, 10963 (2011) \n[2] X. Tian\, S. Angioletti-Uberti\, and G. Battaglia\, 'On the design of precision nanomedicines’. Sci. Adv .\, 2020. 6\, eaat0919.\n[3] M. Liu\, A. Apriceno\, A.\, M. Sipin\, E. Sca rpa\, L. Rodriguez-Arco\, A. Poma\, G. Marchello\, G. Battaglia and S. Ang ioletti-Uberti ‘Combinatorial entropy behaviour leads to range selective binding in ligand-receptor interactions. Nat Commun. 11\, 4836 (2021)\n[4 ] S. Acosta-Gutiérrez\, D. Matias\, M. Avila-Olias\, V. M. Gouveia\, E. S carpa\, J. Forth\, C. Contini\, A. Duro-Castano\, L. Rizzello\, and G. Bat taglia ‘A Multiscale Study of Phosphorylcholine Driven Cellular Phenotyp ic Targeting’ ACS Cent. Sci. \, 8\, 7\, 891–904\, (2022)\n\n\n\nM. Liu \, A. Apriceno\, A.\, M. Sipin\, E. Scarpa\, L. Rodriguez-Arco\, A. Poma\, G. Marchello\, G. Battaglia and S. Angioletti-Uberti ‘Combinatorial ent ropy behaviour leads to range selective binding in ligand-receptor interac tions. Nat Commun. 11\, 4836 (2021)\nS. Acosta-Gutiérrez\, D. Matias\, M. Avila-Olias\, V. M. Gouveia\, E. Scarpa\, J. Forth\, C. Contini\, A. Duro -Castano\, L. Rizzello\, and G. Battaglia ‘A Multiscale Study of Phospho rylcholine Driven Cellular Phenotypic Targeting’ ACS Cent. Sci. \, 8\, 7 \, 891–904\, (2022)\nBio: Prof Beppe  (short for Giuseppe) Battaglia\, is an ERC Consolidator grantee and ICREA Research Professor. In 2019 Bepp e was appointed senior group leader at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology. Beppe is an honorary professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University College London (UCL) and visiting professor at West China Hospital Sichua n University. Beppe holds a Laurea in Chemical Engineering from Univerisit y of Palermo and PhD in Physical Chemistry from University of Sheffield. B efore moving to Barcelona\, Beppe held positions at UCL (Professor of Mole cular Bionics 2013-2022) and the University of Sheffield (Professor of Syn thetic Biology (2011-2013)\, Senior Lecturer (2009-2011) and Lecturer  (2006-2009)  in Bionanotechnology. Beppe was awarded the 2009 HFSP Young Investigator award jointly with Adam Engler (UCSD)\, the 2011 APS/IoP Pol ymer Physics Exchange Award Lecture\, the 2011 GSK Emerging Scientist Awar d\, the 2012 Award for special contribution to Polymer Therapeutics\, the 2014 RSC Thomas Graham Award Lecture\, and the 2015 SCI/RSC McBain Medal f or Colloid Science. Beppe was awarded a prestigious EPSRC Established Fell owship in 2016\, an ERC Starting Grant in 2011\, and an ERC Consolidator i n 2018. Beppe was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology\, the R oyal Society of Chemistry\, and the Institute of Materials\, Minerals & Mi ning. Beppe has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers and has been named inventor in 14 patents.\n\n\n\n\nBeppe leads a strong team of chemists\, physicists\, mathematicians\, engineers\, and biologists who work alongsid e to design bionic units that mimic specific biological functions and intr oduce operations that do not exist in Nature. They apply a constructionist approach to mimic biological complexity in design principles to produce f unctional units from simple building blocks and their interactions\; ​ t his approach is called Molecular Bionics. Beppe’s group is particularly interested in how molecules\, macromolecules\, viruses\, vesicles\, and wh ole cells traffic across our body barriers. The group combines novel micro scopic tools with theoretical and computational physics to study biologica l transport from single molecules\, cell membranes\, and whole organisms. The acquired knowledge is thus translated to bioengineer novel nanomedicin es\, combining soft matter physics with synthetic chemistry.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n LOCATION:MXF 1 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==MXF%201 STATUS:CONFIRMED END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR