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 access 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.
References
- G. Siciliano et al “Gold‐speckled SPION@SiO2 nanoparticles decorated with thiocarbohydrates for ASGPR1 targeting: towards HCC dual mode imaging potential applications” (2020) Chemistry–A European Journal 26 (48), 11048-11059.
- De Angelis et al “Stimuli-responsive nanoparticle-assisted immunotherapy: a new weapon against solid tumours”(2020) J. Mater. Chem. B 8 (9), 1823-1840.
- C. Ingrosso et al “Au nanoparticle in situ decorated RGO nanocomposites for highly sensitive electrochemical genosensors” (2019) J. Mater. Chem. B., 7, 768-777.
- C. Ingrosso et al “Ascorbic acid-sensitized Au nanorods-functionalized nanostructured TiO2 transparent electrodes for photoelectrochemical genosensing” (2018) Electrochimica Acta 276, 389-398.
- N. Depalo et al “NIR emitting nanoprobes based on cyclic RGD motif conjugated PbS quantum dots for integrin-targeted optical bioimaging” (2017) ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 9 (49), 43113–43126.
- G. Valente, et al “Integrin-targeting with peptide-bioconjugated semiconductor-magnetic nanocrystalline heterostructures“ (2016) Nano Research, 9, 644-662.
- E. Fanizza et al ”Highly selective luminescent nanostructures for mitochondrial imaging and targeting” (2016) Nanoscale, 6, 3350-3361
Bio: Lucia Curri received her PhD from the University of Bari (Italy) 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 contributed to advance the knowledge in the field of materials science, developing original strategies for the preparation and functionalization of colloidal nanocrystals based inorganic and hybrid materials, both for fundamental and application studies.
She has built a solid and recognized 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.
In particular, she has strongly contributed to apply the potential of such nanomaterials in environmental technologies, including detection and degradation of pollutants for water and air purification. More recently her interests have expanded to biomedical field, focusing on the research on original theranostic nanosystems for diagnosis and therapy of different diseases.
She has been and is research unit PI in several National and International (European FP6, FP7, and H2020) research projects in the field of synthesis, functionalization and applications of colloidal nanoparticles, and has coordinated the European Project 7th FP LIMPID "Nanocomposite Materials for Photocatalytic Degradation of Pollutants" (G.A. 310177).
Lucia Curri has been member of Panel PE5 for ERC Consolidator grant (2016-2018), chairing the same Panel in 2020 and has participated to several Conference Committees and Boards, and has been expert evaluator for European Commission (FP7 and H2020 projects) and various other International funding agencies.
She is lecturer in master, doctoral and post-doctoral courses at University of Bari and in several national and international schools and is supervisor for degree and doctoral projects at the Department of Chemistry University of Bari – Bari (Italy). She has been supervisor of several CNR fellowship recipient, CNR research assistants and research fellows.
She is member of the Chemical Science Doctoral Board at University of Bari and of evaluation committees for national and international PhD theses.
She is co-author of over 210 ISI papers, including more than 185 articles on JCR peer-reviewed journals and many other publications such as 10 chapters in books and several conference proceedings in national and nternational conferences, also as invited speaker ( (H index= 41 source Scopus, H index= 40 source WoS, H index 43 source Google Scholar - Apr 2021).