Objective
Giant lipid vesicles can be potentially used as biocompatible carriers with a large lumen cavity adequate for lodging large biomacromolecules in an aqueous compartment. New developments in controlled delivery are strongly troubled by the high polydispersity of the preparations and the limitations in the encapsulation abilities inherent to conventional preparative methods. Engineering smart vesicles with tunable and remotely controllable properties such as permeability, osmotic deformability or inducible instability, necessary for adequate delivery, is indeed a major synthetic challenge. This implies a number of basic operations, which include bilayer assembly, composite membrane stabilization, encapsulation and compartmentalization, a set of procedures requiring a novel approach. For this performance, we propose the use of microfluidic technology and high-speed imagining to design and study the active response to photo-irradiation of smart giant unilamellar lipid vesicles with plasmonic gold nanoparticles embedded in the membrane. Excitation of the surface plasmons of the nanoparticles produces localized heating of the membrane, thus controllable changes in permeability, which could eventually result in an enhanced osmotic-driven flow of solvent across the membrane and cause an overall change in size and shape of the entire vesicle. Using these model systems we will be able to shed light on the physical mechanisms involved in the transference of conformational- to mechanical- energy, which could be relevant to a broad range of scientific problems ranging from the fundamental knowledge in cell biology, concerned by the study of cellular functions such as endo- and exocytosis and cell motility, to applications in drug delivery and material engineering, both enrolled in the development of hybrid materials able to exert nastic motions inducible by external stimuli.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences biological sciences cell biology
- natural sciences biological sciences biochemistry biomolecules lipids
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
28040 Madrid
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.