Objective
In the last 5 years I have been working on the study of nanoscopic vesicles formed by the assembly in water of amphiphilic block copolymers. These polymer vesicles also known as polymersomes can be designed with size, topology and morphology similar to natural viruses. The synthetic nature of copolymers allows the design of interfaces with various classes of biochemically-active functional groups. This, in combination with precise control over the molecular architecture, determines the degree of order in self-organizing polymeric materials. Such bio-inspired ‘bottom-up’ supramolecular design principles can offer outstanding advantages in engineering structures at a molecular level, using the same long–studied principles of biological molecules. It is self-evident that the highly biocompatible nature of these new amphiphilic copolymer assemblies augurs well for biomedical applications. Indeed, related polymeric micelles and vesicles have already been reported and studied as delivery systems for drugs, gene, and image contrast agents. Herein I propose to engineer new generations of polymersomes whose size, topology, surface chemistry is exquisitely controlled by supramolecular interactions with the aim to control their bioactivity and explore new ways to target specific biological sites via multi-fictionalisation and steric controlled binding. This will be achieved by a balanced combination of novel physico-chemical techniques with tailor-made biological evaluation based on state-of-the-art cell culture methods as well as in vitro and in vivo high content screening. My long-term aim is to set-up new design principles for nanoparticles for biomedical applications together with a thorough biomedical fast screening that will enable safe and fast translation into the clinic as well as benchmarking nanotoxicological methodologies.
Fields of science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologyvirology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomolecules
- natural sciencesmathematicspure mathematicstopology
- natural scienceschemical sciencespolymer sciences
- engineering and technologyother engineering and technologiesmicrotechnologymolecular engineering
Call for proposal
ERC-2011-StG_20101014
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Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
WC1E 6BT London
United Kingdom