IN²UB INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SEMINARS
Fluorinated nanoparticles as bioimaging tools and gene delivery agents.
By, Dr. Francesca Baldelli Bombelli, Politecnico di Milano (Italy)
Date and Venue: June 6, 2025 at 12.00h – Aula Magna Enric Casassas (Faculties of Physics and Chemistry)
(Chaired by Dr. Giancarlo Franzese, IN²UB and Faculty of Physics)
Abstract
This work addresses the need for novel sensitive and selective tools for non-invasive in vivo imaging able to improve the medical practice through earlier diagnosis of disease, implementation of targeted therapies, and localization of diseased tissues. Our approach is based on the development of sustainable fluorinated probes enabling 19F-MRI, as a complementary tool, to be coupled with other diagnostic imaging techniques such as Raman and fluorescence imaging to provide multiscale imaging ability in different applications.1,2. Moreover, promising results on fluorinated gene delivery nanoplatforms will be also presented.
Acknowledgements. Thanks for funding to PRIN 2022 – project 2022598YAX – (OPTIMA) – supported by Next Generation EU.
References
- B. L. Bona et al., Acc. Mater. Res. 4 (2023)
- C. Chirizzi et al. JACS 143 (2021)
About the author
Francesca Baldelli Bombelli is associate Professor at Politecnico di Milano and is a member of the scientific panel of the Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” (CMIC) and coordinator of the Chemistry Department Section. She has supervised 11 PhD students, 9 postdocs, and 28 master’s students and is co-author of 87 articles, 5 book chapters and co-inventor of four patents. Her research interests are focused on the development of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) for the diagnosis and treatment of untreatable diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative pathologies. Her research aims at investigating the interactions between ENM and biological machinery to improve their in vivo efficiency and evaluate possible toxicity effects.