THIS TALK HAS BEEN CANCELLED

Dr. Loretta del Mercato, CNR NANOTEC, Lecce

Herein, the synthesis and functionalization of materials with advanced properties will be described from the point of view of a materials scientist, with a special focus on the properties they could offer for biomedical applications[1,2] Examples will be given in which (i) particles-based sensors are applied for mapping pH changes in the local environment of 3D cell-seeded scaffolds,[3,4] (ii) gum arabic ECM-like nanofibers are evaluated as platforms for in vitro cell growth and anticancer nanomedicine delivery, and (ii) magnetic nanofibers are realized as manipulative hyperthermia material and switchable drug release platforms.

References
[1] Cavo, M., Serio, F., Kale, N.R., D’Amone, E., Gigli, G., del Mercato, L.L. Biomaterials Science, 2020, 8, 4887.
[2] Chandra, A., Prasad, S., Gigli, G., del Mercato, L.L. Frontiers of Nanoscience J., 2020, 16, 117.
[3] L. L. del Mercato, M. Moffa, R. Rinaldi, D. Pisignano, Small 2015, 11, 6417.
[4] Lorenzo Moldero, I., Chandra, A., Cavo, M., Mota, C., Kapsokalyvas, D., Gigli, G., Moroni, L., del Mercato, L.L. Small, 2020, 16, 2002258.

Acknowledgments
The research leading to these results received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 759959, ERC-StG “INTERCELLMED”).