Scuola di dottorato Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Lunedì 13 ottobre 2014 – ore 15.00 Aula U4-08, Piazza della Scienza 4 – 20126 Milano Hybrid Materials for Biomedical Applications Luisa De Cola Institut des Sciences et d’ Ingenierie Supramoleculaires, ISIS, Université de Strasbourg, France Porous systems, and especially those where it is possible to control the chemical composition as well as their size, aspect ratio and pores dimension are of great interest for the development of new materials, catalysis, sensors, biolabels, drug delivery…. The talk will illustrate some of the recent results on inert or active inorganic nanocontainers such as microporous and mesoporous silica based nanoparticles. In particular examples using the crystalline allumino silicates, zeolite L, and mesoporous organosilicates will be discussed since these materials can act as nanocontainers and due to their biocompatibility used for biomedical applications. Indeed the organization of molecules or atoms in ordered channels can lead to very special properties absent in any other condition. The porous systems can also be functionalized of their surface and it will be shown that the particles can be decorated with different functional groups including biocompatible molecules and are able to perfom drug and PNA or DNA delivery inside the cell or even transfection. The delivery can be probed by kinetic analyses after the nanoparticles internalization. A new strategy to obtain containers that can undergo destruction inside the cell or by an external input will be illustrated as a promising approach to clearance of such materials in vivo, independently from their initial size. With such an approach the delivery of enzymes and proteins is also possible and some very recent results will be presented. Finally the implementation of porous systems in biocompatible hydrogel has been investigated with the aim to create new 3D scaffold for cell growth and differentiation. Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca Piazza dell'Ateneo Nuovo, 1 - 20126, Milano Tel. +39.02.6448.1 - www.unimib.it