News

Dear Reader,

I am delighted to let you know about the progress of our project.

ESEI-BioMed started in January 2021 and from that point further we made many efforts to create and equip a new nanomedicine-oriented lab, a new research team, a technology transfer office, if it is to shape only the major achievements.

Since July 2024, the Nanotechnology Laboratory (NTL) setup with funds from the ERA-Chair project and the PN-III-P3-3.6-H2020-2020 national project is officially included in the organigram of TRANSCEND. Funds of the project were also used to upgrade the Cell Culture Labs with equipment, such as safehood, incubator, and inverted microscope.At the same time, the Technology Transfer Office (TTO), as an interface between our research and industry/clinics, which was created by the ERA-chair project (WP 5), was included in the organigram. Therefore, the ERA-Chair project provided the right conditions for enriching the IRO with two new entities within its organization.   

Since the ERA-chair holder, Prof. Stiufiuc, and the research team were recruited, the scientific part of the project passed into a more intense and productive stage. In line with this, the scientific topics were extended and enriched. Therefore, if we have started this journey on nanomedicine for oncology (nano-oncology) in 2021 with topics on nanomaterials for drug delivery and Imaging (i.e., development of layered double hydroxides, magnetic nanoparticles and liposomes, in that order), since Prof. Stiufiuc was recruited in 2023, topics related to liquid biopsy, in particular the employment of RAMAN/SERS spectroscopy for analysis of biomarkers in biological fluids (e.g., plasma, ser), new designs of nanoparticles (e.g., magnetic-plasmonic nanoparticles), or new applications of nanoparticles (such as hyperthermia) were introduced in the scientific portfolio of the NTL. Therefore, the following topics are currently investigated in the NTL:

• Development of new classes of magnetic nanoparticles for cancer treatment by magnetic hyperthermia (MH)
• Development of early cancer detection methods based on a combined SERS/MVA analysis of different biological fluids
• Development of multifunctional liposomes for targeted drug delivery (TDD) in cancer therapy

Accordingly, the lab is equipped with technical facilities for  

• preparation of inorganic nanoparticles (layered double hydroxides, magnetic nanoparticles, plasmonic nanoparticles….) and organics (liposomes, microemulsions …).
• characterization of their size and surface charge, while other characterizations are done by collaborations.

All the work we do in the lab has a clear goal, that is, responding to the needs of oncologic patients by providing improved and more sensitive diagnostic techniques and more effective therapies. Our history has only four years if we count from 2021, when the project started, but we are already aligned to the common effort made for people in need by the ideas developed in our lab.

All the efforts we have made so far are counted in papers, participation in conferences (keynotes, orals presentation, flash, and posters), bachelor, master and PhD theses under co-mentoring agreements, newspaper articles for broad public, media appearance, etc.  This year, the first patent application was submitted. Such activities represented an excellent opportunity to make our project, laboratory and institute visible and to attract the interest of stakeholders in joint activities and investments.

Shortly after recruitment, the newly formed ERA-Chair team started a series of training courses for professional development, as well. For instance, they have been trained so far in nanomedicine - from the idea to clinic, confocal microscopy, technology transfer, science communication. Apart from those, the team was trained by participating in summer schools and fellowships in European laboratories.

In terms of collaborations, both in house and extramural, we think that of equal importance is the fact that the ESEI-BioMed project is the seed around which a nucleus is starting to form in TRANSCEND. For the moment, it is not very big, but bringing people together around an idea to create something bigger and durable takes time. Yet, the first steps are being taken, and that’s important.  Since the project started, we expanded the external collaborations (from instance, University of Zargoza – Dr, Raluca Fratila, Technical University of Chemnitz– Prof Dietrich Zhan) and joined the Nanomedicine European Technology Platform (ETPN, https://etp-nanomedicine.eu/).

Thank you for reading this newsletter and stay tune on the new updates!