Department of Chemical Science and Technologies

“The supramolecular dance of heterochiral tripeptides”

Seminar Room Department of Scienze annd Tecnologie Chimiche
Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

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“Amphiphilic DNA complexes: from biomimetic membrane linkers to molecular crystals”

Seminar Room Department of Scienze annd Tecnologie Chimiche
Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata

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The team of Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules headed by Prof. Gaio Paradossi is partner of the new European project AMPHORA.

This is the fourth EU project awarded to the group of our Department, the first in Horizon 2020.
Within the project AMPHORA microbubbles, devices fabricated and engineered by the Tor Vergata group, will be used to dose ionizing radiations in radiotherapy. Partners of the project are: KU Leuven (BE), Erasmus University, Rotterdam (NL), DoseVue (BE).
AMPHORA represents another important opportunity to further develop the international relationships of our Department.

Contratulations to Gaio and all his group!

Dr Alessandro Porchetta, Analytical Chemistry Researcher, has been granted the  Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) project Nano-OligoMed.

In addition to the Tor Vergata group, led by Alessando, the 4 years program will see the involvment of 5 international partners (University of Strasbourg, University of Parma, Canada McGill University, Cuba Universidad de la Habana, University of California, San Diego) and a european SME europea (Nanomol Technologies, Barcellona).

Aim of the project is the development of new hybrid degradable nanomaterials based on silica and nucleic acids to be used in the field of drug delivery. Through project Nano-OligoMed il will be possible to support travel expenses of our PhD students and young researchers and foster new international collaborations.

 Moreover, Dr Alessia Amodio, post-doc in Professor Francesco Ricci’s group, has been selected as one of the ten finalists of the 2016 Primo Levi award.

The award is assigned to a young researcher for an innovative study  of wide interest. The study that lead to Alessia’s selection had been published on The Journal of the American Chemical Society (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.6b07676). In the paper she has demonstrated the possibility of controlling the isothermal formation of supramolcular DNA structures by varying pH conditions.

All the finalist prepared a short video on their activity. You can see Alessia’s video is at https://www.facebook.com/SCIgiovani/videos/1950200325192273

Congratulations to  Alessandro and Alessia for their achievements!

EXPO 2017 FUTURE ENERGY Astana (Kazakistan) june 10 – september 10, 2017

12 excellent projects on energy related topics have been selected to represent Italy at the “Padiglione Italia” at the 2017 EXPO that is currently ongoing in Astana.
Two of such projects come from our University and one of them, presented by Professor Silvia Licoccia, from our Department.
The projects have been selected by a National Committee and will be presented as Avatar, electronic images representing the scientists narrating their research  in in a virtual space.
Professor Licoccia will narrate to the visitors of the Expo her project on Redox Flow Batteries as storage energy systems for the future. (Link)

The research is carried out by the group MaDE@TorVergata and is financed by the European Union under the framework of Project GREENERNET, which Tor Vergata Coordinator is Professor  Alessandra D’Epifanio.

Our Professor Francesco Ricci has been chosen as recipient of the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Science 2017.

The award is intended for chemists up to the age of 45, working in particular on developing new analytical methods and their applications in areas of human interest. Their work should be directed towards the improvement of our conditions of life, providing solutions to analytical problems in the areas of life sciences, material sciences or environment.

Francesco has been selected because of his achievements in the development of new diagnostic tools based on DNA nanomachines. He is the second italian ever to receive the award.

The prize will be awarded for the 13th time at a special award ceremony at the EuroAnalysis2017, Stockholm, Sweden, 28 August – 1 September, 2017 where Francesco will deliver a Plenary Lecture titled Nature-inspired DNA-based nanodevices for sensing applications.

Bravo Francesco!

Professor Dror Seliktar, Visiting Professor in our Department, hosted by Professor  Melino, Associate Professor of Biochemistry, has been awarded the bi-national award “Rita Levi-Montalcini Award for the scientific cooperation between Italy and Israel” for the year 2017 .  

The Committee (Ministry for Foreign Affairs, CRUI and Ministry for University and Research) has evaluated as best project the one “Novel 3D Hydrogel Scaffolds for Tissue Repair and Regeneration”,  submitted by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, directed by Professor Sonia Melino in collaboration with  Professor Dror Seliktar, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology of Haifa.

An important recognition of our international research.

Our most sincere congratulations to  Sonia and Dror!

at 11:00

Seminar Prof. Steve McIntosh “Functional Materials for Energy Systems: From Ionic Transport to Biomineralization“

Classroom Seminar Department of Chemical Science and Technologies
University of Rome Tor Vergata

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Antibody-powered nucleic acid release using a DNA-based nanomachine

Published on Nature Communication a joint study of the Department of Chemical Science and Technologies and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Montreal that demonstrates that  by using three different antigens (including one relevant to HIV), it is possible to design different DNA nanomachines regulated by their targeting antibody in a rapid, versatile and highly specific manner. The antibody-powered DNA nanomachines we have developed here may thus be useful in applications like controlled drug-release, point-of-care diagnostics and in vivo imaging. 

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We are pleased to announce that Professor Seliktar is our guest as Visiting Professor from May 10^th August 10^th.

Professor Seliktar will collaborate to Professor Sonia Melino’s research activities and will present several lectures to our community.

Lectures within the framework of the course Biochemistry and Laboratory for Master students in the Chemistry and Material Science students and to Ph D students. All students from different programs are invited to attend:
May 11^th / 14:00-16:00 / Lecture Hall 9: Engineering biomaterials to control cell-material interactions
June 8^th / 14:00-16:00 / Seminar Room: Hydrogel Biomaterial Scaffolds for 3-D Cell Culture

Professor Seliktar will present his research activity in a seminar titled: Protein and Cell Therapeutics using Polymeric Hydrogel Carriers to be held on June 9^th in Aula Magna.

From July 16^th to July 26^th Professor Seliktar will teach a course for students of the Ph D programs Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Chemical Science and Materials for Health, Environment and Energy entitled “BIOMATERIALS FOR TISSUE ENGINEERING”
Details on the schedule will be given in the near future.