Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules at Tor Vergata University

The obtainment of hydrogel microparticles opens a clue towards injectable gels in the systemic circulation.
We are working on gel microparticles with uniform density and hollow microparticles (often called microbubbles), both types based on poly(vinyl alcohol) PVA. The shown picture is a confocal micrograph of PVA microbubbles.
The average diameter is about 7 micron with a shell thickness of 1 micron.

Potential biomedical applications such as contrast agent enhancer for ecoultrasound investigations and as drug carrier for controlled delivery are under scrutiny.

PVA microbubbles are a potential gas carrier for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. On this subject a GEMI (Gas Enabled Medical Innovations) Foundation grant has been awarded to Prof. G. Paradossi.