Martina Stenzel, Ambassador for Chemical Sciences in France, will visit the Softmat laboratory on 6 December 2023
Professor at the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Martina Stenzel will be giving a series of lectures in several French laboratories in her capacity as CNRS ambassador for the chemical sciences.
She will be coming to Toulouse on 6th of December 2023, with a visit to the Softmat laboratory and a conference to be held at 11am in the Fernand Gallais amphitheatre at the LCC.
As a specialist in macromolecular chemistry, her research focuses on the synthesis of complex (bio)polymers and sugar-coated nanoparticles for drug delivery, which she is developing in her Australian laboratory.
The seminar she will be presenting is entitled: Sugar coated nanoparticles big and small – how polymer science can enhance nanomedicine
Here is an abstract:
Nanomedicine is a field of interesting interest. Rapid development of nanotechnology has allowed the incorporation of multiple therapeutic, sensing and targeting agents into nanoparticles. Most commercially available nanoparticles use poly(ethylene glycol) PEG as hydrophilic coatings. However, materials based on sugars such as polymers with pendant carbohydrates, coined glycopolymers, are attractive alternatives. Carbohydrates play a pivotal role in many biological processes and by using glycopolymers we mimic naturally occurring events. The presence of carbohydrates on the surface on nanoparticles can therefore help the uptake of these nanoparticles into mammalian cells. In this presentation, we look into a range of nanoparticles based on glycopolymers, ranging from ultrasmall nanometer sizes nanoparticles to large micron-sized 2D platelets and discuss how these particles can be used in drug delivery applications. A focus will be how small molecules such as drugs can be loaded and how the drugs change the properties of polymers, and thus their biological activity.
