Biology / Imaging

Interfacing soft matter to biological tissues is at the heart of different topics, going from drug delivery to tissue engineering or microscopy. Our transdicplinary team enables us to approach this domain as 2 different standpoints: first suggesting soft matter objects as powerful tools for biology and secondly examining biological tissues as a soft matter for instance for the extra-cellular matrix or the cells themselves.
Two examples of this research are described below:

New colloidal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agents

Mixing double-hydrophilic block copolymers containing a poly(acrylic acid) block with gadolinium ions in water leads to the spontaneous formation of polymeric nanoparticles with high magnetic relaxivities that were successfully used for in vivo experiments as MRI contrast agents.

               ANR PRC-2019-2023
 
>> Assembly of double-hydrophilic block copolymers triggered by Gadolinium ions: new colloidal MRI contrast agents
Frangville C.; Li Y.; Billotey C.; Talham D.R.; Taleb J.; Roux P.; Marty J.D.; Mingotaud C.
Nano Lett., 2016, 16, 4069-4073, DOI

>> Quench ionic flash nano precipitation as a simple and tunable approach to decouple growth and functionalization for the one-step synthesis of functional LnPO4-based nanoparticles in water
Pinkerton N.M.; Hadri K.; Amouroux B.; Behar L.; Mingotaud C.; Destarac M.; Kulai I.;
Mazières S.; Chassaing S.; Marty J.D.
Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 9438-9441, DOI

 

Microwave-assisted synthesis of upconverting nanoparticles

A simple change in the addition procedure of the inorganic reactants associated with careful control of the high-temperature heating reaction time enables the preparation of extremely small upconverting nanoparticles. We have described the first example of a trifluoroacetic acid-free, microwave-assisted synthesis of luminescent and homogeneous, pure hexagonal sub-5-nm Na(Gd−Yb)F4:Tm.

              PRCE ANR-15-CE09-0020

Importance of the mixing and high-temperature heating steps in the controlled thermal coprecipitation synthesis of sub-5-nm Na(Gd-Yb)F4:Tm
Amouroux B.; Roux C.; Marty J.-D.; Pasturel M.; Bouchet A.; Sliwa M.; Leroux O.; Gauffre F.; Coudret C.
Inorg. Chem., 2019, 58, 5082-5088, DOI

 

A review on physical tools that can modify tumor environment in drug delivery

Use of physical tools such as radiotherapy is known in oncology. However, the impact of such stimuli on the tumor environment is not always highlighted in the research studies. This is the aim of this review, which also focuses on the possible synergism between these physical methods and drug delivery.

Vascular and extracellular matrix remodelling by physical approaches to improve drug delivery at tumour site
Gouarderes S.; Mingotaud A.F.; Vicendo P.; Gibot L.
Expert Opin. Drug Deliv., 2020, DOI

 

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