CENTRO DI RIFERIMENTO ONCOLOGICO

Technology Transfer Opportunities Contact: Ermes Mestroni emestroni@cro.it

MOLECULAR NANOTECHNOLOGY FOR HEALTH APPLICATIONS Technology Overview Nanotechnology allows the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular scale, and has the potential to revolutionise healthcare by providing new platforms for tumour diagnostics, prognostics and treatment. The awareness of a widespread need for improved tumour markers enabling early diagnosis, as well as to giving insight into pathogenesis, and identifying potential new treatments, has been recently highlighted. In fact, prognostic information relative to cancer disease is expected to allow the definition of effective and personalized treatment of patients. The objective of this interdisciplinary research team is the generation in the next years of point-of-care-testing (POCT)dedicated devices for cancer patients, to: (i) Sensitively measure in real-time the concentrations of circulating biomarkers, currently used in the clinical practice, and (ii) to perform therapeutic drug monitoring Courtesy of Mauro Melli (TDM). (M. Melli et al. ACS Nano 2011) Advantages √ Micro pillars technology for the real time detection of protein levels in the biological fluids (under development - see artwork); √ Combined microfluidics and atomic force microscopy techniques for the sensitive detection of biomarker levels in small tissue samples such as circulating tumour cells; √ Basic and Translational research in the field of molecular and cellular biology, animal modelling, bio-analytical, pharmacogenetics, proteomics, and nanotechnology including expertise in molecular physics, physical chemistry and surface functionalization and nanomanipulation; √ Phase I-II clinical trials based on pharmacogenetics data.

CENTRO DI RIFERIMENTO ONCOLOGICO

Technology Transfer Opportunities Contact: Ermes Mestroni emestroni@cro.it

Development Stage A nanotechnology laboratory is currently under development within the Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Unit of CRO Aviano, in collaboration with the University of Udine, the Advanced Technology and Nanoscience National Laboratory (TASC), the Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory in Trieste, the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste and the University of Temple in Philadelphia, USA.

Looking for Collaborations with industrial partners with experience in Technological Transfer aimed at: ⇒ identifying and incubating novel technological approaches for cancer diagnostics, prognotics and chemotherapeutic treatment, ⇒ joint applications for industry-oriented grants focused on nanotechnology applications to oncology.

More Information Giuseppe Toffoli, MD Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Unit gtoffoli@cro.it +39-0434-659-612 Matteo Castronovo, PhD & Flavio Rizzolio, PhD Temple University, Department of Biology, Philadelphia, PA, USA mcastro@temple.edu, rizzolio@temple.edu +39-0434-559-384