Project 4

Magnetic nanostructured composites for a targeted drug delivery

The candidate should have a M.Sc. in Chemistry

Tumors localized in bone still remain incurable fatal diseases due to either the fast clearance or non-specific binding profile of the therapeutic agents. In addition, the solid composition, and the large surface area of bones, prevent the therapeutics to reach the desired site and represent the major drawback in the treatment of bone malignancy. Therefore, the treatment of bone tumors, such as osteosarcoma (OS) remains highly challenging, and no significant progress was achieved from any scientific areas including nanomedicine. STRIKE is an innovative MSCA training network with a long-term vision for the development of breakthrough technologies for cancer treatment: i) magnetic-responsive nano-hybrid materials for diagnosis and therapy, ii) targeted OS therapy and diagnosis iii) liquid biopsy for an innovative early diagnosis.  STRIKE will take advantage of unique properties of STRIKE nanomaterials to develop remotely triggered nanotherapeutics (NanoTher) for OS and innovative magnetic beads for liquid biopsy applications.

Project 4 will deal with the development of tuned protocols for the synthesis of suitable 2D nanocarriers and for the setup of best strategies for the MagU functionalization using anticancer drugs with or without labels for in vivo monitoring. ESR4 will also acquire expertise in the characterization of complexes of drug with carbon nanomaterials following actively all the steps from synthesis to bio‐performance of the synthesized MagU.

The project will be mainly carried out at Palacký University in Olomouc, UP, (Czech Republic) under the supervision of Dr Vaclav Ranc. The PhD degree will be awarded in molecular and translational medicine (3 years) at the faculty of medicine (Supervisor Dr. Vaclav Ranc).

The research group “Nanomaterials in medicine” is part of the institute of molecular and translational medicine (IMTM, http://imtm.cz). The group is focused mainly on the synthesis and functionalization of advanced nanostructured materials for active drug delivery systems, plasmonic or fluorescent based detection of clinically relevant molecular markers and chiral analysis. More information can be found here: https://imtm.cz/nanomaterials-medicine. IMTM perform basic and translational biomedical research with an aim to better understand the underlying cause of human infectious diseases and cancer, and to develop future human medicines, medical devices and diagnostics. Our vision is to facilitate private-public partnership and research collaboration, and to integrate member researchers into international platforms. We aim to further strengthen IMTM as a premier educational center and provide quality education in biomedical science at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. In order to accomplish these goals, IMTM brings and maintains 'under one roof' two types of infrastructures for basic and translational biomedical research.

Planned secondments:

❖ STEM Innovation (Italy), 1 week:  Complementary training meeting on IPR management and soft skills.

❖ WILEY-VCH (Germany) 2 months: to learn on the dissemination/communication procedures in scientific publishing company.

❖ University of Messina (UNIME), 2 months: to learn how to synthesise magnetic-responsive nano hybrid material.

❖ NUIM (Ireland), 2 months: to learn the synthetic procedure for the synthesis of functionalised metal-based drugs.