Ricerc@Sapienza

Hypothesis: Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DX) is one of the most powerful anticancer agents though its clinical use is impaired by severe undesired side effects. DX encapsulation in nanocarrier systems has been introduced as a mean to reduce its toxicity. Micelles of the nonionic triblock copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(propylene oxide) (PPO) (PEO-PPO-PEO), are very promising carrier systems. The positive charge of DX confines the drug to the hydrophilic corona region of the micelles.

The most abundant plasma protein, Human Serum Albumin (HSA), is known to undergo conformational transitions in acidic environment [1]. To avoid buffer effects and correlate global and local structural changes, we developed a continuous acidification method and simultaneously monitored the protein changes by both small-angle scattering (SAXS) and fluorescence [2], using a dedicated instrumental platform [3].

Centromeres are highly specialized chromatin domains that enable chromosome segregation and orchestrate faithful cell division. Human centromeres are composed of tandem arrays of ?-satellite DNA, which spans up to several megabases. Little is known about the mechanisms that maintain integrity of the long arrays of ?-satellite DNA repeats. Here, we monitored centromeric repeat stability in human cells using chromosome-orientation fluorescent in situ hybridization (CO-FISH).

This work presents the development of a compact optoelectronic device suitable for on-chip detection of fluorescent molecules. In order to obtain a highly integrated device, a long-pass multi-dielectric filter has been integrated with thin film amorphous silicon photosensors on a single glass substrate. Filter rejects the excitation light, allowing the reduction of the distance between the source and the fluorescent site and avoiding the use of external optical component.

Lab-on-chip are analytical systems which, compared to traditional methods, offer significant reduction of sample, reagent, energy consumption and waste production. Within this framework, we report on the development and testing of an optoelectronic platform suitable for the on-chip detection of fluorescent molecules. The platform combines on a single glass substrate hydrogenated amorphous silicon photosensors and a long pass interferential filter.

This work presents a bio-microsystem, based on thin film optoelectronic devices, for on-chip detection of fluorescence-based aptamer assay. The detection is achieved integrating on a single glass substrate amorphous silicon photosensors and a thin film interferential filter, while the aptamer-based biomolecular recognition is carried out in a microfluidic network functionalized with polymer brushes. To test the developed platform, aptamer 1.12.2 having high affinity toward Ochratoxin A molecules has been used in combination with the ruthenium complex [Ru(phen)2(dppz)]2+ intercalating dye.

The integration of systems for real-time monitoring of DNA amplification reactions is rather limited, because the heating system, the temperature control and the detection system are usually realized with separate modules. In this work, a lab-on-a-chip system for real-time monitoring of the multiple displacement amplification reaction (MDA) is presented. The amplification and detection unit consists of a system-on-glass (SoG) coupled to a microfluidic chip.

Basalt fiber surfaces were modified using different silane aqueous solutions to generate a variety of polyorganosiloxane coatings. After removing the commercial coating of the fibers by calcination and subsequent activation processes, polysiloxanes were grafted on the fiber surfaces. Three aqueous solutions were used for the silanization: (i) γ-aminopropyltriethoxysilane, APTES; (ii) γ-aminopropylmethyldiethoxysilane, APDES, and (iii) a mixture of 50% by weight of both APTES + APDES.

This paper reports on the development of a fluorescent label-free aptamer assay integrated in a lab-on-chip (LoC) system for the detection of Ochratoxin A (OTA). The detection system relies on the integration, on a single glass substrate, of an array of amorphous silicon photosensors and a long pass interferential filter. The aptamer assay, integrated into the microfluidic network, is an aptasensor having affinity versus OTA, selected as a case study. The fluorescent molecule is a "light switch" complex [Ru(phen)2(dppz)]2+.