Ricerc@Sapienza

Self-assembly of amphiphiles is a common method in the fabrication of nanostructures for nanoscience by a bottom up approach. Natural amphiphiles are particularly interesting as they are environmental friendly and employable in biomedical fields. Starting from them, derivatives with additional functionalities and self-assembly features can be synthesized, which can result in improved performances in the applications. Bile salts (BS) are anionic natural steroidal surfactants deeply involved in various biological processes and with appealing amphiphilic features for various applications. This project is aimed at studying the self-assembly of BS and BS derivatives (BSD) obtained by chemical modification of BS, and at exploring their effects and potential in different nanotechnologies and fundamental researches. A study of association behavior in BS- and BSD-Block copolymer(BC)-lecithin mixtures is proposed to investigate: i) the effect of BS on BC micelles and liposomes usually employed in drug delivery; ii) the potential of BC as BS sequestrants in the treatment of BS malabsorption and hypercholesterolemia; iii) the potential of BS- and BSD-BC-lecithin mixed aggregates as drug carriers. The application of BS and BSD in the alignment of metal nanoparticles and synthesis of nanowire and in the fabrication of supracolloidal framework will be also explored.