Novel pharmacologically active molecules have been developed in the last decades. In particular, much attention has been dedicated to the search for new anticancer small drugs with high activity, low toxicity and appropriate biopharmaceutical features. Another class of drugs that has recently attracted lot of interest is represented by biopharmaceutics, namely proteins and oligonucleotides. Although these classes of drugs are quite different, they share some common unfavorable issues: poor biopharmaceutical features. For this reason, the development of innovative drug delivery systems is one of the major challenges of the pharmaceutical technology.
Nanotechnology offers exciting opportunities for the development of drug delivery systems that can improve the drug biopharmaceutical properties and guarantee for the selective and controlled release at target sites in the body.
My studies are focused on the development of innovative systems for the delivery of anticancer drugs and biotechnological active molecules.
1) Development of metal particle based nanovectors for multimodal tissue recognition for tumor therapy and diagnosis. Gold nanoparticles can be decorated with polymers sensitive to microenvironmental stimuli (pH and temperature) and targeting molecules that precisely biorecognize the cancer tissue. The decoration of the surface with functional and biological agents provide for enhanced site-selectivity as a consequence of bio-sensing of the surrounding environment. Promising results showed their potential applications for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.
2) Study of microenvironmental stimuli responsive micelles, liposomes, polymersomes. Studies are undergoing aimed at developing vesicular systems (micelles, liposomes and polymersomes) assembled with responsive materials and targeting agents for the controlled release of anticancer drugs and siRNA. The results obtained so far have opened fascinating perspectives for the development of “smart” anti-cancer drug and oligonucleotide vehicles. Vesicles are also investigated for subcellular compartment targeting to induce novel unexplored mechanism of drug activity.
3) Bioconjugates for the delivery of drugs. This research line is aimed at investigating polymer bioconjugates for the delivery of drugs. A set of derivatives were generated using cyclodextrins that have been modified with targeting agents and PEG-alkyl chains; they showed high capacity to encapsulate anticancer drugs. The cyclodextrin based carriers have been found to selectively deliver drugs to tumor cells while preserving the chemical stability of the drug.
4) Formulation of proteins using biocompatible nanoparticle and micelles. Polymeric particles and micelles obtained with amphiphilic polymers are exploited to physically encapsulate therapeutically relevant peptides and cytokines with poor biopharmaceutical profile and to modulate their pharmacokinetic profiles.
5) Development of targeted nanocarriers to cross the blood brain barrier. Novel strategies to cross the BBB and deliver drugs are under investigation using receptor targeted colloidal systems as scaffold.
6) Coating of flat surfaces with “smart” polymers and components with cell biorecognition capacity. This investigation is aimed at precisely modulate the interface properties of devices to precisely control biorecognition of approaching cells, cell adhesion and cell sorting by applying external physical stimuli.

The research group led by Prof Salmaso is focused on the development of carriers for the delivery of drugs and biopharmaceutics. Availability for experimental master thesis for 2021 on the following projects:
• Development of responsive gold nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery. Novel gold nanoparticles will be designed and assembled by combining functional polymers bearing anticancer drugs for the intracellular delivery. Furthermore, gold nanoparticles will be tested for external stimuli activation to leverage the anticancer activities of drugs
• Development of multifunctional liposomes and micelles for anticancer drug delivery. Lipidic vesicles will be prepared with a variety of functional coating agents to promote selective biodistribution of drugs in the cancer and access to the intracellular space. Special emphasis will be dedicated to generate and characterize novel amphiphilic polymers for liposome coating, targeting units and/or cell penetration enhancers. This carriers will also be explored for the administration of drugs through non conventional administration routes: nasal, intravescical, cutaneous, etc.
• Development of lipoplexes for the intracellular delivery of siRNA for treatment of cancer. This technology is also explored for the set up of new generation of vaccines for prophilaxis of infectious diseases and also for cancer treatment.
• Development of lipid based particles using innovative formulation strategies, namelly microfluidics, for the formulation of therapeutic peptides.