Research themes have the common goal of identifying strategies to make anticancer therapies more effective and selective. The current approaches followed are based on:

1. Delivery of anticancer drugs using biocompatible nanoparticles. The delivery through nanostructures increases the selectivity of release of the drug in the tumor tissue by exploiting the particular characteristics of its vascularization.

2. Combinations of chemotherapeutics that exert cytotoxic action with different mechanisms of action. We identify conditions that result in a synergistic interaction between drugs because synergistic drug interaction allows to maintain the therapeutic efficacy by lowering drug doses and consequently the side effects of the therapy also counteracting the intrinsic or acquired drug resistance of many tumors. The study of the delivery of multiple drugs through appropriately designed nanostructures is a topic of particular interest to the research group.

3. Combinations of different therapeutic modalities. In particular, our attention is focused on the combination of chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy uses a photosensitizing drug and visible light to induce selective damage in tumor tissue by oxidative stress and is also effective in chemo-resistant tumors.

In general, the thesis topics are focused on the identification of strategies to increase the efficacy and selectivity of anticancer therapies.

The approaches are based on:
a) combinations of chemotherapeutics of different nature that act on different cellular targets and with non-overlapping mechanisms creating a synergistic interaction;
b) combinations of different therapeutic modalities such as chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy. Photodynamic therapy is also effective in drug-resistant tumors and is a good adjuvant to chemotherapy in the treatment of these tumors.
c) use of biocompatible nanoparticles for the delivery of single drugs or combinations thereof. The nanoparticles may carry specific ligands for receptors over-expressed by tumor cells that increase the specificity of accumulation in tumor cells by exploiting active targeting mechanisms.

The methods of investigation are based on the use of 2D and 3D cultures of tumor cells and in vivo models of transplanted tumors in Zebrafish embryos. The effects of the treatments are evaluated by analysing the cells through cell viability/death assays and confocal microscopy analysis.