University of Milano-Bicocca
UNIMIB is a young and very competitive University with more than 30,000 students, ranked within the 10 best Italian Universities, 1st in chemical sciences. UNIMIB has a Centre of Nanomedicine collecting, in a new 9000 m2 building, the different expertise (synthetic chemistry, material science, physical science, biochemistry, informatics and biomedicine) and companies to accelerate the translation of the scientific results into clinics. The centre has all the facilities to develop the multidisciplinary researches.
Research interests
The Bioorganic research group (www.bioorgunimib.com) has strong expertise in Nanomedicine field, with particular interest in: a) development of nanoparticles decorated with cell-responsive biomolecules for therapeutic and diagnostic use; B) development of biomaterials for regenerative medicine and c) cell microenvironment studies in physiological conditions.
Prof. Francesco Nicotra
He is full professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Milano-Bicocca (since 2000), and member of the Government Board of the University (2013-2019). He is the Scientific Director of the Foundation CEN (European Centre of Nanomedicine, 2016-2019); has been Dean of the Faculty of Sciences (2019-2012) and Director of the Department of Biotechnology and Biosciences (2001-2008) at the University of Milano-Bicocca. International appointments: Nicotra has chaired (2006-2015) the Subcommittee of Biotechnology of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and has been elected next (2018-19) President of the IUPAC Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. He is also the Italian representative in the International Carbohydrate Organization (since 2002), and evaluator for many international agencies including ERC, FP and H2020.
The scientific interests concern organic chemistry at the interface with biomedicine, in particular nanocarriers for therapy and diagnosis, a field in which he coordinates the H2020 MSCA-ITN-2014 project NABBA Design and development of advanced Nanomedicines to overcome Biological Barriers and to treat severe diseases, with 11 European partners. Further interests concern nanostructured biomaterials for regenerative medicine, a field in which he has coordinated a national MIUR, PRIN 2011 project, Innovative chemical methodologies for smart biomaterials, with 8 partners.