Author: nanobiofaces

The European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC), which is being launched in Paris, France is seeking to develop next-generation chemical risk assessment, incorporating both human health and the environment in a “One Health” approach. It will help support the European Union’s Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and the European Green Deal’s “zero polution” ambition. Bringing together nearly 200 from 28 countries as well as EU agencies (EEA, ECHA and EFSA), PARC is coordinated by ANSES, with funding on an equal basis from Horizon Europe, the 9th EU research and innovation framework programme and the partnership’s participants. The partnership will run for seven years. Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health will be included in this partnership as an affiliated entity (AE).

On February 11th 2020 at the Faculty of Science, the public presentation of the thesis topic was held by PhD student Nikolina Kalčec. The proposed thesis title was “Design and characterization of gold and selenium nanoparticles as potential delivery systems of levodopa and dopamine”, supervised by Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and Prof Frances Separovic. The defense was held in front of the commission consisting of: Prof Snežana Miljanić, Prof Ita Gruić Sovulj and Dr Maja Dutour Sikirić.

Dr Barbara Pem, Master of Pharmacy, defended her doctoral thesis that was made within the NanoFaceS project “Interaction of metallic nanoparticles with sulphur-containing biomolecules – implications for nano-bio interface”, under the menthorship of Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and co-mentorship of Prof Valerije Vrček. Thesis defense was held on December 14 2021 at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb.

Dr Rinea Barbir, Master of Biochemistry, defended her doctoral thesis that was made within the NanoFaceS project “Interaction of metallic nanoparticles with sulphur-containing biomolecules – implications for nano-bio interface”, under the menthorship of Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and co-mentorship of Prof Sanja Dabelić. Thesis defense was held on November 17 2021 at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb.

Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food appointed Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček to the position of Croatian member in the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Scientific Network on Risk Assessment of Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed.

The COST action CA17140 Work group 2 online conference was held on June 22nd and 23rd 2021, to present the latest accomplishments of the action Nano2Clinic: Cancer Nanomedicine – from the bench to the bedside. Work group 2 focuses on the physico-chemical characterization and quality control of nanopharmaceutics.

Dr Barbara Vuković, Master of Biochemistry, defended her doctoral thesis that was made within the NanoFaceS project “Interaction of metallic nanoparticles with sulphur-containing biomolecules – implications for nano-bio interface”, under the co-menthorship of Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and mentorship of Prof Vatroslav Šerić. Thesis defense was held on May 14 2021 at the School of Medicine, University of Osijek.

Dr Marija Milić, Master of Biochemistry, successfully defended her doctoral thesis that was made within the NanoFaceS project “Interaction of metallic nanoparticles with sulphur-containing biomolecules – implications for nano-bio interface”, under the co-menthorship of Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and mentorship of Prof Vatroslav Šerić. Thesis defense was held on May 14 2021 at the School of Medicine, University of Osijek.

11 project partners from academia and industry have joined forces in the PHOENIX project to create an Open Innovation Test Bed for nano-pharmaceuticals. PHOENIX (Pharmaceutical Open Innovation Test Bed for Enabling Nano-pharmaceutical Innovative Products) is a research project funded by EU’s Horizon2020 research programme and it aims at providing services to the market for the development, testing, safety assessment, GMP production and commercialization of nano-pharmaceuticals.

On February 17th 2021 at 4 pm the first COST Action CA17140 Nano2Clinic webinar will be held. For the training session, Prof. Lajosh Balogh will give a lecture on  “Manuscript preparation and publications – the basics.” For the dissemination session, Dr. Rinea Barbir (PhD student in the group of our WG2 leader Dr. Ivana Vinković Vrček and recipient of an STSM grant) will give a talk on “Steady-state fluorescence quenching method for evaluation of nano-bio interactions”. More information can be found on the official website.