Author: nanobiofaces

From 11th to 13th of September 2019, 12th International Particle Toxicology Conference was held in Salzburg, Austria, with the aim of bringing together toxicology experts from all over the world to discuss safety, applications and research of particle toxicology.

Project collaborator Rinea Barbir participated with a poster presentation titled: “Sex-related in vivo response to silver nanoparticles after subacute oral exposure“, where she presented her research on the difference in toxicity of nanoparticles towards male and female mice after three weeks of exposure.

Doctoral candidate Emerik Galić also presented his results on nanoparticle toxicity in vitro with the poster titled “Genotoxocity of silver and selenium nanoparticles on human epithelial cells“.The study was conducted by the NanoFaceS group in collaboration with the groups from Universities of Osijek and Graz.

Project leader Dr Vinković Vrček was an invited lecturer on the 17th International Congress on Photobiology and 18th Congress of the European Society for Photobiology, held in Barcelona, Spain from August 25th to 30th 2019. In her lecture titled: “Biocompatibility assessment of up- and down-converting nanoparticles: implications of interferences with in vitro assays”, she presented the results of a recently published paper on the issues arising from nanoparticle interferences with the commonly used in vitro toxicity assays.

The link to the book of abstracts can be found here.

As a part of the Croatian-German bilateral project “Multiplex characterization platform for nano-bio interface”, NanoFaceS collaborator Krunoslav Ilić visited the Leibniz Institute for Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) in Jena, Germany from July 1st to 26th 2019. Under the supervision of Prof Wolfgang Frizsche, he worked on the examination of protein adsorption to the nanoparticle surface by the localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) method, thereby continuing and further developing the previous experiments borne out of the Croatian-German collaboration.

Project collaborator Barbara Pem stayed as a guest researcher at the Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, UK from April 15th to July 5th 2019. She was conducting a project “Interaction of metallic nanoparticles with biothiols – experimental vs. molecular dynamics approach” under the supervision of Prof Lang Tran.

The project combined the theoretical and experimental approach to the research of the nano-bio interface. It involved the study of the binding of biothiols and proteins to the surface of metallic nanoparticles and the impact of molecular corona on the oxidative activity of nanoparticles in vitro, while the complementary simulations were conducted in silico. The three-month reseacrh visit was funded by British Scholarship Trust.

On May 15th 2019, project collaborator Ivona Capjak (Mr. Pharm.) defended her doctoral thesis titled “Effect of size, shape and surface structure of silver nanoparticles on their interaction with model proteins”.

The thesis was made at the Institute of Medical Research and Occupational Health under the supervision of Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček, and the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb with co-supervision of Dr Snadra Šupraha Goreta.

The results presented in the thesis are a significant contribution to the field of safe and effective nanomedicine, and will advance the knowledge of nano-bio interactions, facilitate the design of save and effective nanomaterials and enable the assembly of guidelines necessary for regulation and approval of novel nanomedical systems. With that in regard, the comission consisting of: Dr. Tin Weitner (Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry), Dr Jasna Jablan (Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry) and Dr Maja Dotour Sikirić (Rudjer Boskovic Institute) assigned the thesis the honorific magna cum laude (with great honor).

From 15th to 17th of April, members of the NanoFaces group – Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček, Dr Ivan Pavičić and Krunoslav Ilić – attended 10th BioNanoMed Conference in Graz, Austria.Dr Vinković Vrček held a lecture titled “Sex-related in vivo Response to Metallic Nanoparticles “, and Dr Pavičić and Krunoslav Ilić presented results from the collaboration with Karl Franzens University in Graz in form of two posters: “Biocompatibility assessment of selenium nanoparticles as novel biocidal nanomaterial” and “Interaction of silver nanoparticles with biological barriers“. More information can be found by following the links.

Project leader Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and PhD student Rinea Barbir participated in the first COST CA17140 Nano2Clinic Training School, held in Trieste from 8th to 11th April 2019.

The training included various interesting and instructive lectures and workshops encompassing all areas of nanomedicine. Dr Vinković Vrček held a lecture titled “Safe-by-design approach to foster clinical translation of nano-enabled medical products”,in which she invited the scientific community to consider nanomaterial safety instead of focusing solely on efficacy. Rinea Barbir presented her research with a poster titled “Biocompatibility evaluation of selenium nanoparticles as promising delivery nanosystems“.

In collaboration with Dr Vinković Vrček, Dr Atiđa selmani presented her poster “Stability of selenium nanoparticles as novel anticancer delivery vehicle in
relevant biological media”.

More information is available by following the links.

As a part of the COST Action AMiCI, from March 7th to 8th 2019, a Workshop for Early Career Investigators and Short Term Scientific Missions was held in Riga, Latvia.

Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček and PhD student Krunoslav Ilić participated with presentations. Dr Vinković Vrček held a lecture titled “Obstacles and opportunities on development for antimicrobial coatings as a scientist”, while Krunoslav Ilić presented the results of his Short Term Scientific Mission that took place in Tallin, Estonia last year (more).

Collaborators Sonja Hartl and Carolin Tetyczka, PhD students from the Department of Pharmaceutical Technology and Biopharmaceutics, University of Graz, are visiting the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health from 18th to 22nd of February 2019.

During their research visit they will be conducting cell experiments to study the toxic effect of nanosilver and nanoselenium, according to the work plan of the Croatian – Austrian bilateral project “Pharmacokinetic profiling of silver nanoparticles: the role of biological barriers – NanoPasS“.

As a part of the COST Action CA17140 Nano2Clinic, PhD student Barbara Pem was awarded a scholarship for a Short Term Scientific Mission at the University of the West of England in Bristol, UK.

Under the supervision of Prof Andrew Adamatzky, Barbara Pem will be working on the development of computational models for describing and predicting the behaviour of nanoparticles coated with functional molecules. These models will be used for the investigation of the interactions of functionalised nanoparticles with biological systems, as a part of the NanoFaceS workplan. The STSM will take place from February 18th to April 14th 2019.