Author: nanobiofaces

As a part of the COST Action CA17140 Nano2Clinic, PhD student Rinea Barbir was awarded a scholarship for a Short Term Scientific Mission at Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Aragon in Zaragoza, Spain.

Under the supervision of ProfJesus Martinez de la Fuente, Rinea Barbir will conduct physico-chemical experiments to investigate the interactins of silver nanoparticles with model proteins. These experiments are in accordance with the work plan of the NanoFaceS project and will form a part of Rinea Barbir’s doctoral thesis. The STSM will take place from February 18th to April 14th 2019.

On  December 12th 2018 in the Croatian Department of Transfusion Medicine, Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček held a lecture entitled: “Safety of nanomaterials in biomedicine”.

She presented recent advances and concerns in nanotoxicology to the audience of Croatian health professionals.

As a part of German-Croatian bilateral project “Multiplexed characterization platform for nano-bio interface”, project collaborator Rinea Barbir spent three weeks, from 26^th November to 18^th December, with Nanobiophotonic group led by Prof Dr Wolfgang Frizsche at Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) Jena, Germany. She used localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and UV-VIS spectroscopy to study formation of protein corona. With UV-VIS method, she proved the existence of peak shift in silver nanoparticles spectra after interaction with proteins, which is necessary for further LSPR measurements. Using LSPR she was able to monitor in real time adsorption of model proteins BSA, human transferrin (glycosylated)  and transferrin from rice (non-glycosylated) with 80nm spherical gold nanoparticles.

Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček,the leader of the NanoFaceS project, was awarded the yearly award of the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health for the highest number of original scientific papers published in the previous year in the journals indexed in the Web of Science database.

Every year , the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health awards its employees for the best scientific papers published in the year before. The purpose of yearly awards is to recognize hard work and notable achievements in the competitive and demanding environment of the domestic and international scientific community. It serves to motivate all scientists to strive for even greater accomplishments in the years to follow. This award confirms the scientific excellence of Dr Vinković Vrček and the success of her project NanoFaceS.

The award ceremony was held on December 7th 2018 in the Old City Hall in Zagreb.

From 26th to 30th of November 2018, a project meeting was held to plan further activities for the bilateral Croatian – German project “Multiplex characterization platform for nano-bio interface”.Project leader Dr Ivana Vinković Vrček visited te Leibniz-IPHT in Jena, Germany, where she and co-leader Prof Wolfgang Fritzche arranged the plan to conduct further project activities.

On 21.11.2018. a small educational event Science Talks took place at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, where young researchers got the opportunity to present a part of their research in the form of a 10-minute presentation.

Project collaborators Barbara Pem and Krunoslav Ilić presented the results of their research from the NanoFaceS project. PhD student Pem held a lecture titled: Interferencije optički aktivnih nanočestica s in vitro testovima toksičnosti”, presenting a recently published work on the interferences of metallic nanoparticles with in vitro toxicity tests. PhD student Ilić, in his presentation “Interakcije nanočestica s biološkim sustavima i njihov potencijal u biomedicini”, gave an overview of the state-of-the-art research on nanoparticles for biomedical applications and their impact on the organism.

More about the event can be found by following the links: event description and programme

From November 15th to 17th 2018 Winter School of Research Commercialization was held at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, University of Zagreb. Project collaborators Barbara Pem, Rinea Barbir and Ivona Capjak participated as trainees.

The School consisted of lectures and workshops held by top local and international experts in the fields of pharmaceutical industry and chemical technologies. The participants were given an opportunity to learn about merging scientific research and industry, and also about technology transfer and intellectual property. They were presented real-life examples of the journey from the idea to the commercial product, involving the basics of starting, financing and investing in a start-up. The workshops involved practicing the preparation and presentation of a pitch in front of a panel of investors. The trainees were given feedback on their pitching skills from Croatia’s top investors,a s well as experts from both industry and academia.

Project leader Ivana Vinković Vrček and PhD student Barbara Pem attended the meetings organized by BioNanoNet that took place on September 12th, 13th and 14th in Graz, Austria.On Wednesday September 12th a meeting was held called “Bio-Nano-Interactions: Medical Breakthrough & Safety Aspects“, where Dr Vinković Vrček held a short talk titled “Biotransformation patterns of nanoparticles in vivo“.

On Thursday September 13th the BioNanoNet General Assembly was held, along with the workshop “Multidisciplinary Cooperation in Research: Nanotoxicology, Sensortechnology, Health, Safety and (Nano-)Medicine“.

On Friday September 14th a series of lectures were organized on the topic of “BioNanoNet Focus on Sensortechnology”.

Event agendas and more information can be found by following the links in the text.

From September 10th to November 9th, PhD student Barbara Pem will be conducting research at the Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz as a part of her research stay financed by a Short-Term Scholarship of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS).

Under the supervision of Prof Klaus Zangger, she will conduct a project titled “Interaction of proteins with metallic nanoparticles – the role of thiol residues”. She will research the interactions of silver nanoparticles of different sizes and surface coatings with model proteins using the methods of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Protein NMR is a special set of techniques which is currently not used anywhere in Croatia. It provides an innovative way of studying the nano-bio interface. End goals of the project are characterization of protein binding to the surface of a nanoparticle, determination of binding constants and orientations of proteins on the particle surface, and also training the student Barbara Pem for the use of state-of-the-art techniques of NMR analysis.

From August 8th to September 1st 14th International School of Biophysics Greta Pifat Mrzljak took place in Split, Croatia. The School is intended for PhD students and young scientists who wish to gain knowlege and experience in applications of physics and chemistry to the research of biological systems.

PhD students Rinea Barbir and Krunoslav Ilić participated in the School, where they attended lectures and workshops and also had an opportunity to present their work in poster form.

Posters and accompanying abstracts can be found on the following links:

Rinea Barbir poster abstract

Krunoslav Ilić poster abstract