Dr. Giulia Morgese
Alumni
Project description
Nature is intrinsically dynamic and mimicking this unique feature of natural systems has been extremely challenging for researchers. Due to their weak, non-covalent and self-remodeling character, supramolecular materials are among the most promising candidates to achieve this goal. Nevertheless, their application in the biomaterial field is still limited by the lack of knowledge on how these materials behave in physiological environments and, especially, on how they interact with biologically relevant species, i.e. proteins and cells. My research mainly focuses on filling this knowledge gap, exploiting the potential of bioinert and bioactive supramolecular polymers based on benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxamide (BTA), which non-covalently assemble into 1D fibers. In particular, I am interested in assessing the stability and biocompatibility of BTA fibers in bovine serum album (BSA)-rich and red blood cell populated media via fluorescence spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. Depending on the BTA biofunctionality, different interactions with proteins and cells will be observed, allowing to shed the light on the crucial design parameters for functional supramolecular biomaterials and pave the way for the fabrication of Nature mimetic systems.