Research
Supervisor: Stefano Pluchino
Nanomedicine and neuroscience have always been great passions of mine. My drive is towards creating nanotherapeutics that enable brain repair and regeneration. Currently, I am working on establishing a highly modular nanotechnology platform for neurodegenerative disorders. More specifically, we are engineering packaging RNA (pRNA) nanoparticles to target cells that enhance progression of neurodegeneration or that prevent neuroregeneration, and to deliver disease-specific therapeutic agents such as siRNA’s. Immune reactions are strongly involved in neurodegeneration and are thus promising targets for modulation. We will try to target and modulate reactive astrocytes in spinal cord injury (SCI), endothelial cells in multiple sclerosis (MS), and dopaminergic cells in Parkinson’s disease (PD), aspiring to reduce the disease progress and regenerate the damaged tissue.
