Polymer Nanoparticles for diagnosis and treatment of Cancer

Cancer therapy has become a multidisciplinary challenge requiring close collaboration among clinicians, biologists, material scientists and biomedical engineers to fulfill the expectations for novel personalized treatments with enhanced efficacy and safety. Innovative strategies for cancer treatment are in tremendous need for multifunctional systems able to bring significant breakthroughs in combining diagnosis, localized drug delivery and monitoring. In this endeavour, the design and realization of theranostic nanoparticles (tNP), able to overcome biological barriers, preferentially accumulate into tumors and specifically recognize cancer cells, falls in the category of complex problems, requiring an interdisciplinary approach to be solved .This project aims at designing innovative tNP providing controlled release of drugs and contrast enhancement properties for combined hyperthermia therapy of cancer. Surface decoration with peptide sequences (derived from a thorough examination and understanding of the underlying biology) will confer the ability to selectively bind to cancer cell receptors improving targeting ability.