Book Chapters

Parties d'ouvrages collectifs

2012

Practising CLIL in Higher Education

2011

Liquid water : a necessary condition for all forms of life ?

1999

Some physico-chemical aspects of so-called “Homogeneous Sonochemistry”

Parties d'ouvrages collectifs

2022

Aryl Diazonium Salts and Related Compounds. Surface Chemistry and Applications

2021

Recent Advances in Elongated IONPs: From Preparation to Biomedical Applications

Magnetic magnetite (Fe3O4) and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (IONPs) have been the object of many investigations, focusing not only on the understanding of their fundamental properties, but also on their numerous applications. Their relative ease of production and functionalization, high saturation magnetization at room temperature, low magnetic anisotropy, and good biocompatibility have led to their use in a large variety of applications, ranging from environmental remediation to biomedical diagnostic and treatment. Historically, most studies have focused on spherical IONPs since they are the easiest to synthesize via reproducible experimental methodologies. There has however been a growing interest in recent years for elongated IONPs, such as nanorods, nanorices and nanospindles, as they posess novel or improved physical and chemical characteristics compared to their spherical counterparts, such as superior cell uptake and improved efficiency as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents. In this chapter, we summarize the main synthetic routes that have been reported over the last decade to prepare elongated Fe3O4 and γ-Fe2O3 IONPs. The crucial parameters influencing the particle morphology and composition are discussed and the physicochemical features of these IONPs are compared to those of nanospheres. The chapter also presents an overview of the current biomedical applications of elongated IONPs, such as magnetic separation, targeted drug delivery, magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic hyperthermia. The prospects of these systems as new platforms for theragnostic agents are furthermore discussed.

2019

Achieving Selective Targeting Using Engineered Nanomaterials

The development of Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) able to selectively deliver a controlled amount of a drug only to diseased cells would represent a dramatic development in nanomedicine. One of the multiple challenges still paving the way towards this goal is the elaboration of strategies that would allow targeting with extreme accuracy specific cells, as cancerous cells, among a large variety of closely related ones. In this work, we review the most recent nanotechnology applications aiming at controlling the selectivity of the interaction of delivery nanosystems with cells, with a focus on multivalent targeting. We briefly review thermodynamic models of multivalent interactions and highlight the challenges that still need to be addressed to transfer theoretical design principles into practical applications. In particular, suitable experimental systems based on multivalent models often require the control of the nanocarrier characteristics at the molecular level. Traditional delivery methods, however, fail to provide such degree of control. DNA nanotechnology is a growing field of nanoscience that has witnessed impressive developments in the past decades and has led to major advances in the fabrication of nanostructures and self-assembled systems. Relying on the possibility of controlling their molecular interactions by sequence design, nucleic acids can serve the drug delivery program by providing desired nanostructures with nearly atomic precision. In combination with the recent achievements in the research on DNA aptamers, short nucleic acid sequences isolated to interact selectively with a specific target, DNA nanotechnology is undoubtedly one of the most promising tools for the development of selective DDS.

2011

Liquid water : a necessary condition for all forms of life ?

Water, Solvent of Life

Hydrogen Bonds

Van der Waals Forces

Stereochemistry

Parties d'ouvrages collectifs

2024

From Molecules to Dynamic Supramolecular Systems

2007

Foldamers at Interfaces