FUMASSY · Functional materials through surfactant self-assembly
FP7 — People (Marie Curie Actions)
- Duration
- 2012-01-01 → 2015-12-31
- EU contribution
- €100,000
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MC-CIG
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Functional materials through surfactant self-assembly
The Marie Curie Career Integration Grant FUMASSY was granted to support in establishing a new, independent research group when the principal investigator (PI) returned to Finland. The research, titled “Functional materials through surfactant self-assembly (FUMASSY)” applies computational and theoretical methods toward engineering drug delivery, biosensing, and separation membrane systems based on surfactant self-assembly. The PIs research is computational and theoretical and focuses on self-assembling therapeutic molecule carriers including micelles, vesicles and polymer complexes and on combining inorganic nanoscale carbon and amphiphilic aggregates toward developing biocompatible functional materials for sensing, medicine, and coatings. Within FUMASSY, we have characterized micelles and polymers as drug carriers and amphiphile interactions with strongly hydrophobic carbon nanotubes and graphene in aqueous environments. In particular, we have generated understanding on therapeutic molecule carrier structure and dynamics, as well as, specific, microscopic packing and release mechanism for nucleic acid transport. In studying amphiphile interactions with carbon nanotubes, we have resolved molecular curvature related guidelines for engineering carbon nanotube dispersion and adsorption barriers. In both research lines, the long term aim is to generate sufficient understanding to enable widespread control over the resulting materials properties and function. Project website: http://chemistry.aalto.fi/en/research/novelmaterials/moreabout/
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
I seek the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant grant to support my effort to establish a new independent research group lead by me in the Department of Chemistry at Aalto University School of Chemical Technology, Finland. I am a young Finnish researcher, who after finishing her doctoral studies in December 2004, moved to United States for her post-doctoral research and ever since has been successfully pursuing a research career in top US research environments currently in Yale University and before that in Princeton University.Research in the Sammalkorpi group will apply computational and theoretical methods toward engineering drug delivery, biosensing, and separation membrane systems based on surfactant self-assembly. Amphiphilic surfactant aggregates and their capacity to change form, structure, and dynamics lie at the heart of many natural and synthetic processes. For example, lipid and detergent micelles, vesicles, and membranes play a key role both in cellular and synthetic molecular transport and regulation [Schmidt, Nature (2002); Hubbell, Science (2003)]. The same molecules form tunable coatings, lubrication layers, and novel nanoscale functional soft materials [Min et al., Nature Materials (2008); Hillmyer, Science (2007); van Hest, Nature (2009)]. My initial research will focus on two areas with common themes of molecular self-assembly and the key influence of aggregation on system dynamics: 1) small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery via micellar and vesicular carriers and 2) novel functional materials based on functionalized carbon nanotubes in amphiphilic surfactant aggregates.I apply the Marie Curie Career Integration funds for 4 years to improve the chances of success I have on establishing this ambitious new line of research in the Department of Chemistry at Aalto University.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AALTO KORKEAKOULUSAATIO SR · EspooCoordinatorFinland
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union