Our efforts are devoted to the translation of noble metal nanomaterials to the bed-side by addressing the issue of metal persistence, in order to promote innovative and non-invasive treatments for neoplasms and infectious diseases.
By employing the ultrasmall-in-nano design, we have developed the passion fruit-like nano-architectures (WO2016/139591): an all-in-one inorganic nanomaterial able to jointly combine most of the intriguing behaviors of noble metal nanoparticles with their excretion from organism. Our main interests are related to photothermal conversion, drug delivery, photoacoustic/ultrasound imaging. In agreement with the 3R concept, we also continuously develop new 3D cancer models to test nanomaterials.
Thanks to the support of Fondazione AIRC we are especially working on combined treatments for head/neck neoplasms.
We are also involved in the development of novel nanorattle catalysts for hydrogen storage and automotive exhaust gas treatment.
Translatable NanoTheranostics
Group members
Publications
2026
Sarogni P., Brindani N., Frusca V., Santi M., Cavalieri A., Celentano M., Menicagli M., Marranci A., Luserna di Rora A.G., Purificato F., et al.
Antitumor Activity of Combined Topoisomerase Inhibition and FLASH Radiotherapy in Head and Neck Carcinoma Biomodels
MedComm, vol. 7, (no. 9)
2026
Voliani V., La Mendola D.
Chimica Generale ed Inorganica: Principi, Applicazioni, esercizi svolti
Chimica Generale ed Inorganica: Principi, Applicazioni, esercizi svolti, Publisher: Edises
2026
Martini L., Vlamidis Y., Armando I., Convertino D., Miseikis V., Voliani V., Coletti C.
Scalable CVD Graphene Field-Effect Transistor Platform for Viral Detection: Application to COVID-19
IEEE Transactions on Materials for Electron Devices
2026
Purificato F., Frusca V., Ayub A., Sarogni P., Pizzoli G., Mugnaioli E., Drava G., Da Y., Komatsu N., Zhao L., et al.
Ultrasmall-in-Nano Hybrid Boron-Gold Architectures for Enhanced Boron Delivery toward Boron Neutron Capture Therapy
Chemical Communications
2025
Giannini N., Gonnelli A., Gadducci G., Puccini P., Cavalieri A., Masturzo L., Pensavalle J.H., Celentano M., Di Martino F., Di Cocco F., et al.
FLASH Radiotherapy Enhances the Therapeutic Ratio in an Embryonic In Vivo Model of Pancreatic Carcinoma
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, vol. 17, (no. 46), pp. 63286-63295
Collaborations
- Prof. Gang Zheng, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and TECHNA Institute (Toronto, CA)
- Prof. Hélder Santos, University of Helsinki (Helsinki, FI)
- Prof. Fabiola Paiar, Radiation Oncology - Pisa University Hospital (Pisa, IT)
- Prof. Luca Menichetti, IFC-CNR (Pisa, IT)
- Prof. Fabio Marchetti, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry - University of Pisa (Pisa, IT)
- Dr. Rosalia Bertorelli, In vivo Facility - Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Genoa, IT)
- Dr. Laura Poliseno, Oncogenomics Unit - Core Research Laboratory - CNR (Pisa, IT)
- Dr. Orazio Vittorio, Children's Cancer Institute (Sydney, AU)
- Dr. Michele Mondini, Gustave Roussy (Paris, FR)
- Dr. Jan Grimm, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (NY, USA)
Journal covers
