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MSCA-TOPP-UT-Toppfinansiering av MSCA utgående kandidater

MSCA Melomanes Topfinancing

Awarded: NOK 0.54 mill.

My PhD project is titled Chemical Multifunctionalization of Iron Carbide Nanoparticles and Assessment of Their Enzymatic Biodegradability. I am working at Institut de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire (IBMC) at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) with Cécilia Ménard-Moyon as my supervisor, and I will receive my PhD diploma from the Université de Strasbourg. In my project, I will focus on developing strategies for the covalent multifunctionalization of iron carbide nanoparticles (ICNPs) to 1) increase their water dispersibility, 2) conjugate ligands to alter the immunosuppressive environment inside melanoma tumors, and 3) attach imaging contrast agents to track the nanoparticles. ICNPs have a graphitic coating, making them unstable in aqueous media, and thus, surface modification with hydrophilic polymers is crucial for their stability in vivo. To avoid premature release of polymers and molecules, they will be covalently bound to the ICNPs. The chemical strategies for covalent functionalization will be inspired by strategies developed for carbon nanotubes, as their surface chemistry is similar to that of the ICNPs. The ICNPs will be characterized by various characterization techniques, such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), electron microscopy, and several spectroscopy techniques such as Raman, Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), UV-Vis, and dynamic light scattering (DLS). In the final part of the project, the NPs' biodegradability will be studied. The degradation will be monitored by TEM and Raman spectroscopy to obtain information on the morphology of the NPs and the introduction of defects, respectively. The cell viability and the impact of the degradation products will be assessed on different cell types, (e.g., lymphocytes, macrophages). We will check that the degradation products do not induce any inflammatory response in mouse & human primary immune cells by measuring the release of cytokines by ELISA.

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MSCA-TOPP-UT-Toppfinansiering av MSCA utgående kandidater

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