BrainMap

Melinda-Eva Gal

- UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Researcher

Expertise & keywords

Metal Complexes of Polycarboxylate Polymers: synthesis and characterisation Call name: P 5.2 - SP 5.2.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente - Competiția 2023
PN-IV-P2-2.1-TE-2023-0129 2025 - 2026

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE DEZVOLTARE PENTRU TEHNOLOGII IZOTOPICE SI MOLECULARE I N C D T I M

Project partners: INSTITUTUL NATIONAL DE CERCETARE DEZVOLTARE PENTRU TEHNOLOGII IZOTOPICE SI MOLECULARE I N C D T I M (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://www.itim-cj.ro/PNCDI/metalc/

Abstract:

Tartaric acid, 4-hydroxymandelic acid and 3-(3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)-L-alanine are organic compounds which upon polymerization under controlled conditions leads to formation of acidic polymers. Such multifunctionalyzed polymers are of interest due to their ability to coordinate to different metals and to form cross-linked frameworks. The role of the type of metal ion, the presence or absence of the solvent, the type of solvent and temperature, in the synthesis of these compounds will be identified. Due to the moderate solubility of chosen polymers the mechanochemistry (ball milling) and solvothermal methods will be used for their synthesis.

The formation of new complexes will be determined firstly by IR and XPS spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), TEM, SEM/EDX measurements and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Moreover, it will be attempted to get single crystals good enough for X-Ray diffraction. Also, a full theoretical investigation will be done for the obtained complexes to have a better understanding of the structure - properties relationship. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and thermal conductivity of new complexes will be studied and compared with data obtained for non-complexed polymers.

These new complexes present interesting physical and chemical properties due to the presence of metal ions and the structure of the polymer like good thermal conductivity, elasticity, tunable porosity with further various applications.

New Targeted Optical Imaging NanoProbes for Near-Infrared (NIR) Real-Time (RT)Image-Guided Surgery of Ovarian Cancer Call name: P 4 - Proiecte Complexe de Cercetare de Frontieră
PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0142 2018 - 2022

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO); INSTITUTUL ONCOLOGIC PROF.DR.I.CHIRICUTA CLUJ-NAPOCA (RO); UNIVERSITATEA BABES BOLYAI (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://sites.google.com/view/nanonirsurgery/home

Abstract:

Currently, a hot research topic is developing at the interface between physics, chemistry and materials science from one side and biology and medicine from other side, aiming to provide novel nano-tools for cancer treatment. However, despite advances in pre-operative imaging techniques, there is not a suitable intra-operative technique to provide real-time feedback to surgical oncologist to distinguish healthy tissue from malignant lesions and visualize submilimetrical tumor deposits. It is through a collaborative consortium gathering physicists, chemists, biochemists, biologists, oncologists, surgeons, histopathologists that this project addresses a challenging subject aiming to validate new targeted optical imaging nanoprobes for near-infrared (NIR) real-time image-guided surgery of ovarian cancer. Actually, we will develop targeted contrast agents to bind specifically to the FRα of ovarian cancer cells for enabling “visualization” of ovarian tumors by distinct optical signature in NIR. At the end of project, after their careful evaluation on ovarian cell lines /ovarian tumors xenografts / carcinomatose models, will be in position to proceed in the future as viable contrast agent in real-time image-guided ovarian cancer surgery. We focus our research effort to implement NIR optical nanoprobes containing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved compounds as well to promote new related nano-compounds produced in our laboratories. Actually, the development of targeted contrast agent in the NIR wavelengths range is highly relevant and beneficial to cancer surgery as their signal does not compete with background signal of tissue emitted in visible light spectrum and, therefore, a clear and deep difference between healthy tissue and tumoral lesions can be delineated.

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