INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NANOMEDICINE

The keyword Nanomedicine indicates a dizzyingly growing field: from just over 400 articles in 2001, to 20,000 in 2014. Multidisciplinary scientific interests (physics, chemistry, biology, bioengineering, and all medical and clinical disciplines) converge on Nanomedicine. Mauro Ferrari, although still relatively young, is recognised as one of the founding fathers of nanomedicine and today one of the greatest. The aim of the International School of Nanomedicine is to encourage and promote networking between young scientists in the field of nanomedicine. The school offers many opportunities for interaction and discussion between students, postdocs, junior and senior researchers, encouraging and promoting networking among them. Many therapeutic targets are hidden behind biological barriers, limiting the possibility of reaching them with conventional drugs or diagnostic probes. Biological barriers are even more problematic for most biological drugs, such as recombinant proteins, antibodies, and gene drugs. The most promising solution to this challenge is the use of nano-vehicles for specific targeting and delivery. The focus will be on key aspects of nanobiotechnology: the design and chemical synthesis of different types of NPs; the related detection and characterisation techniques; strategies for loading, targeting and delivery of drugs or diagnostic probes; and proof-of-principle of pharmacological activity, including pharmacokinetics and biodistribution. Strong emphasis will be placed on the molecular mechanisms governing biological barriers under physiological and pathological conditions, in order to develop novel nanotechnological devices for crossing them. Great emphasis will be placed on advanced chemistry issues, which enable new synthetic strategies for the assembly or functionalisation of NPs.