ESR project: Synthesis of smart glycosides to enhance the glyco-nanomaterial circulation half-life
Supervisor: Prof. Luigi Lay
Institution: University of Milan, IT
Country of origin: Spain
NanoCarb research: Ruth’s contribution to the NanoCarb project will consist of: (1) Synthesis of mono- and oligosaccharides possessing active-targeting properties bearing an anomeric linker suitable for nanomaterial functionalization; (2) Design and synthesis of a set of PEG-based linkers, differing for their chain length, to be glycosylated; (3) Sequential introduction of negatively charged moieties on the synthetic glycosides to modulate the nanomaterial surface charge.
Scientific background: Ruth received a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry at Universitat Jaume I (Spain). During the fourth year of her studies, she moved to the Cork Institute of Technology in Cork (Ireland) as an Erasmus student. In 2016, she was awarded an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to attend “Advanced Spectroscopy in Chemistry”, a European joint master’s degree. During the first year in Université de Lille (France) she learned about many spectroscopic techniques whereas the second year at Helsingin Yliopisto (Finland), she attended modules related with organic chemistry, organometallics, and synthetic strategies. In the meantime, she worked on her master thesis under the supervision of Adj. Prof. Filip Ekholm which consisted in the synthesis of glucose derivatives for their application in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy.