Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology

The main research areas of the Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology research group point on the preparation of conventional or modified Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) and innovative biomaterials for drug delivery and/or for regenerative medicine applications and medical devices. In particular, the group activities are addressed on the preparation of DDS able to load active compounds (natural, synthetic or biotechnological) and release them in a controlled way to specific site of the body, by responding to particular pharmacological needs as often asked by a specific disease. In fact, by combining polymer chemistry and pharmaceutical technology was possible to develop new materials tailored on the final aim. For example, chemical modification of polyaminoacids or polysaccharides like introduction of positive charged functional groups, hydrophobic and hydrophilic side chains, double bonds, carboxyl functional groups, or conjugation of bioactive agents on synthetic polymers permitted us to prepare smart materials such as nanoparticles, micelles, stimuli-sensitive hydrogels, macromolecular prodrugs useful for drug targeting and delivery. Therefore, one of the main research field is focused to the polymeric or lipidic colloidal systems for the targeting and release of conventional or biotechnological drugs and their physical-chemical and biological characterization. To this end, different polymeric material are used such as natural polysaccharide materials like inulin (INU), chitosan (CS) and its derivative, cyclodextrins (CyD), dextran (DEX), hyaluronic acid (HA) or biodegradable polymers such as poly--caprolactone (PCL), polylactic acid (PLA) and polyethylenglycol (PEG). Moreover, the Advanced Pharmaceutical Technology research group is also focused on the preparation of polymeric biomaterials for colon delivery, for the preparation of medical devices and for regenerative medicine. The biomaterials, prepared starting from some of the above-mentioned polymers, can be used as they are by exploiting their intrinsic properties or conjugated or physically loaded with different active ingredients such as traditional or biotechnological drugs and they can be potentially useful for different biomedical applications such as for the prevention of post-operative adhesions or as wound dressing.