Education

Federica Santino earned her B.Sc. in chemistry in July 2016 at “La Sapienza”- at the University of Rome and her M.Sc. in chemistry (curriculum: method of synthesis and bio-organic chemistry) in July 2018 at “Alma Mater Studiorum”- at the University of Bologna. Both of the theses were about the synthesis of compounds for medical applications. In January 2023 she will finish the legal duration of her PhD at the “Alma Mater Studiorum”- the University of Bologna and she will defend her thesis with the title “New syntheses and derivatizations of peptidomimetics and peptide-conjugates for theranostic applications” in June 2023.

Research

In 2015 she has been at Imperial College, London for three months internship with James Durrant’s group where she contributed to the development of thin organic films for the formulation of perovskite solar cells. For her bachelor’s thesis, she made a nine-month internship for the synthesis of a compound with possible therapeutic activity for the cure of Parkinson's disease. Then for her Master’s Thesis, inside Tolomelli’s research group, she synthesized two drug delivery systems targeting integrins with two latent fluorophores for in vitro and in vivo analysis of cancer cells. Her PhD was focused on the use of peptides as therapeutic. In particular, her research was about the design and the synthesis of K-opioid selective molecules for the treatment of pain, and also the synthesis of nanoparticles and peptidomimetics for cancer treatments. During her PhD she has been in Barcelona from January 2022 to June 2022 as a visiting student at IQAC. Inside Miriam Royo’s research group, she focused her research on the development of multivalent drug delivery systems, designed to test their ability to form nanostructures in aqueous media for a convenient administration for the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. 

Inorganic-polymer hybrid and nanostructured materials

Publicaciones