Prof Dr Luisa de Cola receives the Centenary Prize 2024 of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the category Research & Innovation
-
chair:
De Cola, L. (2024)
-
place:
Royal Society of Chemistry 2024
- Date: June 2024
-
Professor Luisa De Cola, laureate: 2024 Centenary Prize for Chemistry and Communication, Università degli Studi di Milano
Luisa De Cola received the prize for innovative studies on how to produce photophysically active materials and nanostructures for use in active biological systems aimed at future health solutions and for excellence in the field of communication.
Professor De Cola's research lies at the interface between chemistry, biology and medicine with the aim of finding new therapies, rapidly detecting pathogens and studying processes activated by the aggregation of small molecules.
De Cola's research group is developing tiny (nano)containers for the transport and release of drugs and biomolecules in certain organs and possibly in tumours. These containers appear to degrade in the body without leaving harmful toxins behind. In some cases, the containers even act like a drug, making conventional medicines redundant. This approach has the potential to kill cancer cells regardless of the type of tumour.
The group is also working on the diagnosis of diseases caused by pathogens by developing luminescent nanostructures that detect bacteria and viruses with exceptional sensitivity. For example, they can capture a single bacterium and make the hundreds of light-emitting molecules around it glow. This "signal amplification" enables accurate diagnoses with simple, fast and cheap sensors.