Letizia Nicoletti

Ph.D. in Bioingegneria E Scienze Medico-chirurgiche , 36th cycle (2020-2023)

Ph.D. obtained in 2024

Dissertation:

NEW ADVANCED THERAPIES FOR DRUG DELIVERY IN CARDIAC REGENERATION. (Abstract)

Tutors:

Valeria Chiono Clara Mattu

Profile

Research topic

NEW ADVANCED THERAPIES FOR DRUG DELIVERY IN CARDIAC REGENERATION

Research interests

Cardiac and Vascular Surgery
Nanomedicine
Bionanotechnology

Biography

Letizia Nicoletti is a PhD student in Bioengineering and Medical-Surgical Sciences at Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (DIMEAS) of Politecnico di Torino. She works in BIORECAR project (ERC Horizon 2020 grant agreement No 772168, http://www.biorecar.polito.it) on the design of new advanced therapies for drug delivery in cardiac regeneration.
She got a Master’s degree (April 2019) in Pharmacy at the Department of Drug Science and Technology, University of Turin. She performed her master thesis in collaboration with the Laboratoire d'Automatique et de Gènie des Procèdès; et Gènie Pharmaceutique (LAGEPP, team Gepharm) at University Lyon 1, focused on the formulation and physicochemical characterization of polymeric and lipid nanoparticles tested on human colorectal cell line.
She got a position as a Post-graduate Fellow (In June 2019), and, then, as a PhD student (November 2020) in BIORECAR project under Prof. Valeria Chiono’s supervision at Politecnico di Torino. Her activity was aimed at the design of innovative polymeric and lipid nanoparticles for the direct reprogramming of cardiac fibroblasts into cardiomyocytes.
During her activity in BIORECAR, Letizia Nicoletti formulated and characterised novel lipoplexes and bioartificial nanoparticles for microRNA encapsulation. Moreover, her research work has included the design and characterization of an injectable hydrogel for the administration of nanoparticles in vivo, under Prof. Valeria Chiono and postdoc Elena Marcello’s supervision. Recently, she obtained the FEDERATION of EUROPEAN BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETIES (FEBS) Summer Fellowship to work for three months at BioEmission Technology Solutions P.C. (BIOEMTECH) in Athens to carry out in vivo biological characterization of nanoparticles biodistribution and efficacy in a murine model. The obtained results were the subject of 5 poster and 3 oral presentations in national and international congresses. She received 1 Best Poster Presentation Award at NANO-DAY IV edition Conference in December 2019 and Precision Nanomedicine Fellowship Awards for junior scientists. In her research, she dedicated effort towards applied research, working on the creation of a startup PoliRNA (as a spin-off of BIORECAR project). To develop the technology and achieve TRL advancement for market approach, she worked on the project PoC Instrument Project POLHYGENTH (Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo). She is currently working on two projects, ERC-PoC-2022 POLIRNA and AFM-Telethon SaveAR-2022. She have also participated as a finalist in 2 competitions for the Start-up development: Startcup Piemonte-Valle D'Aosta, Winner of "Mention Covid-19" and Meet in Italy for Life Sciences, Winner of Life Science District Mentoring.
During her research activity as Post-graduate fellow and PhD student, Dr. Nicoletti has co-supervised 8 Master’s thesis students, and performed lab tutoring activity for the Master Course “Practical formation in biomedical nanotechnologies and advanced therapies” - Biomedical Engineering Faculty at Politecnico di Torino.
She is member of Controlled Release Society (CRS), National Bioengineering Group (GNB), Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Society (TERMIS) and European Society for Biomaterials (ESB).
Letizia Nicoletti has published 2 papers and she is one of the inventors of 1 patent (Italian Patent Application n. 102021000032393 – 23 Dic. 2021 and PCT extension cod. PCT/IB2022/062678 – 22 Dic. 2022) on nanotechnologies for oligonucleotide release.

Awards and Honors

  • Costituzione startup PoliRNA srl (2024)
  • Interview of PoliRNA srl at Digital World RAI program (2024)
  • Seleziona di PoliRNA srl in I Tech Innovation Program 2024 - Accordo di investimento con Fondazione Golinelli e G-Factor (2024)
  • Selezione di PoliRNA srl per partecipazione a StartUp Breeze 2024 (2024)
  • Selection for ReActor Pro School by Fondazione Golinelli and G-Factor S.r.l. in 2023 (2023)
  • Inivited as speaker at “Paradigm Shift of Academic Research Valorization and Technology Transfer for EU Area” meeting to be held at the University of Calabria, Rende (Cosenza), Italy, September 18th, 2024. (2024)
  • Riconoscimento di PoliRNA srl come spin off del Politecnico di Torino (2024)
  • Richiesta estensione PCT brevetto (2024)
  • ITALIA - domanda di brevetto n. 102021000032393 depositata in data 23/12/2021 dal titolo: “METODO PER LA PREPARAZIONE DI NANOPARTICELLE POLIMERICHE IBRIDE PER IL RILASCIO DI FARMACI OLIGONUCLEOTIDICI NELLE TERAPIE FARMACOLO-GICHE A SCOPO RIGENERATIVO, CURATIVO E PREVENTIVO” (2021)
  • FEDERATION of EUROPEAN BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETIES Summer Fellowship for in vivo tests at BIOEMTECH, Athens. (July-Oct- 2022). (2022)
  • Winners of the Precision Nanomedicine Fellowship Awards (2023)
  • Best poster presentation, Nano-Day IV edition (December 2019). (2019)
  • “Covid-19 Special Mention” by “Start Cup Piemonte e Valle D’Aosta” in 2022 (2022)
  • “Life Science District Award” (a 1-year mentorship program under the support of Life Science District) by “Meet in Italy For Life Science” in 2022-23 (2022)
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Teaching

Teachings

Master of Science

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Research

Research groups

Publications

Works published during the Ph.D. View all publications in Porto@Iris

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Society and Enterprise

Patents and other intellectual properties

  • Metodo per la preparazione di nanoparticelle polimeriche ibride per il rilascio di farmaci oligonucleotidici nella terapie farmacologiche a scopo rigenerativo, curativo e preventivo.. national and international Patent
    Inventors: Valeria Chiono Clara Mattu Letizia Nicoletti Camilla Paoletti