12 Oct 2012
Alessandro Poma was awarded a Rideal Travel Bursary to attend MIP 2012, Paris, 26 -30 August 2012. He presented a poster on Solid-phase synthesis and therapeutic potential of molecularly imprinted polymeric nanoparticles (MIP NPs).
Alessandro writes: MIPs and MIP NPs have proved to successful in mimicking the characteristics of antibodies. My group has developed a new automatic solid-phase synthetic strategy for producing high-affinity MIP NPs for various targets, in good yields and sizes, with minimal manual intervention. The affinity of all synthesised MIP NPs is suitable for applications in assays and sensors, as well as controlled drug delivery and therapy. The feedback I received was very positive and my poster was voted the best poster.
The main presenters at the event included the founding fathers of MIP technology: Prof Günther Wulff and Prof Klaus Mosbach. Several other key people in the MIP area, including Karsten Haupt, Kenneth Shea, Borje Sellergren, Lei Ye and Toshifumi Takeuchi also attended.
I discovered several new aspects of MIP technology which are being explored and realised our group is probably one of the few working with colloidal MIPs. Nevertheless, much still needs to be investigated in the MIP area to convince the scientific community, and especially industry, of the true value of MIPs.
Attending this conference will have a strong impact on my career, and the value of my work was appreciated by other attendees, and especially those working in MIP nanoparticles. I was able to discuss possible collaborations, and it seems likely that at least two of these will go ahead.
While most of my research group was at the conference, we will share what we learned and exploit these ideas for those who could not attend. All in all, it was a delightful experience and I just would like to thank SCI for their help in attending this event.
Alessandro Poma
Cranfield University
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