Université de Fribourg

Bioinspired stimuli-responsive color-changing systems

Isapour, Golnaz ; Lattuada, Marco

In: Advanced Materials, 2018, vol. 30, no. 19, p. 1707069

Stimuli-responsive colors are a unique characteristic of certain animals, evolved as either a method to hide from enemies and prey or to communicate their presence to rivals or mates. From a material science perspective, the solutions developed by Mother Nature to achieve these effects are a source of inspiration to scientists for decades. Here, an updated overview of the literature on...

Université de Fribourg

Cellular shuttles: monocytes/macrophages exhibit transendothelial transport of nanoparticles under physiological flow

Moore, Thomas L. ; Hauser, Daniel ; Gruber, Thomas ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Lattuada, Marco ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Lyck, Ruth

In: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2017, vol. 9, no. 22, p. 18501–18511

A major hurdle in the development of biomedical nanoparticles (NP) is understanding how they interact with complex biological systems and navigate biological barriers to arrive at pathological targets. It is becoming increasingly evident that merely controlling particle physicochemical properties may not be sufficient to mediate particle biodistribution in dynamic environments. Thus,...

Université de Fribourg

Characterization of the shape anisotropy of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles during thermal decomposition

Vanhecke, Dimitri ; Crippa, Federica ; Lattuada, Marco ; Balog, Sandor ; Rothen-Rutishauser, Barbara ; Petri-Fink, Alke

In: Materials, 2020, vol. 13, no. 9, p. 2018

Magnetosomes are near-perfect intracellular magnetite nanocrystals found in magnetotactic bacteria. Their synthetic imitation, known as superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), have found applications in a variety of (nano)medicinal fields such as magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents, multimodal imaging and drug carriers. In order to perform these functions in medicine,...

Université de Fribourg

Effect of aging on silica aerogel properties

Iswar, Subramaniam ; Malfait, Wim J. ; Balog, , Sandor ; Winnefeld, Frank ; Lattuada, Marco ; Koebel, Matthias M.

In: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2017, vol. 241, p. 293–302

Silica aerogels’ unique physical and chemical properties make them fascinating materials for a wide variety of applications. In addition to hydrophobization by silylation, aging is very important in the synthesis of silica aerogel by ambient pressure drying. Here we systematically study the effect of aging on the physico-chemical properties of silica aerogel with emphasis on ambient dried...

Université de Fribourg

Effect of aging on thermal conductivity of fiber-reinforced aerogel composites: An X-ray tomography study

Iswara, Subramaniam ; Griffa, Michele ; Kaufmann, Rolf ; Beltran, Mario ; Huber, Lukas ; Brunner, Samuel ; Lattuada, Marco ; M.Koebel, Matthias ; Malfait, Wim J.

In: Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 2019, vol. 278, p. 289–296

Silica aerogels display an ultra-low thermal conductivity (λ) and are used as thermal superinsulators. Here, we study the influence of aging and drying processes on the microstructure and thermal conductivity of fiber-reinforced silica aerogel composites. Glass wool-silica gel composites were aged for variable times, hydrophobized, and dried either at ambient pressure or from supercritical...

Université de Fribourg

Effect of clustering on the heat generated by superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles

Lattuada, Marco

In: CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, 2019, vol. 73, no. 1, p. 39–42

Magnetic nanoparticles have been the subject of enormous investigations for their potential use as cancer treatment via hyperthermia. This is due to their ability to generate heat when exposed to an external magnetic field oscillating at sufficiently high frequency. There are many different parameters that need to be considered when designing the optimal nanoparticle formulation for...

Université de Fribourg

Fractal-like structures in colloid science

Lazzari, S. ; Nicoud, L. ; Jaquet, B. ; Lattuada, Marco ; Morbidelli, M.

In: Advances in Colloid and Interface Science, 2016, vol. 235, p. 1–13

The present work aims at reviewing our current understanding of fractal structures in the frame of colloid aggregation as well as the possibility they offer to produce novel structured materials. In particular, the existing techniques to measure and compute the fractal dimension df are critically discussed based on the cases of organic/inorganic particles and proteins. Then the aggregation...

Université de Fribourg

Functional polymers through mechanochemistry

Schrettl, Stephen ; Balkenendea, Diederik W. R. ; Calvino, Céline ; Karman, Marc ; Lavrenova, Anna ; Neumann, Laura N. ; Sagaraa, Yoshimitsu ; Verde-Sestoa, Ester ; Giannantonio, Michela di ; Simon, Yoan C. ; Fromm, Katharina M. ; Lattuada, Marco ; Weder, Christoph

In: CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry, 2019, vol. 73, no. 1, p. 7–11

While coupling mechanical and chemical processes is widespread in living organisms, the idea to harness the mechanically induced dissociation of weak covalent and non- covalent bonds to create artificial materials that respond to mechanical stimulation has only recently gained attention. Here we summarize our activities that mainly revolve around the exploitation of non-covalent interactions...

Université de Fribourg

Growth and aggregation regulate clusters structural properties and gel time

Lazzari, Stefano ; Lattuada, Marco

In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2017, vol. 121, no. 11, p. 2511–2524

Silica aerogels’ unique physical and chemical properties make them fascinating materials for a wide variety of applications. In addition to hydrophobization by silylation, aging is very important in the synthesis of silica aerogel by ambient pressure drying. Here we systematically study the effect of aging on the physico-chemical properties of silica aerogel with emphasis on ambient dried...

Université de Fribourg

Holistic view on cell survival and dna damage: how model-based data analysis supports exploration of dynamics in biological systems

Weyland, Mathias S. ; Thumser-Henner, Pauline ; Nytko, Katarzyna J. ; Rohrer Bley, Carla ; Ulzega, Simone ; Petri-Fink, Alke ; Lattuada, Marco ; Füchslin, Rudolf M. ; Scheidegger, Stephan

In: Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine, 2020, vol. 2020, p. 1–11

In this work, a method is established to calibrate a model that describes the basic dynamics of DNA damage and repair. The model can be used to extend planning for radiotherapy and hyperthermia in order to include the biological effects. In contrast to “syntactic” models (e.g., describing molecular kinetics), the model used here describes radiobiological semantics, resulting in a more...