MICROFLUIDICS AS TECHNOLOGICAL STRATEGY FOR APPLIED NANO&BIOTECHNOLOGY: (I) CATIONIC LIPOSOMES, CHITOSAN AND AMINOACIDO-BASED NANOPARTICLES FOR GENE THERAPY AND ALTERNATIVE TOOLS FOR BIOPROCESSES INVESTIGATION

Abstract

This research project encompasses the activities of the Laboratory of Nano&Biotechnology for Advanced Developments (LaNBDA), under coordination of the responsible researcher of this project. The research activities are targeted to the microfluidics area, which is the science and technology that allow manipulation of microscale devices and handless small amounts of fluids that flow in artificial microsystems fabricated by using specific materials. Under such flow characteristics, it is possible to control molecules in space and time with reproducibility, enabling many applications. One important application is in gene therapy, which is based on the idea to carry out the treatment of specific diseases through the insertion of a therapeutic gene to target cells or patients. In this context, microfluidics is promising for the production of liposomes, polymeric nanoparticles (chitosan) and aminoacid-based nanoparticles. In the field of bioprocesses, microfluidics can be a useful tool for the screening of optimal conditions of microbial growth and also biocatalysts immobilization. In this sense, this research project presents 6 LaNBDA's subprojects from two distinguish research areas: (i) Microfluidics and Nanobiotechnology for gene therapy applications, aiming the production of liposomes containing siRNA (Project I) and new methods for in vitro transfection in microfluidic devices (Project II); chitosan and glycol chitosan (Project III); poly(amino acid)-based nanoparticles (Project IV); and (ii) Microfluidics and Biotechnology for the development of screening techniques of optimal conditions of microbial growth (Project V) and microorganism immobilization (Project VI). Therefore, this project aims to contribute in the field of microfluidics, more specifically for gene therapy applications and for the development of tools and processes in the field of biotechnology, besides forming human resources in these technical areas. (AU)