Joan_ComengeAs a postgraduate student, my research activity was carried out mainly at the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (Barcelona, Spain) under the supervision of Prof. Victor Puntes. The research was focused on the synthesis and functionalization of Gold Nanoparticles for drug delivery applications. I also investigated the potential effect of these drug delivery systems as radiosensitiser agents for radiotherapy at the Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology (Belfast, UK). My expertise on nanoparticles synthesis helped me to develop protocols for the pharmaceutical industry (Nanotargeting SL).

My current interests include the development of efficient nanoprobes for MultiSpectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT). Anisotropic nanoparticles are of special interest for cell tracking due to their optical properties. Briefly, cells can be labelled with nanoparticles that show a very high absorption in the region of the electromagnetic spectra in which endogenous absorbance is minimal  and therefore the corresponding optoacoustic signal would be clearly distinguished from the endogenous signal.

Relevant Publications:

J. Comenge and V. Puntes. Stabilizing AuNP conjugates in Physiological conditions by PEGylation. Methods in Molecular Biology (2013). Vol. 1025, 281-89

J. Comenge, C. Sotelo, F. Romero, O. Gallego, A. Barnades, F. Domínguez, V. Puntes. Detoxifying Antitumoral Drugs Via Nanoconjugation: The Case of Gold Nanoparticles and Cisplatin. PLoS One (2012),7(10),e47562

I. Ardao, J. Comenge, M. D. Benaiges, V. Puntes, G. Alvaro. Rational Nanoconjugation Improves Biocatalytic Performance of Enzymes: Aldol Addition Catalyzed by Immobilized Rhamnulose-1-Phosphate Aldolase. Langmuir (2012), 28(15), 6461-6467

I. Ojea-Jimenez, J. Comenge, L. Garcia-Fernandez, Z.A. Megson, Z. A, E. Casals, V. Puntes. Engineered Inorganic Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery Applications. Current drug metabolism (2013), 14(5), 518-30.

N.G. Bastús, J.Comenge, V. Puntes. Kinetically-controlled Seeded Growth Synthesis of Citrate-Stabilized Gold Nanoparticles up to 200 nm: Size Focusing vs. Ostwald Ripening. Langmuir (2011),27(17),11098-1110

Funded by

BBSRC
epsrc
MRC