Current Member

Ricardo Totovao

PhD Student

Office: ISIS 2.17
Telp:
FAX:
Email: ricardo.totovao@etu.unistra.fr

EDUCATION
2011 - 2013 :
MASTER’S DEGREE IN MOLECULAR AND SUPRAMOLECULAR CHEMISTRY (CMS), UNIVERSITE DE SRTASBOURG (UDS)
Research Master’s degree
Very developed teaching of organic and inorganic chemistry
Teaching of the basics of X-Ray crystallography and supramolecular chemistry
Practical works in physical chemistry (High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Gas Chromatography) and in chemical synthesis (organic and inorganic)
9 months internships in a research laboratory (3 during the first year and 6 during the second year)
2007 - 2011 :
LICENCE EN CHIMIE, EQUIVALENT OF A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY, UDS
Teaching of the basics of chemistry, including organic (reactivity and mechanisms), inorganic (organometallic chemistry and catalysis) and analytical (HPLC, GC, and mass spectroscopy)
Practical works in physical chemistry (electrochemistry, ultraviolet-visible, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)
and synthetic chemistry (organic and inorganic)
2006 :
BACCALAUREAT SCIENTIFIQUE, EQUIVALENT OF A-LEVEL IN SCIENCE, Lycée Henri Meck, Molsheim (67120)
 
WORK EXPERIENCE
2013 :
INTERNSHIP AT THE LABORATORY OF FUNCTIONAL CHEMO-SYSTEMS (LFCS), FACULE DE PHARMACIE, UDS-CNRS (as part of the CMS Master’s degree, 6 months)
Organic chemistry for pharmaceutical applications, developments of cleavable linkers for applications in proteomics
2012 :
INTERNSHIP AT THE LABORATOIRE DE DERMOTICHIMIE, FACULTE DE CHIMIE, UDS-CNRS (as part of the CMS Master’s degree, 3 months)
Organic chemistry for biological applications , synthesis and studies of molecules in view of 13C isotopic substitutions
2011 :
INTERNSHIP AT THE LABORATOIRE DE CONCEPTION ET APPLICATION DE MOLECULES BIOACTIVES, FACULTE DE PHARMACIE, UDS-CNRS (1 month)
Organic chemistry for pharmaceutical applications
Other experience :
Currently, every Saturday : logistic employee at Auchan Logistique Duttlenheim (67120), warehouse clerk, I have been working there since summer 2007.
 
LANGUAGES AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE
English : fluent in written and spoken, including scientific vocabulary
German : read, written and spoken ( A-level and some months at university)
Good knowledge of office software applications (word processor, spreadsheet…)
Comfortable with the use of chemistry software (NMR notebook, Chembiodraw…)
 
INTERESTS
Music, cinema, sport (practiced within university) : football, basketball, english boxing.

Since their discovery in 19911, Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) have been widely used in catalysis chemistry. But recently, due to their numerous properties, they started to be investigated in biomedical applications. Indeed, MSNPs present the advantages of low toxicity and biocompatibility. Another advantage of this material regards its versatility, which is indeed related to the possibility to tune the particle size and shape, considerably increasing the adaptability of the material to specific applications, from drug delivery to imaging. Adding to that, both the inner and the outer surface of this nanoparticle can be orthogonally functionalized, enabling the possibility to load guest molecules or proteins.

Because of all these properties, MSNPs have attracted a great attention in nanomedicine, which is a part of medicine which includes the use of submicrometer-sized tools for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases, for better understanding the complex underlying pathophysiology of diseases, and for improving the quality of life of patients.2,3,4 Thus many in vitro studies have been investigated about the MSNPs, and recently, in vivo investigations have been led since the oral administration of such nanoparticles have been approved by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA).5

But a lot of concern is still alive for the intraveneous administration of MSNPs, which might lead, in case of inefficient biodegradability, to accumulation phenomena and thus inefficient excretion, impeding clinical translation. In this way, we are working on stimuli-responsive hybrid organic/inorganic mesoporous silica nanoparticles, which are endowed with a unique biodegradability. This novel material represents a strong candidate to bridge the gap between the potential of MSNPs as nanomedical tool, and their actual implementation in routine medical treatments.

 

References

1.    Kresge, C. T.; Leonowicz, M. E.; Roth, W. J.; Vartuli, J. C.; Beck, J. S.; Nature, 1992, 359, 710−712. DOI: 10.1038/359710a0

2.    Sanvicens, N.; Marco, M. P.; Trends Biotechnol. ,2008, 26, 425−433. DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2008.04.005

3.     Lammers, T.; Kiessling, F.; Hennink, W. E.; Storm, G.; Mol. Pharm. ,2010, 7, 1899−1912. DOI: 10.1021/mp100228v

4.    Rosenholm, J. M.; Sahlgren, C.; Lindén, M.; Curr. Drug Target, 2011, 12, 1166−1186. DOI: 10.2174/138945011795906624

5.    Fangqiong, T.; Linlin L.; Dong C.; Adv. Mater., 2012, 24, 1504–1534. DOI: 10.1002/adma.201104763