Ven10:0011:00ufficio primo piano Edificio B, Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco

Since 2017 Stefano Salmaso is professor of Technology of delivery and controlled release of drugs at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences of the University of Padova.
He received his Ph.D. in “Pharmaceutical Sciences” in 2004 from the University of Padova. He completed his training in internationally awarded research groups at the School of Pharmacy of the University of Paris-Sud XI, at I.B.M.C Center of the University of Strasbourg, and at Centre for Innovative Biotechnologies of the University of Padova.
He held positions as assistant professor of Pharmaceutical Technology (CHIM/09) at the University of Padova (2004-2014) and as associate scientist at Northeastern University (Boston-USA, 2005 and 2008) where he developed "smart" nanocarriers for drug delivery to the tumor and the brain and innovative immunoliposomes for selective activation of immune system.
In 2016-2019 he was member of the international team of the ITN Marie Curie project "OCUTHER" supported by the EU; the project was aimed at developing novel treatments for ocular deseases. In 2009 he was recipient of a three-years grant from the European Commission in the framework of the FP VII (NanoSCI ERAnet) for the development of responsive polymersomes for the delivery of siRNA to silence key proteins in the progression of cancer in collaboration with the University of Nottingham and Principe Felipe Research Center in Valencia.
Since 2023 he is President of the Controlled Release Society Italy Chapter.

1. Salmaso S, Semenzato A, Caliceti P, Hoebeke J, Sonvico F, Dubernet C, Couvreur P. (2004). Specific antitumor targetable beta-cyclodextrin-poly(ethylene glycol)-folic acid drug delivery bioconjugate. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 15: 997-1004.
2. Sawant R.M., Hurley J.P, Salmaso S., Kale A, Tolcheva E, Levchenko T.S, Torchilin V.P. (2006). "Smart" drug delivery systems: double-targeted pH-responsive pharmaceutical nanocarriers. Bioconjugate Chemistry. 17: 943-949.
4. Salmaso S., Semenzato A., Bersani S., Matricardi P., Rossi F., Caliceti P. (2007) Cyclodextrin/PEG based hydrogels for multi-drug delivery. International Journal of Pharmaceutics. 345: 42-50.
5. Salmaso S., Bersani S., Semenzato A., Caliceti P. (2007) New cyclodextrin bioconjugates for active tumour targeting. Journal of Drug Targeting. 15: 379-390.
6. Salmaso S., Schrepfer R., Cavallaro G., Bersani S., Caboi F., Giammona G., Tonon G., Caliceti P. (2008). Supramolecular association of recombinat human growth hormone with hydrophobized polyhydroxyethylaspartamides. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. 68: 656-666.
8. Salmaso S., Caliceti P., Amendola V., Meneghetti M., Magnusson J.P., Pasparakisc G. and Alexander C. (2009) Cell up-take control of gold nanoparticles functionalized with a thermoresponsive polymer. J. Mater. Chem. 19: 1608-1615.
9. Salmaso S., Pappalardo J. S., Sawant R. R., Musacchio T., Rockwell K., Caliceti P. and Torchilin V. P. (2009) Targeting Glioma Cells in Vitro with Ascorbate-Conjugated Pharmaceutical Nanocarriers. Bioconjugate Chem. 20: 2348-2355.
10. Salmaso S, Bersani S, Scomparin A, Mastrotto F, Scherpfer R, Tonon G, Caliceti P. (2009) Tailored PEG for rh-G-CSF Analogue Site-Specific Conjugation. Bioconjug. Chem. 20: 1179-1185.
12. Salmaso S., Bersani S., Pirazzini M., and Caliceti P. (2011) pH-sensitive PEG-based micelles for tumor targeting J Drug Target 19: 303-313.
13. Mastrotto F., Caliceti P., Amendola V., Bersani S., Magnusson J.P., Meneghetti M., Mantovani G., Alexander C. and Salmaso, S.* (2011) Polymer control of ligand display on gold nanoparticles for multimodal switchable cell targeting. Chem. Commun. 47: 9846-89848.
14. Salmaso S., Bersani S, Mastrotto F., Tonon G., Schrepfer R., Genovese S., Caliceti P. (2012) Self-assembling nanocomposites for protein delivery: Supramolecular interactions between PEG-cholane and rh-G-CSF. Journal of Controlled Release. 162: 176-184.
15. Ravazzolo E., Salmaso S.*, Mastrotto F., Bersani S., Gallon E., Caliceti P. (2013)
pH responsive lipid core micelles for tumour targeting. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics. 83: 346–357
16. Matini T., Spain S., Mantovani G., Vicent M., Sanchis J., Gallon E., Mastrotto F., Salmaso S., Caliceti P. and Alexander C. (2013) Synthesis and characterization of variable conformation pH responsive block co-polymers for nucleic acid delivery and targeted cell entry. Polym. Chem. Accepted
17. Bersani S., Vila-Caballer M., Brazzale C., Barattin M., Salmaso S. (2014)pH-sensitive stearoyl-PEG-poly(methacryloyl sulfadimethoxine) decorated liposomes for the delivery of gemcitabine to cancer cells. Eur J Pharm Biopharm DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpb.2014.08.005
18. Salmaso S, Bersani S, Scomparin A, Balasso A, Brazzale C, Barattin M, Caliceti P. (2014)
A novel soluble supramolecular system for sustained rh-GH delivery. J Control Release.194: 168-177

Novel pharmacologically active molecules have been developed in the last decades. In particular, much attention has been dedicated to the search for new anticancer small drugs with high activity, low toxicity and appropriate biopharmaceutical features. Another class of drugs that has recently attracted lot of interest is represented by biopharmaceutics, namely proteins and oligonucleotides. Although these classes of drugs are quite different, they share some common unfavorable issues: poor biopharmaceutical features. For this reason, the development of innovative drug delivery systems is one of the major challenges of the pharmaceutical technology.Nanotechnology offers exciting opportunities for the development of drug delivery systems that can improve the drug biopharmaceutical properties and guarantee for the selective and controlled release at target sites in the body.My studies are focused on the development of innovative systems for the delivery of anticancer drugs and biotechnological active molecules.1) Development of metal particle based nanovectors for multimodal tissue recognition for tumor therapy and diagnosis. Gold nanoparticles can be decorated with polymers sensitive to microenvironmental stimuli (pH and temperature) and targeting molecules that precisely biorecognize the cancer tissue. The decoration of the surface with functional and biological agents provide for enhanced site-selectivity as a consequence of bio-sensing of the surrounding environment. Promising results showed their potential applications for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.2) Study of microenvironmental stimuli responsive micelles, liposomes, polymersomes. Studies are undergoing aimed at developing vesicular systems (micelles, liposomes and polymersomes) assembled with responsive materials and targeting agents for the controlled release of anticancer drugs and siRNA. The results obtained so far have opened fascinating perspectives for the development of “smart” anti-cancer drug and oligonucleotide vehicles. Vesicles are also investigated for subcellular compartment targeting to induce novel unexplored mechanism of drug activity.3) Bioconjugates for the delivery of drugs. This research line is aimed at investigating polymer bioconjugates for the delivery of drugs. A set of derivatives were generated using cyclodextrins that have been modified with targeting agents and PEG-alkyl chains; they showed high capacity to encapsulate anticancer drugs. The cyclodextrin based carriers have been found to selectively deliver drugs to tumor cells while preserving the chemical stability of the drug. 4) Formulation of proteins using biocompatible nanoparticle and micelles. Polymeric particles and micelles obtained with amphiphilic polymers are exploited to physically encapsulate therapeutically relevant peptides and cytokines with poor biopharmaceutical profile and to modulate their pharmacokinetic profiles. 5) Development of targeted nanocarriers to cross the blood brain barrier. Novel strategies to cross the BBB and deliver drugs are under investigation using receptor targeted colloidal systems as scaffold.6) Coating of flat surfaces with “smart” polymers and components with cell biorecognition capacity. This investigation is aimed at precisely modulate the interface properties of devices to precisely control biorecognition of approaching cells, cell adhesion and cell sorting by applying external physical stimuli.

Are you interested to join a dynamic and international research environment?

I offer thesis position in a Research&Development team that will help you to build your expertise in drug delivery.

If you are willing to start a project thesis in February/March, the right time to contact Prof Salmaso and visit his research group of Drug Delivey is 9 months before.

The thesis activities are focused on nanotechnology and delivery of drugs and biologics.

Availability for experimental master thesis on the following projects:

Development of smart gold nanoparticles for anticancer drug delivery. Gold nanoparticles will be tested for external stimuli activation to leverage the anticancer activities of drugs
Development of liposomes for anticancer and antibacteria drug delivery. Lipidic vesicles will be prepared with functional coating agents to promote encapsulation of anticancer drugs or antibacteria drug, and the access through biobarriers and the intracellular space.
Development of lipoplexes for anticancer therapeutic nucleic acid delivery, and for immunostimulation in cancer vaccination. Lipidic vesicles will be prepared with functional coating agents to promote nucleic acid loading, access across cell barriers and programmed intracellular release.
Delivery of therapeutic peptides by lipid nanoparticles. The focus of this thesis project is to generate novel biocompatible carriers formulated with a microfluidic approach. Functional components will be included to enhance the encapsulation efficiency, promote stability and biobarrier crossing for oral absorption.