Antonio Ferrara

Sapienza University of Rome / Nanoparticle Drug Delivery

Advisor: Prof. Maria Luisa Rossi

Antonio Ferrara designs lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticles at Sapienza University of Rome's Department of Drug Chemistry and Technologies, with a focus on the notoriously difficult challenge of co-delivering a hydrophilic gemcitabine analogue and hydrophobic paclitaxel in a single carrier to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumours. Under Prof. Maria Luisa Rossi, he has developed a sequential self-assembly route that first forms a PLGA polymer core loaded with paclitaxel, then coats it with a PEGylated lecithin shell that electrostatically traps the gemcitabine prodrug. By decoupling the two loading mechanisms he independently optimises encapsulation efficiency for each drug — achieving 81% and 74% for the hydrophobic and hydrophilic payloads respectively. In PANC-1 pancreatic cancer spheroid models the combination nanoparticle outperforms the free-drug combination by 3.4-fold in IC₅₀, with the synergy attributed to the simultaneous delivery kinetics that single-drug carriers cannot replicate. Antonio's ongoing patent co-authorship with Sapienza's technology transfer office and a submitted abstract to the Controlled Release Society annual meeting are clear signals of imminent industry engagement.