Bachelor degree in Biotechnology
Bachelor Thesis: Characterization of polymer and nanocomposite systems in the field of biomaterials.
Università degli studi di Trieste, Department of Life Sciences.

Master degree in Biotechnology, curriculum: Nanobiotechnology
Master Thesis: Development and characterization of bioactive membranes based on polysaccharides Università degli studi di Trieste, Department of Life Science.

Research collaborator
Research and development of polymers-based biomaterials (September 2013 – December 2013)
Università degli studi di Trieste, Department of Life Sciences, Biomaterials Group.

Research collaborator
Chemical modifications of dextran for gene and drug delivery (March 2014 – October 2014)
Gutenberg University of Mainz, Department of Pharmacy and Biochemistry .

The aim of the PhD project is the development of nanoporous polymeric materials for the purification of the dialysate used in hemodialysis treatment. Large part of the work will be focus on the development of sorbent systems to be incorporated in Mixed Matrix Membranes. These latter will be applied for the removal of urea and other toxins from the dialysate combining together diffusion and adsorption. Another important part of the project deals with the fabrication of polymer nanofiltration membranes for the selective rejection of ammonium ions obtained from the hydrolysis of urea by using ureases.

Hemodialysis is a life-saving therapy, which however has quite high environmental impact. More than one hundred liters of ultra-pure water are used per session per patient and every session has to be performed usually three times per week. The environmental reasons, as well as the advantages of having continuous patient treatment, stimulated research towards development of portable or wearable artificial kidney systems with the regeneration of the dialysate. The project is mostly focused on the removal of urea from the dialysate. Urea is the primary waste product of nitrogen metabolism and it exerts lethal toxic effects at high concentration.