Francesca Mazzotta (ESR 06)

ESR 06 : Francesca Mazzotta

In 2018 I recived my BSc in Chemistry from University of Rome “Tor Vergata” after briefly working on developing a novel PVA-based hydrogel for cultural heritage applications under Prof. Palleschi and Prof. Paradossi supervision. I continued my studies doing a Master in Chemistry in the same university. My master’s project was done in Sweden in Lund University under Prof. Linse supervision. Here I worked with Amyloid  42 studying its aggregation using Luminescent Conjugated Oligothiophenes, a novel set of dye which has shown the potential of detecting amyloid intermediate structures. In order to study this system I have implemented a python script which can quickly analyze the data and extract the time scale on which the intermediates appear. During my time in Sweden, I came across the SuperCol project and decided to apply in order to learn about super resolution microscopy and expand my knowledge in a new and fascinating field.

Project topic: Advanced Colloid Synthesis

My work will develop Janus Nanoparticles which are colloids with an anisotropic structure. In order to synthesize these particles, I will master the miniemulsion – solvent evaporation technique applying it to functionalized co-polymers. The success of this work will allow us to generate functionalized nanoparticles with a defined and controlled surface chemistry.