Natural Polymers and Biomimetics (NP&B)

The main activities of our research group are focused of the investigation of natural biopolymers such as polysaccharides (e.g. chitosan, hyaluronic acid, alginate etc), polyaminoacids/polypeptides (e.g. protamine and silk-derived peptides) and more recently, sporopollenins and cellulose composites for biomedical applications. These include the formulation of drug-loaded micro- and nanocarriers for therapeutic applications (metabolic disease, inflammatory diseases, cancer etc.) and antigen-loaded nanosystems for vaccination and antigen-specific immunotherapy. In most of the cases, our delivery strategies are specifically targeted to mucosal surfaces such as the nasal, ocular, pulmonary or the oral route.