ECLipse Video is now online
Friday 29 Sept in Bologna we partecipate at the EuropeanResearchersNight with exciting experiments showing to child and adults the importance of biosensing!
ECLipse Video is now online
Coordinated by the University of Bologna, the new European project will develop portable devices with a level of sensitivity equal or higher than that of molecular PCR swabs, and with much faster results. Eclipse aims to design and produce a nanobiotechnological platform for the detection of pathogens that is both economical, usable even by non-expert personnel and with a high level of sensitivity and reliability.
Meet ECLIPSE team members
Who are the ECLIPSE team members? Find out on social media
ECLIPSE Annual Meeting
ECLIPSE Annual Meeting
Towards the first year of ECLIPSE project lifetime, the Annual Meeting was organized in Milan (Italy) last 13-14 April 2023, hosted by Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research IRCCS.
All members of the consortium attended the event, a two days intensive meeting that started with a general overview of the project.
Each WP and Task leader presented the progress of the activities. A special focus was dedicated to the exploitation targets and the first periodic report.
At the end of the meeting, all the consortium members agreed on the next steps, demonstrating a strong cohesion on project goals.
ECLipse Brochure is now online
Download our brochure to know more about ECLIPSE goals, our technology and all the research teams involved in this challenging project.
Advanced photodynamic therapy with an engineered M13 phage targeting EGFR
Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a potential synergistic approach to chemotherapy for treating ovarian cancer, the most lethal gynecologic malignancy. Here we used M13 bacteriophage as a targeted vector for the efficient photodynamic killing of SKOV3 and COV362 cells. The M13 phage was refactored (M13r) to display an EGFR binding peptide in its tip that is frequently overexpressed in ovarian cancer. The refactored phage was conjugated with chlorin e6 (Ce6), one of the most widely used photosensitizers (M13r-Ce6). The new platform, upon irradiation, generated ROS by type I mechanism and showed activity in killing SKOV3 and COV362 cells even at concentrations in which Ce6 alone was ineffective. A microscopy analysis demonstrated an enhanced cellular uptake of M13r-Ce6 compared to free Ce6 and its mitochondrial localization. Western blot analysis revealed significant downregulation in the expression of EGFR in cells exposed to M13r-Ce6 after PDT. Following PDT treatment, autophagy induction was supported by an increased expression of LC3II, along with a raised autophagic fluorescent signal, as observed by fluorescence microscopy analysis for autophagosome visualization. As a conclusion we have herein proposed a bacteriophage-based receptor targeted photodynamic therapy for EGFR-positive ovarian cancer.
Publication by Sabrina Conoci, Luca Prodi and Giovanni Valenti on Biosensors and Bioelectronics
News on ECLIPSE project published on Unibo Magazine
Unibo Magazine talks about the ECLIPSE project in the article “With ECLIPSE, rapid, reliable and cheap tests to detect viruses, bacteria and parasites”.