Dr. Roberto Palomba is a Reseacher at Nanotechnology for Precision Medicine Laboratory at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. He is currently working on the on nanoparticle - immune cells interplay. His research activity focuses on addressing one of the most critical issues in the clinical development of nanomedicines: the aspecific sequestration of blood-borne nano/micro-particles by professional phagocytic cells. Roberto has followed two different, complementary approaches, the first focusing on particle features, the second on conditioning phagocytic cells with a novel class of nanoparticles. In addition, he is working on other side projects regarding: i) the use of nanomedicines for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases; ii) the development of microfluidic models of hepatic sinusoid; iii) nanoparticle transport inside vasculature.
Dr Palomba achieved his MSc in Medical Biotechnology at the University of Naples Federico II in October 2008, he studied the molecular pathogenesis of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. During his PhD in Biotechnology, his activities focused on the identification of Aldolse C protein interactors in mammalian brain, the gene regulation of brain-specific human aldolase C and the process of differentiation of myoblasts. During these years, he supervised and coordinated the activities of several MSc students.
In July 2014, he moved to USA and started a Post Doc at the “Houston Methodist Research Institute”. His studies were aimed to the development of a drug carrier capable to target tumor vasculature and increase its permeability. As main side projects, he investigated: the margination of microparticles in blood vessels, new strategies aimed to increase nanoparticles diffusion in tumor microenvironment and biomimetic cellular vectors for enhancing drug delivery to lungs.