Dr G Battaglia

Chem. Eng."Laurea", PhD
Lecturer in Bionanotechnology

Dr G Battaglia

Address:
The Kroto Research Institute
North Campus
University of Sheffield
Broad Lane
Sheffield
S3 7HQ

Tel: +44 (0)114 222 5962
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 5945

Email: g.battaglia@sheffield.ac.uk

Giuseppe Battaglia was appointed as Lecturer in Bionanotechnology in February 2006. Prior to joining the department, he completed his PhD in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield within Professor Anthony Ryan´s research group. Before moving to Sheffield, He graduated in Chemical Engineering at the University of Palermo, Italy, specialising in Macromolecular Biomaterials, he, after, joined the ICI Strategic Technology Group as Research Process Engineer.
His research interests focus upon self-assembling polymers in water for the design of functional materials. Specifically, his approach can be divided in two classes:

Intra-aggregate engineering

This approach is based on the molecular design of colloidal polymeric assemblies, such as polymeric vesicles and polymeric micelles for application as delivery systems of bioactive molecules. Polymeric assemblies are engineered introducing functionalities that make them able to target specific biological sites and to change their morphology upon environmental changes such as temperature or pH.
We have recently engineered in collaboration with Prof Armes from the Chemistry department pH sensitive polymer vesicles which is able to delivery efficiently and rapidly almost any kind of molecules within the cell interior without affecting the metabolic activity of the cell. This is particular important in gene delivery and cancer therapy. These involve the collaboration with colleagues from the Medical and Dental School.

micrographs of polymer vesicles
From left to right, cryogenic electron micrograph of polymer vesicle dispersion, a detail of a single vesicle with its membrane magnified and confocal laser scanning 3D orthonormal projection of human dermal fibroblast cells (nuclei stained in green) after polymer vesicle mediated intracellular delivery of rhodamine (red).

Supra-aggregate engineering

This approach is based on the control of the different interactions between polymeric assemblies exploiting them for the formation of supra-aggregates ordered structures such as lyotropic liquid crystals, vesicular gels, polymeric myelins and multilamellar aggregates. This supramolecular-level control is currently studied for engineering devices for applications that range from scaffolds for tissue engineering, artificial muscles, functional materials templating, to the design of controlled nano-machine that can operate at molecular level.

The evolution of polymer vesicles from lamellar gels
From left to right, confocal laser scanning micrographs of different morphologies formed during the evolution of polymer vesicles from lamellar gels.

Transmission electron micrographs of different mesophases
Transmission electron micrographs of different mesophases formed by membrane forming copolymers at different water concentrations, from left to right, hexagonally packed vesicles, bicontinuous Im3m phase and inverse hexagonal packed cylinders.

Selected Publications

  • Battaglia, G. & Ryan, A. J. "Bilayers and Interdigitation in Block Copolymer Vesicles". Journal of American Chemical Society 127, 8757-8764 (2005).
  • Battaglia, G. & Ryan, A. J. "The evolution of vesicles from bulk lamellar gels". Nature Materials 4, 869–876 (2005).
  • Battaglia, G. & Ryan, A. J. "Effect of amphiphile size on the transformation from a lyotropic gel to a vesicular dispersion". Macromolecules, 39, 798-805 (2006).
  • Battaglia, G. & Ryan, A. J. "Neuron-like tubular amphiphilic membranes made of diblock copolyethers". Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 45, 2052-2056 (2006).
  • Battaglia, G.; Tomas, S.; Ryan, A. J. "Lamellarsomes: metastable polymeric multilamellar aggregates". Soft Matter 1, 470 - 475, (2007).
  • Lomas, H.; Canton, I.; MacNeil, S.; Du, J.; Armes, S. P.; Ryan, A. J.; Lewis, A. L.; Battaglia, G. "Biomimetic pH Sensitive Polymersomes for Efficient DNA Encapsulation and Delivery". Advanced Materials accepted for publication (2007).

Research Group

PDRAs
Nicola Green
Caterina Lo Presti

PhD Students
Hannah Lomas
David Robinson
Tom Smart
Miriam Flores Merino
Marzia Massignani
Martin Gill
Vanessa Hearnden

Professional Memberships

American Chemical Society
Institute of Physics
Materials Research Society

Research Centres

Centre for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering

Polymer Centre