Ruirui Qiao, one of the assistant professors of our group, visited Prof. Galla’s group in Münster University from Jan 16 to Feb 29 supported by the NSFC Major International Joint Research Project (20820102035). The major purpose of her visit was to further work out on the project about the interaction between nanoparticles and biological barriers, which has been started in 2009.
    The current research interests of this project focuses on the receptor mediated transport of iron oxide nanoparticles across the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In China she has established all the chemical synthesis steps to produce water-soluble biocompatible nanoparticles and which have been characterized with respect to size, PEG-coating, saturation magnetization and colloidal stability. In Münster in the Institute of Biochemistry in Prof.Galla’s group they have established a cell culture model which allows us to quantify the brain delivery of these probes across the blood brain barrier as a prerequisite for the application as MRI and MRI-SPECT dual modality molecular probes. The current research has been submitted to ACS Nano before her visit. During her stay in Münster, she has been continued the work by applying the conjugated nanoparticles for blocking experiments allowing us to study cooperative effects between ligands on the nanoparticles and receptors on the endothelial cells. After the revision based on the data acquired in Münster, the submitted paper has been accepted by ACS Nano recently.
    Furthermore, she also gave a presentation on the lecture hosted by the BC/SFB 858-Kolloquium in WS 2011/2012 Vortragsankündigung.