We are working in collaboration with Prof. Boffi in the production of engineered ferritins as nanocarriers for therapy and diagnostics. In order to better target modified ferritins to cells expressing the transferrin CD71 receptor we determined by CryoEM the structure of the Ferritin/CD71 complex.

Unsing CryoEM are expanding this study to engineered archeal ferritins and we are pursuing the structure and the chemical and biochemical enginering of other plasma proteins to design fully biocompatible nanotools and nanocarriers, in complex with their receptors.

Main Publications

Cryo-EM structure of the human ferritin-transferrin receptor 1 complex.
Montemiglio LC, Testi C, Ceci P, Falvo E, Pitea M, Savino C, Arcovito A, Peruzzi G, Baiocco P, Mancia F, Boffi A, des Georges A, Vallone B.
Nature Communications 2019 Mar 8;10(1):1121. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-09098-w.
PMID:30850661
Free PMC Article

Humanized archaeal ferritin as a tool for cell targeted delivery.
de Turris V, Cardoso Trabuco M, Peruzzi G, Boffi A, Testi C, Vallone B, Celeste Montemiglio L, Georges AD, Calisti L, Benni I, Bonamore A, Baiocco P.
Nanoscale. 2017 Jan 5;9(2):647-655. doi: 10.1039/c6nr07129e.