Giuseppe Mantovani
Lecturer in Biologics Delivery, Faculty of Science
Contact
Biography
I gained my degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Bologna (Italy) in 1998. This included a 12 months research project in organic synthetic methodologies working at the sulphur-mediated total synthesis of enantiopure conduritols starting from reduced sugars, in Prof. V. Cere's group.In Nov 2002 I was awarded my PhD in Chemistry (Corso di Perfezionamento in Scienze degli Idrocarburi) from the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa (Italy) working on the design and synthesis of novel transition-metal catalysts based on iminopyridine ligands for the olygomerisation of ethylene to alpha-olefins (research sponsored by ENI spa) in Dr. C. Bianchini's group at the ICCOM-CNR institute in Florence.Shortly afterwards I joined the group of Prof. D. M. Haddleton at the University of Warwick as a post-doctoral research assistant. In the 2003-2005 period I held a Marie Curie Post-doctoral Fellowship awarded by the European Commission.In Warwick I've been involved in a number of different projects mainly focused on the use of controlled radical polymerisation techniques (mainly transition metal-mediated living radical polymerisation, TMM-LRP, often termed ATRP) for:
- Design and synthesis of novel protein biohybrid materials obtained by site-specific conjugation of precision alpha-functional polymers to appropriate (poly)peptides.
- Design and synthesis of well-defined functional glycopolymers and study of their ability of recognising specific protein receptors (lectins)
- Grafting of functional macromolecules to surfaces (glass, cellulose, crosslinked polystyrene beads) via "grafting to" and "grafting from" approaches.
- 4) Combination of Cu(I)-catalysed Living Radical Polymerisation (LRP) with other synthetic techniques (i.e. "click" chemistry).
In Jan 2009 I was appointed Lecturer in Lecturer in Biologics Delivery in the School of Pharmacy at Nottingham.
Past Research (Keywords)Gycomic and Bioresponsive Materials Science, Macromolecular and Bioconjugation Chemistry, Tandem Organometallic Catalysis, Total Synthesis.
Research Summary
The development of materials able to change their behaviour under a range of external stimuli (i.e. pH, temperature, light, magnetic fields, chemical signals and mechanical stress) is emerging as one… read more
Selected Publications
GENG, JIN, LINDQVIST, JOSEFINA, MANTOVANI, GIUSEPPE and HADDLETON, DAVID M, 2008. Simultaneous copper(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC) and living radical polymerization. Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English). 47(22), 4180-3 GENG, JIN, MANTOVANI, GIUSEPPE, TAO, LEI, NICOLAS, JULIEN, CHEN, GAOJIAN, WALLIS, RUSSELL, MITCHELL, DANIEL A, JOHNSON, BENJAMIN R G, EVANS, STEPHEN D and HADDLETON, DAVID M, 2007. Site-directed conjugation of "clicked" glycopolymers to form glycoprotein mimics: binding to mammalian lectin and induction of immunological function. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129(49), 15156-63 TAO, LEI, MANTOVANI, GIUSEPPE, LECOLLEY, FRANCOIS and HADDLETON, DAVID M, 2004. Alpha-aldehyde terminally functional methacrylic polymers from living radical polymerization: application in protein conjugation "pegylation". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 126(41), 13220-1
LADMIRAL, VINCENT, MANTOVANI, GIUSEPPE, CLARKSON, GUY J, CAUET, SOLENE, IRWIN, JACOB L and HADDLETON, DAVID M, 2006. Synthesis of neoglycopolymers by a combination of "click chemistry" and living radical polymerization. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128(14), 4823-30
Current Research
The development of materials able to change their behaviour under a range of external stimuli (i.e. pH, temperature, light, magnetic fields, chemical signals and mechanical stress) is emerging as one of the fastest growing and exciting fields in science. These smart materials have been studied for a plethora of different applications which include hydrogels for adaptive microlenses, biomimetic polymer nanocomposites, switchable surface for controlled cell-adhesion and self-healing elastomers amongst others. At present is very clear that the development of more sophisticated and versatile stimuli-responsive materials must necessarily pass through a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in these processes and a very fine control over their preparation. My research lies at the interface of organic/macromolecular synthesis and materials/soft matter science with particular emphasis in the development of bioresponsive polymers, neoglycopolymer probes for lectin receptors recognition1 and polymer-(poly)peptide biohybrid materials.2 Precision polymer synthesis is often carried out by combining controlled radical polymerisation techniques and orthogonal ('click') methodologies.1,3
Selected Recent Publications
(1) Ladmiral, V.; Mantovani, G.; Clarkson Guy, J.; Cauet, S.; Irwin Jacob, L.; Haddleton David, M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 4823-30.
(2) Geng, J.; Mantovani, G.; Tao, L.; Nicolas, J.; Chen, G.; Wallis, R.; Mitchell, D. A.; Johnson, B. R. G.; Evans, S. D.; Haddleton, D. M. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 15156-15163.
(3) Geng, J.; Lindqvist, J.; Mantovani, G.; Haddleton, D. M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 4180-4183.