CORESHELL

Marine nanobiotechnology: Manganese oxide-containing core-shell materials formed by proteins from marine organisms for biomedical and environmental applications

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Core-shell materials are of enormous interest for many applications in nanotechnology and nanomedicine. Only recently, due to the achievements of the consortium, the generation of such nanoparticles by applying unique proteins from marine organisms has become possible. In this IAPP, based on a long-term and very successful cooperation between groups in Germany and Croatia, well known in the field of marine biotechnology of sponges and associated microorganisms, and now extended by an SME (NanotecMARIN GmbH) with a special focus on the exploitation of marine metal-oxide forming enzymes / proteins, a marine bacterial multicopper oxidase (MCO) and a sponge laccase, which are able to catalyze the oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(IV), will be used to generate novel metal oxide nanocomposite materials. Enzymatically active MCO will be immobilized on magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles to enzymatically fabricate core-shell materials. In addition, MCO and laccase will be applied in combination with silica or other metal oxide-forming proteins (recombinant silicatein and silintaphin-1) to generate nanoparticles containing multiple shells of various materials, which can be doped with fluorescent dyes and proteins during their formation at mild conditions. These core-shell nanoparticles will be used in drug delivery, for removal of manganese or other heavy metals from contaminated aqueous solutions (remediation of contaminated environments), as well as for the development of antifouling strategies.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An EU-funded consortium is creating innovative metal oxide nanocomposite materials that have a wide range of applications. These range from facilitating the delivery of drugs to helping clean up the natural environment.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Core-shell materials, where nanoparticles of a particular element are coated with another substance, can have many applications in nanotechnology and nanomedicine. A joint German and Croatian initiative has developed a process for applying unique proteins from marine organisms to nanoparticles to generate core-shell materials.

The EU-funded http://coreshell.nanotecmarin.de/ (CORESHELL) project investigated the application of marine metal-oxide-forming enzymes and multicopper oxidase (MCO) enzymes from marine bacteria. It also focused on a form of laccase enzyme derived from marine sponges, which can be used to create metal oxide nanocomposite materials.

Project partners immobilised a sponge laccase on magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles . In addition, the enzyme can be used together with silica or other metal-oxide-forming proteins to render nanoparticles containing multiple shells of metal oxides such as titania. The photocatalytic and ferromagnetic properties of the titania-iron oxide nanoparticles allowed the development of a method for fast and efficient elimination of bacteria applying a novel magnetic nanoparticle separator.

Core-shell nanoparticles developed by the consortium will be used in the remediation of contaminated sites by removing bacteria and heavy metals. The nanoparticles can also be used for developing anti-fouling strategies.