Junior grant will contribute to the development of a new generation of safe and targeted nanotherapeutics

The development of a new generation of nanomaterials for targeted treatment and a detailed assessment of their safety is the goal of a three-year project with which Tomáš Malina from CATRIN was successful in this year’s Palacký University Junior Grant competition. He will use revolutionary methods of single-atom engineering in the preparation of materials.

Single-atom materials (SAMs) represent a new class of advanced nanomaterials in which individual metal atoms are anchored to the surface of various carriers. As a result, they behave similarly to highly effective catalysts or artificial enzymes and have great potential in biomedicine – from anti-cancer treatment and immune response modulation to influencing oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases. However, scientists are still looking for answers to questions about how different metals, their quantities, and the type of carrier influence cell responses.

“In this project, we want to combine atomic precision with biology. We will systematically investigate how specific atoms, such as Iron, Manganese, Zinc, or metals with potentially higher toxicity, change the behaviour of immune and tumour cells. Our goal is to understand these interactions at the molecular level and thus pave the way for the safe, rational design of future nanomedicines,” said Tomáš Malina from the Nanomaterials in Biomedicine research group.

UP Junior Grants are intended for young, outstanding scientists with international experience who are building their own independent research program and aiming to submit projects from Horizon Europe including ERC. The support will enable Tomáš Malina to create a small interdisciplinary team that will combine the synthesis and characterization of advanced materials with cell biology and toxicology and build on CATRIN’s long-term know-how in the field of single-atom catalysis and nanomaterial safety.

“I am very happy having received the grant. In the project, I want to draw on my experience from my postdoctoral work at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and my earlier stay at Empa in Switzerland. I see it as confirmation that the direction we are taking—understanding the interactions of single-atom materials with cells at the atomic level—makes sense,” added Malina. He also considers the junior grant to be the basis for further projects with colleagues from both prestigious institutions and for the long-term development of a new generation of safe and targeted nanotherapeutics.

The project Atomic Precision Meets Biology: Single-Atom Materials for Safe and Targeted Nanotherapeutics will start in January next year, with a total grant of almost four million Czech koruna.