Biosketch

My name is Mathieu Repellin and I’m doing my PhD in Nanoscience and Advanced Technologies in the framework of the European project INVITE. I’m 24 years old, I’m French and I come from Grenoble, a city in the east of France, near to the Alps. I performed my studies in chemistry and after 3 years of general chemistry, I decided to focus my studies, through a Master, in formulation, which is the study of the composition of a mixture in order to obtain a product with specific end properties. During this Master, I had the opportunity to carry out a one-year work-study internship (8 months of work and 4 months of courses) in a French institute (CEA) on nanomedicine, field for which I developed quickly a keen great interest. Through this experience, my strong interest in research was increased and took me to consider the opportunity of carrying out a doctorate in this field.

Project

PhD candidate: Mathieu Repellin
Supervisor: Manuela Malatesta
Title: Nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery as an innovative strategy for treating myotonic dystrophy (NanoSTreaM)
PhD Programme: Nanosciences and Advanced Technologies

The subject of my research project is to design and develop biocompatible nanocarriers loaded with small molecules (as oligonucleotides) for the treatment of Myotonic Dystrophy type 1, which is a genetic disorder mainly affecting muscles with disabling effects for the patient and possibly premature death. Currently, no therapeutic strategies are available but molecules with promising experimental results are established. However, these molecules have no therapeutic application due to their toxicity and/or degradability. Thus, this research project aims at developing a novel experimental therapeutic strategy using biocompatible nanocarriers able to encapsulate the active agents to the cells, in order to provide better treatment procedure to patients by guaranteeing the protection of the active encapsulated agent and allowing improved specificity and tolerability of the administered formulation.