Design of Self-Assembling Materials

Dr. Coluzza's research focuses on the applications of statistical mechanics to soft-matter and complex biological systems. During his research experience, he developed a deep interest in many different fields, ranging from physics to biology.

He graduated in Physics at the University ``La Sapienza'' in Rome and got his PhD in Physics at the University of Amsterdam. Dr Coluzza worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge and at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, and recently he held the position of University Assistant at the University of Vienna. During his research career, he had the opportunity to work with worldwide leading scientists in Biophysics, Soft Matter and Statistical Mechanics.

Currently, he holds an Ikerbasque Professorship at the CIC biomaGUNE research centre in San Sebastian (Spain) and head of Computational Biophysics group. The research conducted by the Computational Biophysics Group will focus on two main highly connected research lines: on the one side, the team will work at developing protein models with significant applications in protein engineering and drug design (Bio Velcro). While on the other side we will learn from proteins to develop artificial polymers, biomimetic molecules that can imitate their behaviour (Bionic Proteins).

Concerning the Bio Velcro project (the computational design of highly selective tumour targeting nanoparticles), Dr Coluzza's group has introduced a novel computational methodology capable of quantitatively describing the relation between protein sequence and protein folding. By applying such method, the group proposes to computationally optimise artificial proteins to achieve multivalent binding of drug-delivery vehicles to cancer cells.

The Bionic Proteins research project (theory and simulations of modular bionic proteins) aims at defining a novel theoretical framework within which the group will be able to design new experimentally realisable materials with tuneable self-assembling properties.