Mariana Tasso

• Materials Science; Ph.D. in Chemistry
• Associate Researcher at National Scientific and Technical Research Council

While our understanding of the nanoscale architecture of anterograde synaptic transmission is rapidly expanding, the qualitative and quantitative molecular principles underlying distinct mechanisms of retrograde synaptic communication remain elusive. We show that a particular form of tonic cannabinoid signaling is essential for setting target cell–...

In the last decades, nanoscience had a spectacular evolution providing new, versatile engineered nanomaterials and nanotools with a plethora of applications in very diverse fields ranging from energy storage to medicine. Among the palette of nanomaterials, magnetic nanoparticles (in particular iron oxide-based) present unique physicochemical proper...

Single‐particle tracking with quantum dots (QDs) constitutes a powerful tool to track the nanoscopic dynamics of individual cell membrane components unveiling their membrane diffusion characteristics. Here, the nano‐resolved population dynamics of QDs is exploited to reconstruct the topography and structural changes of the cell membrane surface wit...

Long-term inspection of biological phenomena requires probes of elevated intra- and extracellular stability and target biospecificity. The high fluorescence and photostability of quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles contributed to foster their promise as bioimaging tools that could overcome limitations associated with traditional fluorophores. However, Q...

Sequential deposition of polymer layers of very diverse characteristics has been applied to produce nanoassemblies of well‐controlled thickness and physico‐chemical properties. While conventional layer‐by‐layer approaches are based on the sequential deposition of distinct, mutually interacting materials, nanoassemblies formed by a single, unique po...

Functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are increasingly being designed as a theranostic nanoplatform combining specific targeting, diagnosis by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and multimodal therapy by hyperthermia. The effect of the size and the shape of IONPs is of tremendous importance to develop theranostic nanoobjects displaying eff...

A major challenge in nanomedicine is designing nanoplatforms (NPFs) to selectively target abnormal cells to ensure early diagnosis and targeted therapy. Among developed NPFs, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) are good MRI contrast agents and can be used for therapy by hyperthermia and as radio-sensitizing agents. Active targeting is a promising meth...

The chemical design of smart nanocarriers, providing in one nanoformulation combined anticancer therapies, still remains a challenge in the field of nanomedicine. Among nanomaterials, iron oxide-based core-shell nanostructures have been already studied for their intrinsic magnetic hyperthermia features that may be coupled with drug delivery. Howeve...

In the last years, nanoferrites have gained much attention in the fields of bio- and nanomedicine due to their diverse potential applications in magnetic hyperthermia and targeted drug delivery for cancer treatment, as well as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, among others. These materials are relatively easy to synthesize at low cost...

Among smart activable nanomaterials used for nanomedicine applications, carbon-based nanocomposites are well known to ensure phototherapy while their use for controlled drug delivery is still rarely investigated. In this work, original hybrid mesoporous silica (MS)–coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) nanoplatforms have been designed to provide photother...

Video S2: 3D projection of temporal integration (5 min) of QD localizations around a presynaptic terminal (Figure 3 is related to this video).

Video S1: Time-lapse of hippocampal neurons expressing FLAG-CB1-GFP (green) incubated for 5 minutes with biofunctional QD-pA-anti-FLAG nanoconstructs (magenta) (Figure 1c,d is related to this video).

Single-particle tracking with quantum dots (QDs) constitutes a powerful tool to track the nanoscopic dynamics of individual cell membrane components unveiling their membrane diffusion characteristics. Here we tested the possibility of extracting from the nano-resolved (16 ms and 30 nm) population dynamics of several quantum dots, time-binned at the...

In quantum dot (QD) solar cells, the ex situ sensitization of wide band gap semiconductors (WBSCs) makes it possible to control the shape and the passivation of the nanosized sensitizer. Hence, ex situ techniques can be used to investigate how the band gap of the sensitizers affects the performance of quantum dot solar cells. The latter can be prec...

In the last decades, fluorescent quantum dots have appeared as high-performance biological fluorescent nanoprobes and have been explored for a variety of biomedical optical imaging applications. However many central challenges still exist concerning the control of the surface chemistry in order to ensure high biocompatibility, low toxicity, anti-fo...

Fluorescent semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) exhibit several unique properties that make them suitable candidates for biomolecular sensing, including high brightness, photostability, broad excitation and narrow emission spectra. Assembling these QDs into robust and functionalizable nanosized clusters (QD-NSCs) can provide fluorescent probes that ar...

Distinctive optical properties of inorganic quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles promise highly-valuable probes for fluorescence-based detection methods, particularly for in-vivo diagnostics, cell phenotyping via multiple markers or single molecule tracking. However, despite high hopes, this promise has not been fully realized yet, mainly due to difficul...

The development of sensitive multimodal contrast agents is a key issue to provide better global, multi-scale images for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Here we present the synthesis of Zn-Cu-In-(S, Se)/Zn1-xMnxS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) that can be used as markers for both near-infrared fluorescence imaging and magnetic resonance imaging (...

Colloidal fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals, named "quantum dots", possess unique features, such as a tunable peak wavelength (according to their composition and their size) or a large absorption cross-section, that make them very attractive for biomedical imaging. Nevertheless, typical syntheses provide nanoparticles capped with hydrophobic l...

The enzymes trypsin and urease were covalently tethered to cellulose to utilize their ability to produce colored products as a consequence of enzymatic activity. Therefore, cellulose had to be chemically modifi ed fi rst in order to generate appro-priate chemical functionalities. Different approaches including periodate supported oxidation followed...

Balanus amphitrite cyprids produce complex adhesive substances that enable their attachment to surfaces and impart a strong detachment resistance from most immersed substrata. The colonization of man-made structures by barnacle cyprids and other marine organisms is a troublesome and costly phenomenon, for which controlling strategies are actively s...

The colonization of immersed surfaces by a myriad of marine organisms is a complex, multi-stage, species-specific process giving rise to economic and environmental costs. This unwanted accumulation of organisms in the marine environment, called biofouling, has been attacked from different fronts, going from the ‘problem-elimination-as-problem-solvi...

Enzymes cleaving the biopolymer adhesives of fouling organisms are attracting attention for the prevention of biofouling. We report a versatile and robust method to confine the serine protease Subtilisin A (or Subtilisin Carlsberg) to surfaces to be protected against biofouling. The approach consists of the covalent immobilization of the protease o...

The proteinaceous nature of the adhesives used by most fouling organisms to attach to surfaces suggests that coatings incorporating proteolytic enzymes may provide a technology for the control of biofouling. In the present article, the antifouling (AF) and fouling release potential of model coatings incorporating the surface-immobilized protease, S...

Viele der Foulingeffekte im Meerwasser verursachenden Organis- men nutzen Proteine bzw. Glycoproteine zu ihrer Verankerung an Oberflächen. Wir erkunden daher Strategien zur Vermeidung des Biofoulings im Meer durch die Immobilisierung von proteolytischen Enzymen, die Adhäsionsproteine hydrolytisch spalten. Hierzu wur- de das Enzym Subtilisin A aus v...