New frontiers for hyperthermia-based therapies


Project Director: Dr. Andrei KUNCSER

Enhancing the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of magnetic structures is essential for the development of promising hyperthermia-based cancer therapies with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), currently still under  clinical trials. Depending on the involved heat transfer mechanism, superparamagnetic relaxation time as well as the coercivity of MNPs can be conveniently used for SAR tuning.
Up today, it has been demonstrated that the two parameters do not depend only on the type of MNP but are affected also by inter-particle interactions (theoretical framework developed by the proposer).
The present project aims to find new ways for tuning SAR, via the above mentioned parameters, by a suitable long-range organization of magnetite MNPs (e.g. MNPs grouped in circles, ellipsoids, spheres, rectangles etc). It is estimated that successful implementation of the project will boost the future development of hyperthermia-based cancer treatments. Moreover, computational methods and experimental methodology developed during the project will be essential in any field involving morphological characterization of nanoparticles.

The project has two main objectives:

1. development of new methods for morpho-structural data analysis involving electron microscopy and micromagnetic simulations, backed up by in-house designed software.
2. indicating new ways for a fine tuning of the heat transfer mechanisms of MNPs via morpho-structural and organization/configuration aspects.

Dr. Andrei Kuncser (BrainMap: U-1700-032N-6988), project leader, is 31 years old and researcher

rank 3 in NIMP. His scientific activity is focused on morpho-structural and magnetic

characterization of nanomaterials (see CV). He is co-author to more than 90 ISI papers (in total 322 citations),

2 book chapters, 2 patents, has a h-index of 14.

 

Dr. Cristian Radu (U-1800-055H-8123) is PhD candidate since 2019 at Faculty of Physics,

University of Bucharest and is 28 years old. His thesis "Using electron microscopy techniques for

the study of ferroelectric materials" involves the characterization of nanomaterials by a wide range

of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques.

Dr. Ioana Dorina Vlaicu (BrainMap: U-1700-037A-2366) is 35 years old, she is Researcher Rank

II and she has an experience of more than 10 years in scientific research. She obtained her PhD

title in Chemistry in 2014. Her main research activities are in the Materials Science domain, in

particular in Synthetic Chemistry. She has a portfolio of more than 20 ISI papers of which she is the main

author in 11 of them and they are all in the field of nanomaterials synthesis. She is

expert in obtaining, by co-precipitation method, metal oxides nanoparticles (ZnO, TiO2, SnO2,

Fe3O4) with different size and morphology, for different applications like photocatalysis,

hyperthermia, magnetism and gas-sensing.

 

Dr. Nicusor Iacob (U-1700-030K-6075) is 44 years old and works as scientific researcher rank 3

at NIMP. He received the PhD in Physics in 2015 at University of Bucharest/Faculty of Physics.

During his activity at NIMP in the field of magnetism, dr. Iacob has acquired expertise in the

processing of magnetic nanostructures and handling of magnetometry techniques (SQUID, VSM)

and Mossbauer Spectroscopy. His research interest is main focused on theoretical and

experimental study of magnetic nanoparticles systems with applicability in magnetic fluid

hyperthermia.

The article "A new method for obtaining the magnetic shape anisotropy directly from electron tomography images" has been published in Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology; https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.13.51

The article "Synthesis and Characterization of Hematite-Based Nanocomposites as Promising Catalysts for Indigo Carmine Oxidation" has been published in Nanomaterials; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12142511

The article "High bending strength at 1800 °C exceeding 1 GPa in TiB2-B4C composite" has been published in Scientific Reports; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-0

The submission of patent "PROCEDEU DE OBTINERE A HARTILOR DE GROSIMI iNTR-O PROBÃ ANALIZATÀ PRIN MICROSCOPIE ELECTRONICÀ PRIN TRANSMISIE CU BALEIAJ" has been completed; A 2023 00461

The submission of the patent "Instalatie automatizata pentru mentinerea in atmosfera controlata a materialelor de investigat prin Microscopie Electronica de Transmisie" has been completed; A 2022 00457

The submission of the patent "Nou procedeu de optimizare a hiperparametrilor unei retele neuronale pentru identificarea/etichetarea de imagini" has been completed; A 2024 00087

Magn3t software has been uploaded to https://github.com/rdcrs/magn3t

Results have been presented @ JEMS 2023 (oral presentation)

Results have been presented @ CREMS 2023 (oral presentation)

Results have been presented @ IBWAP 2023 (poster presentation)

 

During the implementation of the project, 3 patents have been submitted, 3 papers published and results have been disseminated at 3 international conferences (see News section).

Main results related to Objective1:

A method for obtaining magnetic shape anisotropy directly from TEM measurements via Electron Tomography has been developed. The method involves image analysis of tomograms using a set of algorithms packed into Magn3t software (published on github  @https://github.com/rdcrs/magn3t)

Main results related to Objective 2:

A methodology for the simulation of superparamagnetic nanoparticles in OOMMF software has been developed. Simulations of superparamagnetic NPS arranged in various configurations have been performed.

A software for the manipulation of OOMMF time dependent simulations has been developed in Python. The software provides statistical distribution of anisotropy energy (KV) and relaxation time on the entire system.

Data manipulation software has been used to analyse data from micromagnetic simulation. The provided statistical distributions provided an unprecedented insight on the effect various NP interactions have on KV and relaxation time. It was shown that above mentioned parameters can be modified via NPs configuration.

"A new method for obtaining the magnetic shape anisotropy directly from electron tomography images" , Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2022, 13, 590–598, https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.13.51

"Synthesis and Characterization of Hematite-Based Nanocomposites as Promising Catalysts for Indigo Carmine Oxidation", Nanomaterials. 2022, 12, 2511, https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12142511

"High bending strength at 1800 °C exceeding 1 GPa in TiB2-B4C composite", Scientific Reports, 2023, 13,6915, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-0

 

 


PROJECTS/ NATIONAL PROJECTS


Back to top

Copyright © 2024 National Institute of Materials Physics. All Rights Reserved