Contact

Cristina Muntean
Laboratory for General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy
Ghent University
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
9000 Ghent
Belgium
Tel: 0032 9 264 8047 (secretary)
Tel: 0032 9 264 8365 (direct)
E-mail: cristina.muntean@ugent.be

Biography

Education
Cristina Muntean obtained her Master Degree in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology (Cum Laude) at the University of Padova (Italy) in December 2018. She performed her Master thesis in the Laboratory of General Biochemistry and Physical Pharmacy and in March 2019 she started her PhD in the same lab.

Research interests
Nanomedicine, RNA delivery, endosomal escape, lysosomal accumulation

Summary of Research Project(s)

Small interfering RNA (siRNA) displays excellent target specificity and can reach disease targets that were previously thought undruggable. Also messenger RNA (mRNA) is ideally suited to deliver genetic information to dividing and non-dividing cells in a safe and efficient way. Both RNA-based strategies are increasingly being adopted for anti-cancer therapy. Nevertheless, RNA drugs have to act inside cells and do not have optimal drug-like properties as the cell membrane is largely impermeable for this class of therapeutics. To unlock their full therapeutic potential, RNA drugs need to be formulated into nanomedicines that can guide their delivery into the target cell cytosol by overcoming intracellular barriers.
Therefore, the aim of my work is to design synergistic nanoformulations to optimize the anti-tumoral effect of RNA therapeutics.