Hallo! My name is Davide Mazzali, and I am a PhD student in Marina Resmini’s lab at Queen Mary University of London. My project revolves around the development of new polymeric nanogels as drug delivery systems. In September 2023, I had the opportunity along with my fellow early-stage researchers Romain (ESR 4) and Alexander (ESR 12) of spending my secondment at MyBiotech, in Altforweiler (Germany). Hosted by Selin (ESR 3), we spent our time in Saarland understanding how she prepares and characterises double-emulsion PLGA nanoparticles, as well as how research is conducted in an industrial environment. Coming from the academia side, I could appreciate differences and similarities of these approaches, as well as learning new synthetic techniques and approaches to nanoparticles characterisation, which will be very useful to my project as well.
My time in Germany was wonderful, thanks to the strategical placement of the region in the very core of Europe. This allowed us to travel around during weekends, exploring capital cities and the history of the European Union.
I am very grateful for this wonderful experience and all the things I’ve learned. I would like to give a special thanks to Selin, Dr. Günday-Türeli, the MyBiotech group and my two fellow ESRs (and flatmates) Alex and Romain for the friendship and help. I feel extremely lucky to be part of this amazing network and I come back to UK with a renewed pride in being an European citizen.
