Written by Federico Citterich
Conceived and reviewed by Alessandro Rossetta
Researchers are exploring how the protein corona – a layer of proteins that forms around nanoparticles in biological fluids – could reveal hidden biomarkers of disease. By analyzing these molecular signatures, scientists hope to identify pancreatic cancer earlier, opening the door to minimally invasive screening strategies.
“The hope is to implement a first-level screening for at-risk populations”, says Dr. Erica Quagliarini, a postdoctoral researcher at Sapienza University of Rome, while sitting down in front of me. Behind her, a large window illuminates the room’s orange-toned walls, echoing Sapienza’s colours – the red of its logo and the warm hues of many buildings across the campus.
I was invited by Quagliarini to the university’s Department of Molecular Medicine to talk about how her research group – the NanoDelivery Lab – contributes to the LaserBlood project.
Sapienza, one of Europe’s oldest universities, is indeed one of LaserBlood’s partners. “We have contacts all across Europe”, Quagliarini notes. “That’s one of the key factors that makes us able to participate in international projects”.
Within LaserBlood, the Sapienza group focuses on the nanotechnology research for the early detection of pancreatic cancer. “That’s why we also need hospital partners”, says Quagliarini. “They provide the samples we need to study as well as clinical insight and patient data, such as blood-based tests and other parameters that we integrate into our technology”.
Sapienza University of Rome
A collaboration that, thanks to its international nature, allows different approaches from institutes across Europe to be compared, with the goal of making the data as reliable as possible for the Sapienza team to develop the technology.
“To go into more detail, we specifically study the interactions between nanomaterials1 and biofluids”, explains Quagliarini. “At the chemical and physical level – she continues – it’s essential for us to understand both the structure of the nanomaterial and how it interfaces with the biological environment”. That’s why the NanoDelivery Lab is a multidisciplinary team, bringing together biologists, chemists, and physicists, each contributing complementary expertise.
Various parameters influence how a nanomaterial interacts with a biofluid, including – for instance – incubation temperature and time. “It’s something that we’ve extensively studied and standardized over the past years”, says Quagliarini. This allowed the Sapienza team to have a clear idea from the very beginning of the project about which nanomaterial and parameters to choose.
“Once these are defined – Quagliarini continues – we incubate the nanomaterial with the biofluid to form and then characterize what is known as the protein corona”. The protein corona is a layer of proteins that forms around a nanoparticle when it comes into contact with biological fluids. “It’s personalized to the individual and it carries a wealth of information, mostly consisting of biomarkers linked to a specific pathology”, explains Quagliarini. “This allows us to distinguish between healthy and diseased individuals”.
Lately, the Sapienza group has focused on identifying, within at-risk populations, those individuals who have a higher risk of developing the disease.
Dr. Erica Quagliarini
The study of the protein corona also enables the investigation of biomolecules that would otherwise be undetectable using conventional proteomic2 techniques. Nanomaterials, in fact, are able to adsorb biomolecules that are present in the biofluid at extremely low concentrations. “By subsequently isolating them, it becomes possible to analyze these biomarkers as well”, Quagliarini adds.
The project consists of an initial phase based on murine samples from IFO (Istituti Fisioterapici Ospedalieri), followed by a validation phase using human plasma samples from Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico and Uniklinikum Erlangen. “This step is extremely important, especially considering that we are studying a disease – pancreatic cancer – that is very difficult to detect at an early stage”, Quagliarini observes. As a result, studying the onset phase of the disease in humans is challenging.
This is where mouse models become crucial. “The idea is to investigate the early phases of the disease using engineered murine models”, Quagliarini explains. “By identifying disease fingerprints in the initial stages in mice, we hope to later compare them with those found in humans”.
If successful, this approach could have significant implications for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. “It could enable a first-level, minimally invasive screening for at-risk populations, allowing patients to understand whether further, more in-depth testing is needed”, Quagliarini concludes.
PARTNER DESCRIPTION
Sapienza University of Rome is one of Europe’s largest and most historically significant academic institutions, with a strong tradition in multidisciplinary research and international collaboration. Within the LaserBlood project, Sapienza contributes expertise in nanomedicine and bio–nano interactions to investigate the protein corona that forms on nanomaterials when they interact with blood plasma. By analysing the molecular composition of this corona, the team aims to identify signatures associated with early pancreatic disease. Sapienza’s role focuses on experimental design and nanoparticle–biofluid interaction studies, generating biological insight that supports the development of LaserBlood’s diagnostic approach.
The Sapienza contribution is coordinated by Professors Daniela Pozzi and Giulio Caracciolo. Their work centres on understanding how nanomaterials interact with biological environments and how these interactions can be harnessed for biomedical applications. In LaserBlood, they oversee the experimental strategy and coordinate the research activities related to protein corona formation and analysis. Their expertise in nanotechnology, biophysics, and translational nanomedicine provides the scientific framework for identifying biomolecular patterns that may serve as indicators of early-stage pancreatic disease.
Dr. Erica Quagliarini is a postdoctoral researcher at Sapienza University. Her research focuses on the characterization of nanoparticle–protein interactions in complex biological fluids. Within the project, she is responsible for conducting and refining the experimental protocols used to study the protein corona and for analysing the resulting biomolecular fingerprints. Her work bridges laboratory experimentation and biological interpretation, contributing to the identification of molecular patterns that could ultimately support minimally invasive screening strategies for pancreatic cancer.
GLOSSARY
- Nanomaterial: a material with structural components at the nanometer scale (typically 1–100 nm), where physical, chemical, and biological properties differ from those of the same material at larger scales. These unique properties make nanomaterials useful in fields such as medicine, diagnostics, and drug delivery.
- Proteomics: the large-scale study of proteins, including their structure, function, and interactions within a biological system. It aims to understand how proteins change in different conditions, such as during disease.
REFERENCES
Caracciolo, G., Caputo, D., Pozzi, D., Colapicchioni, V., & Coppola, R. (2014). Size and charge of nanoparticles following incubation with human plasma of healthy and pancreatic cancer patients. Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces, 123, 673-678.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927776514005396
Colapicchioni, V., Tilio, M., Digiacomo, L., Gambini, V., Palchetti, S., Marchini, C., … & Caracciolo, G. (2016). Personalized liposome–protein corona in the blood of breast, gastric and pancreatic cancer patients. The international journal of biochemistry & cell biology, 75, 180-187.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1357272515300169
Digiacomo, L., Caputo, D., Cammarata, R., La Vaccara, V., Coppola, R., Quagliarini, E., … & Amenitsch, H. (2025). Nanoparticle-protein corona enhances accuracy of Ca-19.9-based pancreatic cancer classification. Nanoscale, 17(12), 7066-7075.
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2025/nr/d4nr02435d