Mariana Chaves Micheletto

Mariana holds a Bachelors degree in Medical Physics from the Physics Department of the Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Languages of Ribeirão Preto/University of São Paulo (FFCLRP/USP), Brazil, and a Masters degree from the Postgraduate Program in Physics Applied to Medicine and Biology (FAMB) of the same Department. During her masters degree, her project sought to understand the interactions of the Pp1,2-CCD protein with membrane mimetics and immobilization attempts of the proteins in these structures. She also studied how electric charges and the presence of the ligand can influence the structure, stability and function of CnACBP. She is currently a PhD student in the FAMB Postgraduate Program, and she is spending one year as a guest student in the Multifunctional Materials Laboratory at the Material Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Her PhD project proposes using X-rays as a source of excitation energy for photosensitive proteins to overcome the penetration of light into the human body. Given the low interaction of X-rays with proteins, radioluminescent nanoparticles, capable of converting the energy of ionizing radiation into photons of UV-visible light, are used. In summary, the energy transfer between the radioluminescent nanoparticles and the proteins can result in a conjugated nanocompound with radiation-exposure-dependent toxicity that opens a new avenue for the use of genetically encoded photosensitizers in X-ray photodynamic therapy. Micheletto has experience in classical molecular biology methodologies (cloning, subcloning, mutant construction, expression/purification of heterologous proteins) and several spectroscopic and calorimetric techniques, including Circular Dichroism, fluorescence (steady-state and lifetime techniques), and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). In the field of nanotechnology, she has experience in the production of radioluminescent nanomaterials, in the characterization of its morphological-structural properties (XRD, SEM, TEM), optical properties (UV-Vis Absorption, Photoluminescence, FTIR), Electronic Spin Resonance (ESR/EPR), and Radioluminescence.Currently, she conciliates the student representative position in the postgraduate committee of the FFCLRP/USP. (Source: Lattes Curriculum)