The Lab
The Superstructures Lab was established in late 2015 thanks to the award by the PI of a personal research grant through the SIR programme (Scientific Independence of Young Researchers) by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Research and Education).
We are interested in the control over the self-organization at the nanoscale of molecules and nanomaterials into superstructures that span over a sizescale that goes well beyond that of the single components (just like a building is made of bricks, windows, etc.). Our main activities focus on the use of nanocarbons and/or short heterochiral peptides that self-organize into different architectures. Our favourite systems are in water or other green solvents and they can be in the form of biomaterials (hydrogels), or nanostructures, especially for biological or catalytic applications. For more info on research click here:
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As the Team works on multidisciplinary projects, we are interested in various responsive nanocomponents, and enjoy playing with different molecules and nanoparticles to combine them together in multifunctional systems in innovative ways.
The Team
Silvia holds a PhD in Chemistry at The University of Edinburgh (2008, UK), Pharmaceutical Chemist (2007, UK) & Pharmacist (2006, Italy) qualifications. She was honorary researcher at UCL (London, 2005-2007), Academy of Finland Fellow at University of Helsinki (2008-2010), CRSS Fellow jointly at Monash University and Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organization, CSIRO (Melbourne, 2010-2012). In 2013 she returned to the University of Trieste where her scientific adventure had started with the M.Sc. degree, (honours). In 2018 she became Associate Professor and received the Habilitation as Full Professor. In 2021-2022 (6 mo.) she was Visiting Academic the University of Cambridge (UK). Member of the Advisory Board of ACS Nano, Chem, ChemComm, J. Mater. Chem. B, Chem. Eur. J., Materials Advances. Recent awards:
Silver Seal by the Italian Chemical Society Young Section - 2024
Career Award by the Proteomass Scientific Society (Portugal) - 2024
RSC Soft Matter Lectureship (UK) - 2021
EuChemS Org. Chem. Division representative at ACS Fall meeting (US) - 2020
Howard Lecture (Durham, UK) - 2020
Aulin-Erdtman Lecture (KTH, Sweden) - 2019
Nature Chemistry 10th Anniversary Special Issue "Charting a Course for Chemistry" - 2019
Italy's representative at EuChemS Organic Chemistry Division Workshop (Austria) - 2019
Top-11 Rising Star in the natural sciences worldwide (Nature Index) - 2018
JSP Fellowship at Buergenstock Stereochemistry Conference (Switzerland) - 2018
Vittorio Erspamer Award (Italian Peptide Society) - 2017
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You can find the names and details of our DreamTeam below.
Prof. Silvia Marchesan
Principal Investigator
Marko Mihajlovic
MSCA Postdoc Fellow
​Research Fellow developing innovative nanocomposites for regenerative medicine. PhD fromTU Eindhoven (2018) and postdoc exoerience at Utrecht (Netherlands) and DTU (Denmark).
Erica Scarel
Postdoc Researcher
Research focus on dynamic libraries of self-assembling peptides with re-configurable elements for stimuli-responsive smart systems in water. PhD from the University of Trieste (2025).
Davide Marin
PhD student
Research focus on peptide-nanocarbon composite hydrogelsfor regenerative medicine. M. Sc. in Chemistry (honours) at the University of Trieste (2022).
Paola Alletto
PhD student
PhD student in Chemistry with a B.Sc. degree in Chemistry at the University of Palermo (2021), and a M. Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Trieste (2023) that included an Erasmus stay at UCLM supervised by Dr. A. Garcia (Spain).
Silvia Di Benedetto
M. Sc. student
M. Sc. student in Chemistry. Research focus on the inhibition of gliadin’s fibrillation, related to celiac disease and other gluten-related disorders in collaboration with Dodero's Lab at Bielefeld University (Germany).
You?
Researcher
We have space available for new team members, at any level (undergraduate/Master/PhD/postdoc). If you are interested in joining our group, you are welcome to contact the PI via email with your enquiry.