New eco-friendly polyesters from renewable resources

Nowadays the development of sustainable polymers, with convenient properties to substitute the traditional petroleum-based materials, is one of the major issues for material science. The utilization of renewable resources as feedstock for biopolyesters is a challenging target.The research work described in the present thesis is strictly connected to these urgent necessities and is focused mainly in finding new biopolymers, in particular biopolyesters, which are obtainable from biomass and characterized by a wide range of properties, in order to potentially substitute polyolefins and aromatic polyesters (for example, poly(ethylene terephthalate))

Collective actions for environmental monitoring and conservation: citizen science, informal environmental education, and participatory approach

This PhD was driven by an interest for inclusive and participatory approaches. The methodology that bridges science and society is known as 'citizen science' and is experiencing a huge upsurge worldwide, in the scientific and humanities fields. In this thesis, I have focused on three topics: i) assessing the reliability of data collected by volunteers; ii) evaluating the impact of environmental education activities in tourist facilities; and iii) monitoring marine biodiversity through citizen science. In addition to these topics, during my research stay abroad, I developed a questionnaire to investigate people's perceptions of natural areas to promote the implementation of co-management. The results showed that volunteers are not only able to collect sufficiently reliable data, but that during their participation in this type of project, they can also increase their knowledge of marine biology and ecology and their awareness of the impact of human behaviour on the environment. The short-term analysis has shown that volunteers are able to retain what they have learned. In the long term, knowledge is usually forgotten, but awareness is retained. Increased awareness could lead to a change in behaviour and in this case a more environmentally friendly attitude. This aspect could be of interest for the development of environmental education projects in tourism facilities to reduce the impact of tourism on the environment while adding a valuable service to the tourism offer. We also found that nature experiences in childhood are important to connect to nature in adulthood. The results also suggest that membership or volunteering in an environmental education association could be a predictor of people's interest in more participatory approaches to nature management. In most cases, the COVID -19 pandemic had not changed participants' perceptions of the natural environment.

TIDES unveiled: pioneering green peptides synthesis and oligonucleotides innovations in science

My PhD research focused on the development of environmentally sustainable methods for peptide synthesis. The traditional and toxic solvents and bases used in solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) were replaced with eco-friendly alternatives to reduce the environmental impact. In particular, N-octylpyrrolidone was found to be an effective green solvent in combination with dimethyl carbonate, resulting in a 63-66% reduction in process mass intensity (PMI). In addition, a green base, DEAPA, was identified for Fmoc removal, which showed comparable results to piperidine, while being less regulated and toxic, and able to better control aspartimide-related side reactions. The study extended beyond SPPS to explore liquid-phase peptide synthesis (LPPS) and solution-phase peptide synthesis (SolPPS) using propylphosphonic anhydride (T3P®) as a coupling reagent. The developed green SolPPS using Cbz amino acids achieved exceptional efficiency, minimal racemisation and a PMI of 30 to introduce a single amino acid in the iterative process. This PMI value is the lowest ever reported for an oligopeptide synthesis protocol. This technique was extended to N-Boc amino acids in DCM, requiring aqueous workups and achieving 95% purity of Leu-Enkephalin. Finally, T3P® was found to be suitable for LPPS. An anchor, mimicking a resin, was used to allow precipitation or solubilisation of the growing anchored-peptide, depending on the polarity of the solvent used. Anisole and DCM resulted in a pentapeptide purity of over 95%. While at Oxford University, I synthesized a cleavable fragment that is sensitive to cathepsin B (CatB) and incorporated it into a cyclic antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) targeting the metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1). ASO demonstrated good stability in a simulated in vivo environment using human serum and high affinity with complementary RNA. The Cyclic-ASO was opened by CatB in optimal conditions. Experiments highlight therapeutic potential and a novel method for controlling cyclic oligonucleotide activity, potentially enhancing cellular uptake.