The unano project

At unano we are carrying out innovative basic and translational research aimed at building sophisticated, functional biological nano-structures and nanomachines using biological molecules. The novel structures we build will  have applications to health and medicine. In this first stage we are building the foundations of our project in preparation to secure large-scale grant funding.

The unano project is formally the Smart Materials And Robotic nanoTechnologies (SMART) project funded by una europa Seed Funding, part of una europa.

We are a consortium of reach labs from The University of Bologna, Italy; The University of Edinburgh, UK; The Free University of Berlin, Germany; The Complutense University of Madrid, Spain; The University of Helsinki, Finland; Jagiellonian University, Poland; KU Leuven, Belgium; Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands; Aalto University, Finland; National Institute of Chemistry, Slovenia. The team has wide expertise to support our goals of building future biological nanomachines. These include in silico modeling, therapeutic cargo development, DNA nanotechnology, protein design ,production and in cell/in vivo testing.

Latest News

24 Jan/2023

Sweet salvation: how a sugar cane pathogen is gearing up a new era of antibiotic discovery

A potent plant toxin with a unique way of killing harmful bacteria has emerged as one of the strongest new antibiotic candidates in decades.

The antibiotic, called albicidin, is produced by the bacterial plant pathogen Xanthomonas albilineans, which causes the devastating leaf scald disease in sugar…

16 Jan/2023

Professor Heddle awarded Leverhulme International Professorships

We are delighted to welcome Durham University as an associated member of the Unano project, which will become a full member when Professor Heddle’s lab moves there in September 2023.

Congratulations to Professor Heddle who was awarded the prestigious 2022 Leverhulme…

25 Nov/2022

#UnanoTeamStory

People are always at the heart of any project. It is no different with the Unano project.

We would like to introduce you to the Unano team behind this challenging but also exciting project run under the aegis of Una Europa. Stay tuned!

On October 1, during the ceremonial opening of the new academic year at the Jagiellonian University, the Jagiellonian Laurel, the award for outstanding achievements was presented to prof. Jonathan Heddle. Congratulations!