Overview
The research group of Dr. Angioletti-Uberti focuses in applying Soft Matter Physics and Statistical Mechanics, as well as various numerical techniques, from Deep Learning (AI) to Monte Carlo and Molecular Dynamics, for the computational desing of nanosystems and their application, ranging from targeted drug delivery vectors to synthetic enzymes and nanoreactors. Broadly speaking, the main aim is to understand how to tune a system behaviour, by programming its interactions in a rational way, e.g., using either different functionalising molecules (ligands), and thus controlling its function. Among the various applications studied, important research themes are the self-assembly of functional structure exploiting ligand-receptor based interactions, catalysis in polymer-based Nanoreactors and nanoparticle and polymers for drug delivery and biosensing applications.

Selected publications:

Xie, Z., Angioletti-Uberti, S., Dobnikar, J., Frenkel, D. and Curk, T., 2025. Receptor clustering tunes and sharpens the selectivity of multivalent binding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(7), p.e2417159122.

Liu, M., Apriceno, A., Sipin, M., Scarpa, E., Rodriguez-Arco, L., Poma, A., Marchello, G., Battaglia, G. and Angioletti-Uberti, S., 2020. Combinatorial entropy behaviour leads to range selective binding in ligand-receptor interactions. Nature communications, 11(1), p.4836.

Tian, X., Angioletti-Uberti, S. and Battaglia, G., 2020. On the design of precision nanomedicines. Science advances, 6(4), p.eaat0919.

Roa, R., Kim, W.K., Kanduč, M., Dzubiella, J. and Angioletti-Uberti, S., 2017. Catalyzed bimolecular reactions in responsive nanoreactors. ACS catalysis, 7(9), pp.5604-5611.

Angioletti-Uberti, Stefano. "Theory, simulations and the design of functionalized nanoparticles for biomedical applications: A Soft Matter Perspective." npj Computational Materials 3, no. 1 (2017): 48.

Angioletti-Uberti, S., Varilly, P., Mognetti, B.M., Tkachenko, A.V. and Frenkel, D., 2013. "Communication: A simple analytical formula for the free-energy of ligand-receptor-mediated interactions". The Journal of Chemical Physics 138(2), p.021102-021105

Angioletti-Uberti, S., Varilly, P., Mognetti, B.M. and Frenkel, D., 2014. "Mobile linkers on DNA-coated-colloids: valency without patches",Physical Review Letters 113(2), p.128303-128307

Angioletti-Uberti, S., Mognetti, B.M. and Frenkel, D., 2012. "Re-entrant melting as a design principle for DNA-coated colloids", Nature Materials 11(6), pp. 518-522