Maria Carafa

Prof. M. Carafa is currently Full Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Department of Drug Chemistry and Technology, at "Sapienza" University of Rome. She obtained her PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at "Sapienza" University of Rome in 1992.

She was assistant professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy of “Sapienza” University of Rome from 1991 to 2001. From 2001 to 2008 she was associate professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy at University “G. d’Annunzio” (Chieti) and from 2008 to February 2020 at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Department of Drug Chemistry and Technology, “Sapienza” University of Rome.

She started her scientific career working in the field of pharmaceutical technology, focusing on the development of prolonged/controlled drug delivery systems based on natural polysaccharides. In recent years, she has concentrated her research on the preparation and characterization of vesicular systems. Phospholipid and surfactant vesicles, as well as pH-sensitive vesicles, have been studied as drug delivery systems for various pharmaceutical applications: topical, ophthalmic, diagnostic, pulmonary, oral, drug delivery in CNS disorders, and cellular targeting. Recently, she has shifted her research towards the in-depth physical-chemical characterization of nanocarriers, the preparation of mixed polymer/vesicle systems, nanoemulsions, and nanobubbles for various therapeutic, diagnostic, and theranostic applications.