Dr Alena Vdovchenko

Profile

Dr Alena Vdovchenko obtained her BSc and MSc degrees in chemistry at Saint Petersburg State University. During her master studies, she completed several internships at Free University of Berlin with German-Russian Interdisciplinary Science Centre (G-RISC) working on the development of transdermal drug delivery systems. In 2018, Alena was awarded MSCA PhD fellowship and embarked on a research project at Queen Mary University of London under supervision of Prof. Resmini.

Her doctoral work focused on the development of thermoresponsive nanogels for brain drug delivery, which involved collaborative secondments in the UK (University of Birmingham) and France (University de Artois). After completing her PhD, Alena worked for 2 years as a Research & Development Scientist at London Bioscience Innovation Centre, where she contributed to the development of innovative biodegradable plastics for medical and non-medical application. Recognizing the challenge of microplastic pollution she joined an academic research at QMUL.

Research

Research Interests:

My research interests revolve around microplastic pollution and environmental toxicology. I am studying the effect of artificial weathering of microplastics with a specific focus on human toxicity and exposure. 

Publications

A. Vdovchenko, A. K. Pearce, M. Freeley, R. K. O’Reilly, M. Resmini; “Effect of heterogeneous and homogeneous polymerisation on the structure of pNIPAm nanogels”, Polymer Chemistry, 2021, 12, 6854-6864  DOI:10.1039/D1PY01333E

R. Bilardo*, F. Traldi*, A. Vdovchenko*, M. Resmini; WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology “Influence of surface chemistry and morphology of nanoparticles on protein corona formation”; Wiley Interdiscip. Rev. Nanomed. Nanobiotechnol., 2022, e1788; DOI: 10.1002/wnan.1788; * - authors equal contribution

J. I. Jones, A. Vdovchenko, D. Cooling, J. F. Murphy, A. Arnold, J. L. Pretty, K. L. Spencer, A. A. Markus, A. D. Vethaak, M. Resmini; “Systematic Analysis of the Relative Abundance of Polymers Occurring as Microplastics in Freshwaters and Estuaries”, Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 2020, 17, 9304; DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17249304

M. Levit, A. Vdovchenko, A. Dzhuzha, N. Zashikhina, E. Katernuk, A. Gostev, E. Sivtsov, A. Lavrentieva, T. Tennikova, E. Korzhikova-Vlakh;”Self-Assembled Nanoparticles Based on Block-Copolymers of Poly(2-Deoxy-2-Methacrylamido-D-Glucose) / Poly(N-Vinyl Succinic Acid) with Poly(O-Cholesteryl Methacrylate) for Delivery of Hydrophobic Drugs”, International Journal of Molecular Sciences; 2021, 22(21), 11457, DOI: 10.3390/ijms222111457

M. Levit, N. Zashikhina, A. Vdovchenko, A. Dobrodumov, N. Zakharova, A. Kashina, E. Rühl, A. Lavrentieva, T.Scheper, T. Tennikova, E. Korzhikova-Vlakh; ”Bio-Inspired Amphiphilic Block-Copolymers Based on Synthetic Glycopolymer and Poly(Amino Acid) as Potential Drug Delivery Systems”; Polymers; 2020, 12, 183; DOI: 10.3390/polym12010183