Claire Monge obtained her PhD from the Grenoble Alpes University (France) in Physiology and Pharmacology and has integrated the French National Centre of Research (CNRS) in 2017 as a permanent researcher in the Laboratory of Tissue Biology and Therapeutically Engineering (LBTI). Her scientific interests are natural drug delivery systems. She develops a research topic around the LbL technology applied to protein and nanoparticule delivery at mucosal sites: (http://lbt .ibcp.fr/?paged=2014).

The performance of polymeric structures as drug delivery systems and implantable devices is fully dependent on their stability and integrity in biological environments. The Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technology is a versatile technique that can be used to fabricate numerous structures such as planar ultrathin films and membranes, without using aggressive solvents. LbL relies on the use of polyelectrolytes with an opposite charge assembled onto very thin (few nm) or large (several tens of μm) structures. The nature of polymer interactions makes the assembly a versatile plat form to load and release macromolecules. The deposition of hundred layers of biopolymers (polysaccharides) on a low energy substrate (polypropylene) led to the production of a thick free-standing membrane with tenable thickness (tens of μm) and mechanical properti es. For example, these membranes were able to drive bone generati on in vivo after loading with the oestrogenic factor BMP-2. LbL free-standing membranes could be produced with various biopolymers (hyaluronic acid, collagen…) and deliver bio macromolecules such as proteins or nucleic acids or even Nano objects for skin or mucosal applications.