Ignasi Simón (25) graduated top of his class in Nanotechnology at UAB (Spain), completing his final year at UCSD (USA) with a 4.0/4.0 GPA. As an undergraduate, he researched under Prof. Maurizio Prato at CIC BiomaGUNE (Spain), Prof. Joe Wang at UCSD (USA), and Prof. Darren Lipomi at UCSD (USA). Ignasi was then selected for the VBC Summer School, where he conducted research under Dr. Thomas Juffmann (Austria). Later, Ignasi was awarded the “la Caixa” Postgraduate Fellowship Abroad to pursue an MSc in Nanomaterials at the University of Manchester under Dr. Mark Bissett (UK), graduating with Distinction and receiving the Nanomaterials Department Award. Currently, Ignasi is a second-year PhD candidate at TU Delft (Netherlands), focusing on ultrasound-responsive liposomes for targeted drug delivery under Dr. Alina Rwei and Dr. Tiago Costa. His research aims to enhance chemotherapy through spatiotemporal control of drug release. Within his first two PhD years, Ignasi has supervised 15 BSc and MSc students.

Abstract: A major challenge in cancer therapy is the inefficient delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to tumors. Systemic drugs often show poor tumor accumulation, leading to off-target toxicity and reduced efficacy. While liposomes can encapsulate drugs and passively accumulate in tumors, passive targeting rarely achieves controlled or efficient release. Ultrasound provides a safe, non-invasive method to trigger localized drug release, minimizing systemic exposure. To achieve ultrasound-triggerable drug release, Ignasi has led mechanistic studies of liposome–ultrasound interactions, combining computational simulations with experimental techniques such as stability testing, differential scanning calorimetry, small-angle neutron scattering, and atomic force microscopy. This multidisciplinary approach revealed how lipid composition affects release efficiency, enabling the rational design of formulations that balance release and stability. In parallel, ultrasound parameters—frequency, pressure, pulse repetition frequency, and duty cycle—are optimized using custom-built transducers and COMSOL simulations. This ensures precise, effective drug release within FDA-compliant ultrasound settings. Ignasi’s work bridges a key gap between ultrasound physics and nanomedicine, providing critical insights for the rational design of ultrasound-triggerable drug delivery systems.