Dr Elena Piletska

I have graduated from Moscow State University USSR in 1985. I have obtained my PhD degree in 1989 from the Bach's Institute of Biochemistry Moscow USSR. After graduation I was a Senior Research Scientists in the institute of Agroecology and Biotechnology Kiev Ukraine. From 1998 to 2014 I was employed by Cranfield University UK working on numerous industry- and academia-funded research projects and supervising PhD students. Since 2014 I am working at the University of Leicester School of Chemistry as a Lecturer and since 2019 as Associate Professor in Bioanalytical Chemistry.

My research interests include following topics: 1) Novel functional materials and nanomaterials; Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs); 2) Life Science Interface- application of MIPs and other smart materials in imaging sensors controlled drug delivery and in surface proteomics; 3) Computational design of the bespoke adsorbents for bio-refinery environmental and clinical applications. I was a Principal Investigator and co-investigator in 30+ national and international projects including INTAS NATO six EU grants British Council Leverhulme Trust MRC during >20 years of research career. As a member of the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology (LISCB) I am contributing to two of the primary research themes of the College of Science and Engineering: Materials (new functional materials and nanomaterials) and Life Science Interface through alignment with LISCB (structure-based drug discovery and design of nanoparticles capable of manipulating macromolecular functions).

I am author and co-author of 185 peer-reviewed papers, patents and book chapters (h index - 48).

List of representative papers

1. Piletska E., Guerreiro A., Whitcombe M., Piletsky S. (2009). Influence of the Polymerization Conditions on the Performance of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers, Macromolecules, 42, 4921-4928.
2. Piletska E. V., Stavroulakis G., Karim K., Whitcombe M. J., Chianella I., Sharma A., Eboigbodin K. E., Robinson G. K., Piletsky S. A. (2010). Attenuation of Vibrio fischeri quorum sensing using rationally designed polymers. Biomacromolecules, 11, 975-980.
3. Garcia-Con L. M., Whitcombe M., Piletska E., Piletsky S. A. (2010). A sulfur-sulfur cross-linked polymer synthesized from a polymerizable dithiocarbamate as a source of dormant radicals. Adgewandte Chemie, 49, 4075-4078.
4. Ivanova-Mitseva P. K., Fragkou V., Lakshmi D., Whitcombe M. J., Davis F., Guerreiro A., Crayston J. A., Ivanova D. K., Mitsev P. A., Piletska E. V., Piletsky S. A. (2011). Conjugated polymers with pendant iniferter units: versatile materials for grafting. Macromolecules, 44, 1856-1865.
5. Piletska E. V., Piletsky S. S., Whitcombe M. J., Chianella I., Piletsky S. A. (2012). The development of a new microtiter plate format for clinically-relevant assays. Anal. Chem., 84, 2038−2043.
6. Smolinska-Kempisty K., Gurreiro A., Karim K., Sheej Ahmad O., Piletska E., Piletsky S. (2017). New potentiometric sensor based on molecular imprinted polymers for cocaine detection, Biosens. Bioelectron., 96, 49-54.
7. Piletsky S. S., Rabinowicz S., Yang Z., Zagara C., Piletska E. V., Guerreiro A., Piletsky S. A. (2017) Development of Molecularly Imprinted Polymers specific for blood antigens for application in antibody free blood typing. Chem.Comm., 53, 1757-1918.
8. Motib A. S., Guerreiro A., Al-Bayati F. A. Y., Piletska E. V., Manzoor I., Shafeeq S., Kadam A., Kuipers O. P., Hiller N. L., Cowen T., Piletsky S. A., Andrew P. W., Yesilkaya H. (2017) Modulation of Gram positive quorum sensing system by polymeric affinity ligands, Adgew. Chim. Int. Ed., 56, 16555-16558.
9. Ekpenyong-Akiba A. E., Canfarotta F., Abd H. B., Poblocka M., Casulleras M., Castilla-Vallmanya L., Kocsis-Fodor G., Kelly M. E., Janus J., Althubiti M., Piletska E., Piletsky S., Macip S. (2019) Detecting and targeting senescent cells using molecularly imprinted nanoparticles. Nanoscale Horiz., 4, 757-768.
10. Garcia-Cruz A., Haq I., Di Masi S., Trivedi S., Alanazi K., Cowen T., Piletska E., Adnan M., Piletsky S. A. (2020). Design and fabrication of a smart sensor using in silico epitope mapping and electro-responsive imprinted polymer nanoparticles for determination of insulin levels in human plasma. Biosens. Bioelectron., 112536.

My PhD topics include Life Science applications of Molecularly Imprinted polymers (MIPs) in imaging controlled drug delivery and surface proteomics; development and application of nanomaterials and nanoMIPs for clinical and environmental diagnostics and assays.

I am a Fellow of HEA and I am always striving to improve and refine my teaching as well as the teaching of others in the Department. I teach across all four levels. As the convenor of the Bioanalytical Chemistry module CH2206 and a supervisor of numerous BSc MChem and MSc research projects I aspire to promote a research-led teaching method to encourage students to pursue their career in both industry and academia. Having a background in Biology I am also teaching some Biology-related topics (e.g. Introduction into Pharmaceutical Chemistry CH1209 Biochemistry section). In addition to my UG teaching I supervise PGR students (four PhD and two of my MPhil students graduated in the last two years). I am currently supervising two PhD students on innovative interdisciplinary R&D projects.

Molecularly Imprinted nanoparticles as plastic antibodies their development and applications.

I am an External Expert of COST (www.cost.eu) an intergovernmental framework for European Cooperation in Science and Technology and a member of the UK major investment assessment panel “Biofilms Innovation Knowledge Centre (IKC)” organised by BBSRC and Innovate UK.

Japanese Society for Promotion of Science and Technology (JSPS) Fellowship “Development of sensors for herbicides” (1995). INTAS Fellowship “D1-cartridges for photosynthesis-inhibiting herbicides pre-concentration” (1999). Leverhulme Research Fellowship “Formation of microgels by living polymerisation approach” (2007).

2019: Napoli Italy at 7th International Symposium on Sensor Science “Identification of epitopes and molecular markers using molecular imprinting” 2018: Jerusalem Israel at 10th International conference MIP2018 “Snapshot imprinting in mapping of protein epitopes and cell surface” 2017: Ghent Belgium at New generation of antibodies and protein analysis conference “A novel approach for selection of epitopes using molecular imprinting” 2016: Lund Sweden 9th International Conference MIP2016 “Development of the Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for the control of bacterial Quorum Sensing”