Industrial Bioengineering

Course description

Industrial Bioengineering is a multidisciplinary field that brings together skills and expertise in engineering, chemistry, biology and medicine. The Master Course in Industrial Bioengineering specifically deals with the designs, fabrications, characterization and testing of biomedical devices that physically interact with biological entities at various length scales: molecules, cells, tissues or organs. The program was conceived in order to provide the students with ‘tools' that are necessary to translate the recent outcomes of the biotech field in the development of effective and feasible therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.

Bioengineering aims at integrating competences and technologies of the engineering field with those of the biomedical sector in order to provide novel therapeutic, diagnostic and rehabilitative solutions for healthcare. Bioengineering is a highly multidisciplinary field and owing to the recent, extraordinary advancements in micro and nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, biomaterials, molecular and regenerative medicine and diagnostics, diverse types of Bioengineering have developed, each of them characterized by unique features that best perform in specific healthcare sectors. Industrial bioengineering is focused on the design and fabrication of devices that physically interact with biological entities such as molecules, cells, tissues and organs. To this aim, skills and competences of materials, chemical and processing engineering must integrate the fundamental knowledge of biology and medicine. Such an integration is crucial to enable the translation of the outcomes and findings of biotechnology in clinics. An effective translation would generate a giant leap towards the solution of health related problems that have a profound negative impact on modern society. For instance, a new generation of active biomaterials holds the promise to revolutionise the regenerative medicine field by providing effective solutions to the overwhelming problem tissue and organ transplantation. Novel nanotechnology-based delivery systems aim at increasing the effectiveness and reducing the side effects of therapeutic molecules by transporting them in an effective and targeted manner. This will lead to a new era of treatments and diagnosis: the development of such novel carriers and systems, which constitute the foundation of the Nanomedicine field, will have an impact on serious pathologies as cancer and degenerative diseases. Additionally, the development of portable, cost-effective and reliable devices is the basic requisite to enable the transformation of point-of-care from hospital care to home care. Industrial bioengineers are the most appropriate professionals to guide the biotech industry towards the productions of next generation of products aimed at improving healthcare and more generally personal well-being on a large scale at sustainable costs. Industrial Bioengineers will be trained to solve problems in biology and medicine by applying principles of physical sciences and engineering. Equally, by adopting biological principles, Industrial Bioengineers will help the industrial development in the fields of regenerative medicine, nanomedicine, and personal therapeutics and diagnostics.

The foundation elements of the Master Course in Industrial Bioengineering are the represented by the competences of Materials, Chemical and Production engineering. During the Course, these will be specified in a biotechnological/biomedical context by introducing and analysing methods and technologies that find relevant applications for the development of advanced therapeutic and diagnostic strategies. Thus, students having a solid knowledge in classical industrial engineering disciplines like continuum mechanics, thermodynamics and materials science, heat and mass transport, will integrate these disciplines with the basic elements of molecular and cellular biology. Industrial bioengineers will address their knowledge of the complex biochemical phenomena occurring at the molecular/cellular level to design functional biomaterials for tissue engineering; will integrate biomechanics and cellular mechanics to design functional interface and more efficient prostheses; will exploit thermodynamics and mass transport models to engineer novel drug delivery devices; will design and fabricate miniaturized devices to interact with biofluids and living interfaces for advanced diagnostics.

The pathway that will lead the students to achieve and implement these skills consists in lectures, exercises, lab training, writing technical reports and device design.

A typical weekly timetable

• - Six lectures and two lab training or exercises
• - Preparation for the tutorials and classes: reading, writing reports, solving technical problems with specific tools (software, numerical methods)
• - Discussing the reports or presenting essays in the tutorial or class

Tuition fee

Planning and advising

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