Biomaterials
Tissue Engineering - Tissue Engineering aims at fabricating complex cell culturing systems for the generation of functional biological tissues. The practical outcomes of the research activities pertain the in vivo replacement of diseased tissues and organs. However, other relevant applications might be the development of in vitro platforms for drug or molecules screening or models to study biologic events or the evolution of pathologies. The activities within this field undertaken in the DICMAPI labs, encompass the design, fabrication, functionalization of bioactive three-dimensional porous scaffolds able to promote and guide important cellular processes such as differentiation and tissue biosynthesis. The optimization of the in vitro culturing conditions along with the development of investigative techniques to monitor the chemical/physical characteristics of a growing tissue, are instrumental research areas with the common purpose of the in vitro generation of functional and viable tissues.
Biomechanics - Biomechanics aims at studying the structure, composition and functions of biological entities. Research activities carried out in the DICMAPI labs are focused on the definition of the relationship correlating microstructure, composition and macroscopic functions of tissues and organs. Additionally, the expertise developed in the recent past allowed to scale these concepts down to the single cell-level. In principle, the activities provide important pieces of information on specific pathologies or morphogenetic events. These, however, are also instrumental for Tissue Engineering. In fact, biomechanics provides useful tools to characterize tissues in vitro and might aid the development of novel design concepts to generate tissues displaying predefined structural and functional properties.
Controlled drug and biomolecules release - The research activities carried out in the DICMAPI labs on controlled release aim at engineering vectors and polymeric systems to deliver bioactive molecules (drugs, growth factors) within the biologic environment according to accurate spatial/temporal programmes. Along these lines, great importance is given to the molecular design of micro and nanocarriers for encapsulating and releasing bioactive molecules. Carriers must fulfill several stringent requirements, such as biocompatibility, degradability, compatibility with the chosen bioactive molecule and specificity towards target biologic sites.
