soft tissue engineering

Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field applying principles of life sciences and engineering for the development of biological substitutes that may restore, maintain, or improve tissue function

 ^{“Bio-inspired porous membranes containing polymer nanoparticles for wound healing”Ana Marina Ferreira, Clara Mattu, Elia Ranzato, Gianluca CiardelliJ Biomed Mater Res Part A 2014:102A:4394–4405}

At the Biomedical Lab we apply innovative technologies to manipulate surface properties at the nanoscale level and to design porous or bi-layer constructs with antibacterial properties, able to sustain regenerative processes while preventing bacterial proliferation. Such devices have been successfully proposed for dental and cutaneous wound healing, as well as in veterinary applications to repair tortoise shells (in collaboration with Prof. Patrizia Nebbia - University of Turin, dr. Nicola Di Girolamo- Clinic of Exotic Animals, Rome).

 ^{“Development and characterization of novel agar and gelatin injectable hydrogel as filler for peripheral nerve guidance channels”C. Tonda-Turo, S. Gnavi, F. Ruini, G. Gambarotta, E. Gioffredi, V. Chiono, I. Perroteau,  G. Ciardelli,. Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine 2014}

The design of innovative medical devices is of paramount importance to restore motor function, in the event of damaged peripheral or central nerves. Our group works on innovative materials and technologies to develop new devices in this field. Lately we are extending our interests to the design of systems to treat  neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.