OVERVIEW

Bio-inspired materials and devices aim to mimic nature’s solutions to develop sustainable and innovative technological solutions, crucial for applications such as medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring and drug design. The interdisciplinary approach adopted will provide significant expertise for future material scientists.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course aims to provide an overview of bio-inspired materials and their use in devices for biomedical and environmental applications. The basic principles underlying material design, fabrication and characterization will be given. Laboratory activities will allow students to acquire practical skills in the development of specific biomimetic materials/devices.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

Provide the basic concepts of materials and devices inspired by nature; illustrate, through state-of-the-art examples, how such materials are currently applied in the production of different biomedical devices; promote the ability to identify and design the characteristics of a new bio-inspired material and/or device, an essential skill of the materials scientist.

At the end of the course the student will be able to:

- Know the principles and characteristics of many bio-inspired materials;

- Know and understand the functioning of the most common types of state-of-the-art bio-inspired devices already on the market;

- Understand and use the technical language employed to describe the characteristics of a material/device;

- Critically evaluate the applications, performances and advantages/disadvantages of the use of biomaterials/biosensors compared to other materials/analytical techniques;

- Design a new material and/or device by identifying its essential elements/characteristics and by foreseeing the strategies to integrate them;

- Know future trends and promising technologies

TEACHING METHODS

-Traditional lectures, with the aid of slides, videos, animations, simulations. To immediately verify that the students have understood the teacher’s explanations, short quizzes will be proposed through clickers such as Wooclap.

- Discussion of research articles suggested by the teachers

- Laboratory activities supervised by the teacher

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Biomolecules and biological macromolecules

Molecular self-assembly for bio-inspired material design

Micelles, lipid nanoparticles, hybrid constructs, mesophases

Hierarchically structured biomimetic materials

Biosensors: principles and applications

Nanobiosensors based on nanopores and nanochannels and their fabrication

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Slides and other teaching materials will be provided by the teacher. Further materials will be made available on Aulaweb.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam will consist of an oral interview on the topics covered during classes. A detailed list of the covered topics is available on Aulaweb.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The exam will be aimed to evaluate the level achieved by the student with respect to the learning outcomes. In particular, during the interview, the acquired knowledge and the ability to use the technical language will be ascertained. Furthermore, the ability to identify and critically evaluate the basic elements and characteristics (in terms of performance, functionality) of materials and devices proposed by the teachers and/or designed by the student on the basis of laboratory activities will be assessed.