The BioRobotics Institute – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna

The Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA) is a public university for research and advanced undergraduate and graduate education in the fields of Social and Experimental Sciences. Both Social Class and Experimental Class are organized in several Institutes in order to pursue best managerial practices, external visibility, fund raising possibilities and to approach large and challenging research programs. SSSA is currently ranked 2nd among all Italian Universities. In the Times Higher Education ranking of young universities, SSSA is listed 10th worldwide among institutions that are aged 50 or younger and 5th worldwide among institutions that are aged 30 or younger.

 

 

THE BIOROBOTICS INSTITUTE

The BioRobotics Institute was specifically created to host the research activities of SSSA at the cutting edge of the most important sectors of interdisciplinary engineering-oriented technological innovation. The Institute has built a wealth of knowledge and expertise in several fields of biorobotics and bionics, such as: medical robotics, wearable technologies, collaborative robotics, bio-inspired robotics, neuroscience robotics, rehabilitation robotics and implantable technologies.
The Institute promotes the internationalization of didactics and scientific research through the collaboration with the most prestigious international knowledge centres. The Institute aims to educate engineers that are scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs and problem solvers.
The Director of the BioRobotics Institute is Christian Cipriani and it includes over 200 persons, including PhD students, Post-Doc researchers, and 17 Faculty members leading 9 Research Areas and 8 Laboratories. Recently, The BioRobotics Institute has been ranked first among all departments of biomedical engineering, in Italy, according to the Italian University and Research Evaluation Agency (ANVUR).

Watch the official video of The BioRobotics Institute.

 

REGENERATIVE TECHNOLOGIES LAB

Within the Institute, Prof. Leonardo Ricotti coordinates the Regenerative Technologies Laboratory. The research mission of the Lab is grounded on a strongly interdisciplinary approach and on the hypothesis that a properly driven cross-fertilization between mechatronics, materials science, nanotechnology and molecular biology can produce a dramatic improvement of targeted and minimally invasive therapies, enabling an important leap of several medical treatments. Such mission fully matches the ADMAIORA objectives.

ROLE IN THE ADMAIORA PROJECT

  1. Administrative and scientific project coordination;
  2. Steering of technical specifications and system architecture;
  3. Development of LIPUS stimulation platforms for triggering in a controlled and reliable way the desired bioeffects;
  4. Preliminary in vitro tests to validate LIPUS platforms and to assess biosynthetic hydrogel cytotoxicity on cell lines;
  5. Support to the development of the arthroscopic 3D bioprinting tool;
  6. Technology integration and participation in final validation experiments;
  7. Communication activities.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

The BioRobotics Institute possesses outstanding records of publications and patents, and it performs high-level interdisciplinary research in the bioengineering field. Within the Institute, the specific research group who has generated the ADMAIORA proposal developed 10 international patents and has been or is still involved in several international projects and cooperations. The coordination activities of the Institute and in general of SSSA have been always very smooth and effective. Since the year 2002, SSSA has grown an administrative department specialized in the management of European Projects of the 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programs, and now approached the Horizon 2020 Framework, with several projects already started in which SSSA is the Coordinator or a partner. Such know-how guarantees that the ADMAIORA coordination activity will be administratively smooth, yet scientifically effective.

Team:

Daniele Guarnera

Post-Doc
Daniele Guarnera is a Post-Doc Fellow at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
He got his Master Degree in 2015 at Politecnico di Torino discussing a thesis on the interaction between pantograph and rigid catenary developed at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. In 2019 he got his Ph.D. at Politecnico di Torino, defending the thesis ‘Refined one-dimensional models applied to biostructures and fluids’. The Ph.D. was carried out within the Mul2 research group, under the supervision of Professor Erasmo Carrera and focused on the development of advanced structural and fluid-dynamical models applied to biomechanics. In the last months of the Ph.D. he developed a project related to the 3D bioprinting and mechanical characterization of digital materials at the University of Massachusetts. Recently, he got a grant at the Università di Catania for the FE assisted characterization of electronic power devices in collaboration with ST Microelectronics and CNR. In 2020 joined the ‘Regenerative Technologies’ Lab of the BioRobotic Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.
He has a team-oriented research approach, and his research interests move from numerical to experimental methods about material science, structural engineering, and biomechanics. In 2018 he supported the course ‘Strutture per veicoli spaziali’ as tutor assistant on finite elements analysis classes and he is author and co-author of 12 scientific publications.

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Liliana Agresti

Research Assistant

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Lorenzo Arrico

Post-Doc

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Francesco Iacoponi

Research Assistant
Francesco Iacoponi is a Research Assistant at the BioRobotics Institute.
In 2017 he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at University of Pisa, with a dissertation about the biomechanical analysis of squat motor patterns, and in 2020 he received a Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering at University of Pisa.
His current activity focuses on the development of highly controlled ultrasonic stimulation techniques (Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound) applied to cell lines in order to promote regenerative effects in a controlled and highly reproducible way.

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Ylenia Giacalone

Administrative Assistant

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Diego Trucco

Phd Student
Diego Trucco, M.Sc. (gender: male, date of birth: 21/12/1992) is Biomedical Engineer winner of a scholarship on the use of 3D Bioprinter at the Laboratory of Immunorheumatology and Tissue regeneration.

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Angela Sorriento

Post-Doc
Angela Sorriento is a Post-Doc at The BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. In 2016 she received a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II. Her thesis work was carried out at Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience of Maastricht University (the Netherlands), focusing on the analysis of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data for discovering brain patterns in the sound categorisation process. Her research activity concerns the development of smart medical devices for monitoring bone fracture healing. She mainly investigates the biomechanical and biological aspects of the bone regeneration process, based on the integration of engineering tools and physical principles (e.g. ultrasounds).

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Andrea Aliperta

Computer Graphics Artist

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Laura Riacci

Research Assistant

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Denise Amram

Data Protection Officer
Denise Amram (PhD in Law, SSSA 2012) is Assistant Professor of Private Comparative Law at LIDER Lab - DIRPOLIS Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna.

Coordinator of the Permanent Observatory on Personal Injury Damages and of the research line ETHOS (EThics and law witH and fOr reSearch), steering committee member of Predictive Justice project, and co-coordinator of the research line Family Law, she participates to several research projects funded under national and EU programs (eg VALKYRIES, LeADS) and she serves as legal-ethical advisor for several research projects including sensitive data.

Affiliate Researcher at the EMbeDS Department of Excellence, she serves as honorary fellow at the University of Pisa. Adjunct lecturer for PhD, graduate and undergraduate courses on Data Protection, Family and Child Law, Ethics and AI, Private Law, Health Law, Comparative Private Law at SSSA, she enriched her experience undertaking teaching and/or research activities both in Italy (University of Pisa, University of Ferrara) and abroad, including France (Université Panthéon-Assas and Université Panthéon-Sorbonne), The Netherlands (Utrecht University), Ireland (University College Dublin), Malta (University of Malta), and USA (Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School Library).

She authored / co-authored ~110 publications in Italian, French, English, and Spanish, including a book and 2 co-editions.

Since 2010 Denise is attorney at the State Bar of Pisa, in 2020 she also received the ISO certified UNI 11697:2017 as Data Protection Officer. In 2018-2021 she served as Data Protection Officer at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and Scuola Normale Superiore as well.

Steering committee member for top ranked law journals (e.g. Rivista Italiana Medicina Legale e del Diritto in Campo Sanitario, Opinio Juris in Comparatione, Diritto di Internet, and GenIUS). Her research interests include fundamental rights protection in the fields of data protection law, family law, tort and contractual liability in a national, EU, and comparative perspective.

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Francesco Fontana

PhD student
Francesco Fontana is a Ph.D. student in Biorobotics at The BioRobotics Institute of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna. In 2017 he received the Master degree in Chemical Engineering at University of Salerno, with a thesis entitled “Configuration of a plant for supercritical CO2 – assisted electrospinning”. His research activity regards the development of an in vitro highly controlled combined stimulation system (low intensity ultrasounds plus electromagnetic pulses) of relevant cell lines for modelling neuropathies (in particular the Guillain-Barrè syndrome). The aim is to bring anti-inflammatory and regenerative effects. The second topic concerns the development and characterization of engineered nanocomposite hydrogels for cartilage regeneration.

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Federica Iberite

Post-Doc
Federica Iberite is a Ph.D. student in Biorobotics at SSSA, within the “Micro-nano-bio systems and targeted therapies” Lab of The BioRobotics Institute.
In 2017 she received a Master’s Degree in Genetics and Molecular Biology in Basic and Biomedical Research at “Sapienza” University of Rome, with a dissertation about the functional characterization of a novel long non-coding RNA involved in the regulation of Neurogenin2, a master gene of neural differentiation. During her university career, she received two grants for academic merits.
Her current research activity concerns the integration of living and non-living elements for the development of biohybrid actuators by exploiting muscle cells contraction ability. She is also investigating the effect of different mechanical stimuli on cell differentiation for regenerative medicine purposes.

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Andrea Cafarelli

Post-Doc
Andrea Cafarelli is a post-doctoral fellow at The BioRobotics Institute. In 2013 he received the Master degree (cum laude) in Biomedical Engineering from University of Pisa and in 2017 he obtained a PhD (cum laude) in Biorobotics at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, defending a thesis entitled “Controlled ultrasound exposure for innovative therapeutic applications”. His research activity is mainly focused on the development of ultrasound-based systems for therapeutic purposes (i.e. high intensity ultrasound for cancer treatment and low intensity pulsed ultrasound from mediated drug delivery and regenerative medicine).

From 2019 is also co-founder of River Global Scientific Lab srl, a spin-off company of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna dedicated to technological advances in the therapeutic ultrasound field.

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Lorenzo Vannozzi

Technical Project Manager
Lorenzo Vannozzi is a post-doctoral fellow at SSSA, within the “Micro-nano-bio systems and targeted therapies” Lab of the BioRobotics Institute. In 2013, he received a Master degree in Biomedical Engineering at University of Pisa, with a thesis entitled “Design and development of a 3D system for bio-hybrid actuation” and in 2017 he obtained a PhD in Biorobotics, defending a thesis entitled “Novel actuated microsystems”. His research activity deals with the exploration of 3D microfabrication technologies, included 3D bioprinting, for bioengineering purposes, and the design, development and testing of drug delivery platforms for local therapies. He has an interdisciplinary approach involving materials science, mechatronics and molecular biology. He supported the teaching activity of Prof. Leonardo Ricotti within the M.Sc course on “Miniaturized therapeutic and regenerative technologies”, with practical classes on material synthesis and characterization. He is author or co-author of 13 scientific publications. In 2018, he received the “Julia Polak European Doctorate Award” from the European Society of Biomaterials committee. He is or has been involved in different Italian and European projects (MOTU, M2Neural and GeT Small), for which he provided important technical contributions.

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Leonardo Ricotti

Scientific coordinator
Leonardo Ricotti is Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Biorobotics at SSSA and head of the “Micro-nano-bio systems and targeted therapies” Lab at the BioRobotics Institute. He holds a M.Sc. course on “Miniaturized therapeutic and regenerative technologies” and a PhD course on “Micro-nano-bio systems for medical and technological applications”. He has supervised or co-supervised 10 PhD students, working on therapeutic micro-devices, biomaterials and artificial organs, and 30 M.Sc. theses on bioengineering topics. He carries out innovative research efforts at the interface between different disciplines, such as robotics and mechatronics, materials science, molecular biology and biotechnology and he aims at creating innovative (and potentially disruptive) “match points” between different disciplines. He is co-author of ~90 scientific publications (60 on ISI journals), 6 book chapters on micro-nano systems for biomedical applications. He is also inventor of 9 patents. He is Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on NanoBioscience and of the IEEE Transactions on Medical Robotics and Bionics. In 2012, he received the “Massimo Grattarola” award for the best PhD Thesis in bioengineering (Thesis title: “Development of bio-hybrid actuators”). In July 2014, he was awarded with the European Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Doctoral Award. In 2018, he received regional and national prizes as member of the spin-off company Relief s.r.l. He currently coordinates an European project (ADMAIORA – ADvanced nanocomposite MAterIals fOr in situ treatment and ultRAsound-mediated management of osteoarthritis), funded in the H2020 framework.

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Progetti a cui ha partecipato

Progetto
ADMAIORA
Medicina rigenerativa
GENERAL INFORMATION ADMAIORA (ADvanced nanocomposite MAterIals fOr in situ treatment and ultRAsound-mediated management of osteoarthritis) is a research project funded under the Horizon 2020 EU Framework Programme (Call: H2020-NMBP-TR-IND-2018, Research and Innovation action), coordinated by Prof. Leonardo Ricotti at the Scuola Superior
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