Leonardo Ricotti

Enti collegati: The BioRobotics Institute – Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna
Ruolo: 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.

Pubblicazioni

Pubblicazione Fujie, T. Development of free-standing polymer nanosheets for advanced medical and health-care applications. Polym. J. 2016, 48, 773– 780, DOI: 10.1038/pj.2016.38 [Crossref], [CAS], Google Scholar
Novel Ultrathin Films Based on a Blend of PEG-b-PCL and PLLA and Doped with ZnO Nanoparticles
Lorenzo Vannozzi, Leonardo Ricotti
In this paper, a novel nanofilm type is proposed based on a blend of poly(ethylene glycol)-block-poly(ε-caprolactone) methyl ether (PEG-b-PCL) and poly(l-lactic acid), doped with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) at different concentrations (0.1, 1, and 10 mg/mL). All nanofilm types were featured by a thickness value of ∼500 nm. Increasing ZnO NP concentrations implied larger roughness values (∼22 nm for the bare nanofilm and ∼67 nm for the films with 10 mg/mL of NPs), larger piezoelectricity (average d33 coefficient for the film up to ∼1.98 pm/V), and elastic modulus: the nanofilms doped with 1 and 10 mg/mL of NPs were much stiffer than the nondoped controls and nanofilms doped with 0.1 mg/mL of NPs. The ZnO NP content was also directly proportional to the material melting point and crystallinity and inversely proportional to the material degradation rate, thus highlighting the stabilization role of ZnO particles. In vitro tests were carried out with cells of the musculoskeletal apparatus (fibroblasts, osteoblasts, chondrocytes, and myoblasts). All cell types showed good adhesion and viability on all substrate formulations. Interestingly, a higher content of ZnO NPs in the matrix demonstrated higher bioactivity, boosting the metabolic activity of fibroblasts, myoblasts, and chondrocytes and enhancing the osteogenic and myogenic differentiation. These findings demonstrated the potential of these nanocomposite matrices for regenerative medicine applications, such as tissue engineering.

Progetti

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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