The rapid evolution that experimental approaches and computer modeling experienced in the last decades drove the development of a modern approach to life science, medicine and soft matter.
The rapid evolution that experimental approaches and computational power experienced in the last decades drove the development of a modern approach to life science, medicine and soft matter. Nanotechnology changed the way we understand and control biological processes, which happen intrinsically at the nanoscale. A number of groundbreaking scientific advancement (such as, but not limited to: Optical Tweezers, Nobel Prize 2018; Cryo Electron Microscopy, Nobel Prize 2017, DNA repair and nanotechnology, Nobel Prize 2015; Super-resolution microscopy, Nobel Prize 2014, Multi-scale simulations, Nobel Prize 2013) and a balanced combination of state-of-the-art physical measurements and computational models allow now to investigate the detailed physical mechanisms underlying the behavior of complex biological systems. The description of life, once just qualitative, is now evolved into a quantitative and more predictable science.
The IOM research line BioMed takes advantage of our background as material scientists to apply the methods and the instruments we have developed within the fields of physics and chemistry to biology and medicine. In particular we are interested in understanding how the molecules of life interact, how different parts of a cell and more complex systems move and function, how they respond to external environment. To that purpose, we do what we have learned from our background, to develop spectroscopy, microscopy and computational tools that we apply to specific biological and medical problems. In this, an important added value comes from the fruitful interaction with the other IOM research areas.
The ultimate goal of our research, and surely the main target in our future research, is the development of a mechanistic description of the functioning of different biological systems, and its application for the development of diagnostic and therapeutic tools, thus contributing to the development of the fast-growing field of the personalize nanomedicine.
