Technologies

The technology based on cell or tissue cultures is very useful for the production of bioactive compounds. These molecules, depending on the class they belong to, can be used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry. In particular, the developed technology is addressed to the optimization of bioactive compounds in plant cell/tissue cultures having the biosynthetic pathway of the compound of interest.

Detection devices for the presence of molecules of interest (analytes) enjoyed a renewed burst with the introduction of biological components (biosensors). Their high specificity is often used in various fields, from environmental monitoring and biomedicine to the protection and promotion of agri-food products. However, the high cost of production and the lack of compatibility with mass sampling (high-throughput) sometimes limit their use.

Lifeshell is an anti-seismic furniture construction concept, which can be used for making wardrobes, tables, desktops, beds. It’s made by timber based panels: highly resistant and flexible, relatively lightweight and inexpensive. Lifeshell benefits from the natural wood elasticity and from smart connections for dissipating the great impact energies occurring during an earthquake. Lifeshell has been designed for resisting partial building collapses, and to provide a safe shell where inhabitants can find refuge.

Mirrors for space applications, besides featuring suitable optical properties, should be light, resistant to mechanical stresses, and unsensitive to light-shadow thermal cycling. The standard optical materials easily fulfill optical and thermal requirements, but are fragile, and the mirrors must be thick (typically 1/6 of the diameter). For this reason they are heavy, and the only available solution is to lighten them, by removing material from the back side, still preserving the necessary mechanical robustness and optical quality.

Extracellular vesicles produced by teratocarcinoma cells were isolated and characterized. Functional assays on glioblastoma (GBM) cell cultures showed the inhibitory effect of these vesicles on tumor cell migration, without inducing undesirable effects such as increased cell proliferation or chemotherapy resistance.

We propose a compact innovative spectroscopy system operating in the UV range. In the actual version, designed for gas, it exhibits: an aluminium tubular optical chamber (length can be adjusted; currently is 20 cm); a cheap commercial UV LED; a SiC visible blind UV detector designed and manufactured at the CNR-IMM facilities. The team developed also the electronic chain for wireless remote real time read out; while able to deal with pA current levels, it uses very cheap components and construction technology.

The procedure enables the fabrication of nanocomposite membranes filled with suitable amounts of exfoliated bidimensional crystals. These are obtained with an advanced wet-jet milling technique, which provides desired thickness and lateral size of nanofillers through the pulverization and colloidal homogenization of bulk nanomaterials. The bidimensional crystals are dispersed in fluids and suitably delivered inside polymeric matrixes exhibiting a singular morphology.

WembraneX is an Italian start-up born with the ambition to make a significant contribution to UN Sustainable Goal 6 - Ensure Access to Clean Water and Sanitation for all by 2030.

The proposal concerns the development of the G.A.T.CD4 (Gliadin-activated CD4+ T cells) method which allows, in peripheral blood, the identification of CD4+ T lymphocytes reactive to toxic peptides of gliadin, the main gluten protein of cereals.

This invention comprises an interrogation and readout differential method for chemical sensors based on Surface Plasmon Resonances (SPR). The integration of the SPR sensing unit (chip or other), as intermediate reflecting element of a Fabry-Perot (FP) optical resonator, is the starting point for the application of this method.

We have identified the presence of the poorly characterized precursor proNGF-A in human tissues, deposited its coding nucleotide sequence (GenBank MH358394) and demonstrated its neuroprotective and neurotrophic activity in vitro and in vivo. We inserted mutations into the native molecule, identified through computational analysis, which allow proNGF-A production by eukaryotic expression systems, through a method currently validated on a laboratory scale.

Recently, nanoparticles and nanovesicles have been investigated as potential approaches for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, in the Biotech sector an increasingly deeper penetration of new treatment models and biological drugs based on cellular, subcellular and vesicle therapies is expected. The patent is based on the production of Myelin-based nanoVesicles (MyVes) produced by microfluidics, starting from myelin extracted from brain tissue. These vesicles find two major fields of applications as potential drugs or as supplements/nutraceuticals.

The NanoMicroFab infrastructure, support companies operating in the field of micro and nanoelectronics through the supply of materials, development of processes, design, fabrication and characterization of materials and devices. NanoMicroFab makes use of existing CNR facilities of the Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems, the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies and the Institute for the Structure of Matter and provides: • a complete line of development of devices based on wide band gap semiconductors.

Severe asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are nowadays associated with a poor response to corticosteroids which led to the use of high-dose with consequent improved onset of side effects. The use of nanotechnologies can represent an innovative approach for the effective treatment of both asthma and COPD. The development of new nano-formulations involving the use of nanomaterials and specifically tailored to be inhaled offers numerous advantages over conventional inhaled dosage forms.

NANOINCICLO is a technology based on the use of nanostructured cyclodextrins (CDs) for the targeted delivery of drugs such as anticancer drugs, photodynamic drugs, anti-inflammatories, antivirals, antibacterials, nutraceuticals and metals with therapeutic and diagnostic properties. Successful CDs for the proposed technology are FDA-approved or in advanced pre-clinical investigational stage and include natural and functionalized, polymeric, and amphiphilic monomeric CDs.