Technologies

Nowadays, to properly design and develop advanced materials capable to preserve for long times their performance under aggressive environments such as power generation plants, renewables, nuclear reactors and electronics of new generation, transport on ground and on space, aeronautics, catalysis, biomedical implants, the optimization of metallurgical processes involved is crucial.

The final technology will add polarimetric capability to imaging cameras in the NUV/optical, providing simultaneous measurements of the different polarization states of the light. This will be obtained by the development of an innovative coating based on nanostructured emissive materials sensitive to the polarization of the incident light. A  double layer film of two organic systems will be coupled to image detectors so that the two polarization components of the incoming light are converted into two different colors.

This technology is an e-health application. The DragONE application is inspired by the global guidelines for the management of asthma, which promote the opportunity to implement a multidimensional assessment of pediatric asthma using innovative systems. DragONE allows to record data on the subjective control of asthma, by using easy-to-understand colors and icons for children (red, yellow or green dragon), to keep track to the patient’s of perceived state.

Our innovative proposal involves an educational robotics training program, resulting from an experimental research that combines traditional educational approaches with the utilization of robotics. Specifically, the educational robot Thymio, developed by EPFL, serves as a facilitator in the learning process to enhance School Readiness.

Inert biomedical devices with modular load-bearing function designed with peculiar multi-domain composite microstructures. The reference compositional system is Zirconia-Alumina with a prevailing overall composition of customizable zirconia or alumina. Examples of devices are 3D structures consisting of parts with differentiated functional properties, due to different composition/microstructure/architecture, and further functionalizable ex-post to favor and improve the stabilization of the implantation by newly formed bone in superior quantity and quality.

The Nikon reference centre at IBPM ( www.imagingplatformibpmcnr.it ) is a microscopy platform for high resolution imaging of fixed samples and live cells (time-lapse video recording, both wide field and confocal spinning disk). Multimodal (fluorescence and transmitted light) and multidimensional (in x,y,z, 4 wavelengths, over time) acquisition modes are in place.

The herein described technology aims at the development of a platform of injectable hydrogels for application as drug carriers for localized delivery or in the regenerative medicine field. The use of ad-hoc synthesized poly(ether urethane)s (PEUs) as hydrogel forming materials is a common property which characterizes all the systems belonging to this platform.

Uniform coverage with porous layers over extended surfaces is beneficial for many purposes. Depending on the nature/composition, thickness and interfaces of the layer, this kind of special coverage can assure pivotal properties such as transparency, bendability, high surface reactivity, intermixing capability. In the long list of desired porous materials, transparent oxides find application in the fields of Photovoltaics, Sensing, Photocatalysis, Water Purification and Splitting, Lithium Batteries and many more.

Mergers e Acquisitions represent important forms of business deals because of the volumes involved in the transactions and the role of the innovation activity of companies. By considering the patent activity of about one thousand companies, we develop a method to predict future acquisitions by assuming that companies deal more frequently with technologically related ones.

Flow technologies for the synthesis of chemical intermediates have great potential at the industrial level and the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) can speed up the development of new products. In this context, we could find the technology for the synthesis of NPs. The NPs (Au, Ag, or Pt) are synthesized in a single step and are functionalized with polymeric stabilizers (such as PVP, PVA, PEG, or others) or with thio-glycosidic fragments.

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.

We have identified compounds that show a neuroprotective action in vivo, in models of neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. SMA, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Huntington) in the model organism C. elegans. These compounds consist of: mixtures of 22 natural extracts, 15 natural molecules and 11 synthetic molecules.

Plants can compete favorably with traditional expression systems (mammalian cells, yeasts or bacteria) to produce recombinant proteins/peptides of pharmaceutical/industrial/agrifood interest. This technology names “Plant Molecular Farming”. The CNR-IBBA research team offers the study of new strategies for the expression and optimization of recombinant proteins/peptides in plant-based systems (plant tissues, transgenic plants, plant cell culture). Our pipeline is based on the following modules:

The prototype uses soil moisture sensors which, through a measurement of dielectric permittivity, estimate the soil moisture based on which irrigation is started through relay-controlled solenoid valve. The system was developed using Open Source technologies. Specifically, for the hardware components, a small sized board computer Raspberry PI 3B + was used together with a 4G LTE Wi-Fi router and a Modbus rs485 / USB converter.

To the enterprises working in the field of nutrition/nutraceutics and drug development/repositioning, we offer the know-how and state-of-the-art instrumentation of our labs to monitor multiple relevant biological parameters at the cellular level: metabolic activity, vitality, health, but also stress and toxicity. The use of advanced imaging techniques based on fluorescent/bioluminescent probes together with the availability of time-lapse acquisitions, guarantee the cutting-edge analysis of different biological parameters over time.