Technologies

INCIPIT technology allowed the implementation of a multifunctional, micro-structured and electroconductive therapeutic product to treat patients with myocardial infarction, the leading cause of death for cardiovascular disease.  Current therapies (drugs, bypass, angioplasty) do not restore the functionality of damaged myocardial tissue.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The object of the technology is the development of a transferable methodology from the laboratory scale to the pilot scale to be validated in the industrial setting for the treatment of basic waste of natural polymers of agro-food or manufacturing industry.

"Transitional Wearable Companions'' (TWC) are interactive, multisensory, animal-shaped soft toys, developed as a support tool for early intervention in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD), with particular reference to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Thanks to internal electronics, TWC can emit coloured lights, nice sounds and mild vibrations when touched on the paws. Such stimulations are usually very reinforcing to children and attract their attention.

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.

Design and testing of neoproteins with optimized nutritional value, according to needs, avoiding their degradation - thus maintaining a high production yield - and aggregation (which could make them indigestible). Neoproteins are produced and characterized in plant systems as bioreactors. We have already created zeolin, formed by the fusion of a bean seed protein with a portion of a maize seed protein.

The systems simulate, with high reproducibility, the conditions that occur in the different compartments of the gastrointestinal tracts and are promising to accurately mimic the digestive process, with the possibility to evaluate bioaccessibility and bioavailability. Moreover, the systems permit to study the synergic and reciprocal effects between the bioactive compounds characteristic of food and intestinal microbiota.

Combinations of several enzymes in a production chain are preferred to “first generation” enzymatic processes (where the "single reaction - single enzyme" principle was followed), for the synthesis of compounds with high added value starting from simple and cheap substrates. An important requirement for obtaining control in "cascade enzymatic reactions" is the ability to deliver from one biocatalyst to the next one the various intermediates, limiting as much as possible the diffusion of the latter in the solvent.

The proposed technology is based on the concept of Power-Over-Fibre (PoF), which involves the transmission of data and power over an optical fiber. This technology is suitable for applications where traditional copper cabling is impractical or undesirable. This is the case with pantographs, where there is a large potential difference between the catenary and the earth, and therefore any electrical contact must be avoided for safety reasons. Furthermore, pantographs operate in an environment with very high electromagnetic interference (EMI).

The technology concerns planar optical antennas composed of thin metal films and dielectric materials for the efficient direction of the light emitted by light sources, such as fluorescent molecules and bio-markers. They consist of a reflector layer, adjacent to the substrate, and a director, semi-reflective, between which the emitter is positioned, integrated into a homogeneous dielectric layer.

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: