Anagrafe della ricerca

This project aims at bringing strong improvements in the theoretical, computational and experimental comprehension of biological materials and in the design of engineered tissues and bio-inspired or biomimetic materials that play a relevant role in cancer research and in transplant surgery. To achieve these goals, the project relies on a constructive and original combination of advanced methods of mathematical physics, numerics, and analysis with the most modern experimental techniques in the fields of interest. The methodologies that will be developed by the two research units involved in the project are expected to provide new mathematical infrastructures and innovative experimental protocols at the service of biomedicine and health industry in order to meet the scopes of the “strategic emerging topic Human Wellbeing”. More in detail, the principal objectives of this proposal are: - Development of theoretical paradigms for a flexible and theoretically rigorous formulation of the mathematical models connected with the research themes of the project. To this end, methodologies and concepts of differential geometry as well as analytical and continuum mechanics will be harmonized. - Formulation of physically consistent benchmark problems capable of reproducing the most essential features of the research questions posed by the project. This will require a careful study of the multiscale nature of the considered research themes, and the elaboration of analytical techniques, based e.g. on asymptotic homogenization or other up-scaling methods, for tracing the scale-transfer of the most relevant physical effects and for determining the effective properties of the investigated materials. - Supply robust computational strategies for the highly complex mathematical problems arising from the mathematical models that will be proposed. - Conduction of low scale studies capable of resolving both the rate behavior and the damage of tissues at the cell level. - Elaboration of experimental protocols for testing the bio-inspired materials and metamaterials addressed by the project. - Within the research on cancer, particular attention will be given to the development of models capable of capturing the visco-elasto-plastic properties of cellular aggregates by employing fractional integro-differential operators and strain-gradient theories of plasticity. - Within the research on engineered tissues, the focus will be on articular cartilage and, in particular, on the study and design of the internal structure of metamaterials, especially for what concerns the distribution and orientation of collagen fibers, with the purpose of improving their resemblance to the native tissue. The mechanical characterization of the considered metamaterials will be obtained through asymptotic homogenization methods.