2. Contessi

Training School COST Action NAMABIO MP1005
4th Course – 14th-17th October 2014 Cyprus
Student Presentation: Nicola Contessi
2
About Me
My Hometown
ü  2008 - 2011: BSc in Biomedical Engineering – Politecnico di Milano, Italy
ü  2011 - 2013: MSc in Biomedical Engineering (Track in Engineering for
Cells, Tissues and Biotechnologies) – Politecnico di Milano, Italy (Master
thesis stage at University of Brighton, UK)
ü  Starting November 1st 2014: PhD Student in Biomedical Engineering –
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
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Research Group and Contacts
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
http://www.polimi.it
BioMatLab
Department of Chemistry, Materials and
Chemical Engineering “G. Natta”
• 
1 Full Professor
• 
1 Associated Professor
• 
2 Assistant Professors
• 
3 Research Fellows
• 
2 PhD Students
• 
10 Master Students
•  Silvia FARE’ – Assistant Professor: [email protected]
•  Serena BERTOLDI – Research Fellow (COST): [email protected]
•  Nicola CONTESSI – PhD Student: [email protected]
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Activities and Topics
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•  Synthesis, production and optimisation of innovative synthetic and natural
polymers as biomaterials for scaffolds production
•  Particular interest in cardiovascular and bone tissue regeneration
•  Morphological, chemico-physical and mechanical characterisation
•  Surface treatments and biomimetic approaches to improve and control
cell-biomaterial interactions
•  Study of biomolecules and drugdelivery systems
•  In vitro studies of biomaterials cells interactions
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Some Collaborations of Ours
University of Oslo (N)
Ecole Polytechnique
de Montreal (CDN)
University of
Queensland (AUS)
Politecnico di Milano
(IT)
Universitè Laval (CDN)
University of Brighton
(UK)
University of Twente
(NL)
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Università del
Piemonte Orientale
(IT)
Research Experience
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1) Introduction
Stem Cell Potency:
unique capability of differentiation
in several cell phenotypes
great interest for biomedical applications
(e.g. regenerative medicine)
Applicative limitation:
•  In vitro formation of “colony forming unit - fibroblasts”
•  Loss of stem cell potency
è Lack of culture substrates that allow the stem cell potency maintenance
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Research Experience
7
2) Materials and Methods
•  Production and optimisation of polyurethane bi-dimensional
films (macro/microscopic observation, chemical and
mechanical characterisation)
•  Films surface activation (plasma + chemical treatments)
and functionalisation by dendrons synthesised on
purpose (surface characterisation by titration curves,
ATR/FT-IR and static contact angle)
•  In vitro tests to investigate substrate – cells interactions (cell
morphological analysis by SEM, DAPI and CellTracker)
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Research Experience
3) Results
•  Standardised and optimised PU
production process
•  ATR/FT-IR and static contact angle
surface characterisation
•  S p h e r o i d a l a g g r e g a t e s o n
functionalised polyurethane
films
Homogeneous, reproducible and
transparent films
Verified functionalisation of
polyurethane films with the
synthesised dendrons
PU films
+dendrons
VS
fibroblast-like morphology on TCP
TCP
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Stem cell
potency
maintenance
on
functionalised
films
Training School COST Action NAMABIO MP1005
4th Course – 14th-17th October 2014 Cyprus

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