The 2021 edition of the European Researchers' Night organized by Frascati Science, scheduled on September 24th.
This year the name of the ERN project signed by Frascati Scienza is LEAF, acronym for "heal the planet's Future”, take care of the future of the planet.
LEAF is funded by the European Commission's HORIZON 2020 programme, under the shares Marie Sk?odowska-Curie and from Lazio region. By fulfilling all the measures required for the health emergency, the appointment will be held - both in presence and online - in September. It will begin on the 18th with the start of Science Week, culminating on the last Friday of the month with the European Researchers' Night and ending on the 25th. Participation, as always, is free and open access.
UCBM participates with the Departmental Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Science and Technology for Man and the Environment.
La Faculty of Engineering proposes experimental/demonstrative activities aimed at illustrating some research carried out at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma with technological innovations applied in the medical and medical engineering fields. MEMBERSHIP FOR APPLIED ENGINEERING INNOVATIONS IN MEDICINE
The demonstration activities will be the following:
1) Innovative wearable systems for monitoring vital parameters and articular joint movements for applications in the rehabilitation and sports fields. The group involved is multidisciplinary involving research units belonging to both the Faculty of Engineering and Medicine and Surgery.
2) Collaborative robotic platforms for assistance in logistics and patient care in hospitals.
3) Bionic prostheses for the restoration of tactile sensitivity in people with upper limb amputation.
4) Microfluidic synthesis of nanoparticles for controlled drug release.
The activities will be divided into four areas:
1) WEARABLE SYSTEMS FOR THE MONITORING OF PHYSIOLOGICAL PARAMETERS
The use of wearable systems for monitoring vital parameters (eg respiratory and heart rate) and articular joint movements is gaining great importance for applications in the clinical and sports fields. Numerous researches have shown how the continuous monitoring of vital parameters, made possible thanks to the use of wearable systems in a comfortable way, makes it possible to prevent certain pathologies or to optimize the therapeutic process. These systems are widely used to provide parameters capable of quantifying the clinical outcome of the rehabilitation process and in the sports field in monitoring the performance of athletes.
The researchers of the Laboratory of Biomedical Measurements and Instrumentation, in collaboration with Research Units belonging to the Departmental Faculty of Medicine (RU of Physical and Rehabilitative Medicine and RU of Orthopedics and Traumatology) will demonstrate the functioning of some commercial and innovative wearable systems.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of wearable systems: 10 min
Main clinical applications and demos: 15 min
2) COLLABORATIVE MOBILE ROBOT FOR ASSISTANCE IN THE HOSPITAL SETTING
Collaborative and service robotics has undoubtedly significant potential for use in the hospital setting, both for supporting logistics (handling of small instruments, moving medicines and delivering/managing food, sanitizing biohazard areas), to allow relieving the physical effort of healthcare personnel and improving safety conditions, both for the supervision/guide/assistance in patients' physical activity (assisted movement of the limbs for physical training and increased motivation for motor activity, supervision and guidance to ambulation, monitoring and intervention in case of adverse events), to increase the quality and effectiveness of care.
The researchers of the Research Unit of Advanced Robotics and Person-Centered Technologies will show the functioning of the TIAGo robotic system with application examples to support healthcare professionals in the management of clinical activities and patient care.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of the TIAGo robotic system: 10 min
Demo of clinical applications: 15 min
3) BIONIC UPPER LIMB PROSTHESIS
Despite the scientific and technological advances in the international panorama of the neuroprosthetics and bionics sector, providing amputation patients with solutions for chronic use that allow the user's intention to move to be determined in a reliable and natural way, and to provide sensory feedback realistic and reliable, such as to allow closed-loop prosthesis control, remains today an open challenge. Numerous researches on bionic prostheses are focusing on: 1) the development of new low-cost prostheses, made with additive manufacturing techniques; 2) use of intelligent techniques to improve the control of the prosthesis and manage the active degrees of freedom in a more natural way; 3) development of invasive and non-invasive stimulation techniques in order to restore tactile sensitivity.
Researchers from the Advanced Robotics and Person-Centered Technologies Research Unit will show the first prototypes of hand prostheses made with 3D printing and examples of bionic prostheses with myoelectric control and non-invasive sensory feedback using transcutaneous electrical stimulation techniques.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of the prosthetic system: 10 min
Main clinical applications and demos: 15 min
4) SYNTHESIS OF NANOPARTICLES IN MICROFLUIDIC SYSTEMS
The application of nanotechnology in the biomedical field represents an avant-garde scenario for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches, especially aimed at treating diseases that still lack a cure.
In particular, the synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles for the transport and controlled release of active ingredients is a promising solution, which allows to counteract the main limitations associated with traditional drug delivery systems. However, it is of fundamental importance to ensure the production of nanoparticles that are as homogeneous and uniform as possible, in composition and morphology. The use of microfluidic platforms allows to meet these requirements and to adjust and optimize the dimensions of the nanosystems. Furthermore, the same microfluidic technique allows the development of devices capable of simulating the behavior of target organs (organ-on-a-chip) on which to preliminarily test the therapeutic efficacy of the candidate nanoparticle loaded with a desired drug: in fact, it is possible to study the interactions between single cells-nanoparticles-drug, limiting in vivo tests.
Researchers from the Tissue Engineering and Chemical Engineering Laboratory will demonstrate the functioning of microfluidic devices for the synthesis of nanoparticles and for their application in different cellular compartments.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of the microfluidic chips: 10 min
Demo of nanoparticle synthesis and organ-on-a-chip application: 15 min
La Faculty of Science and Technology for Man and the Environment proposes some practical/demonstrative research activitiesUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma in the field of food science and supply chain management. The aim is to present the aspects related to the valorization of foods and waste products of food production through the evaluation of their composition in terms of compounds beneficial to human health and with the use of innovative technologies for their analysis. There will be three activities and they include a path that starts from the evaluation of the antioxidant capacity of foods through chemical methods to the analysis of the same foods through innovative methods based on sensors capable of distinguishing and recognizing different products up to the green extraction of bioactive compounds from waste products of the same agri-food chains of the products analyzed. Researchers from the laboratories of Electronics for Sensory Systems and Food and Nutrition Sciences will participate in these activities. REGISTRATION FOR THE VALORIZATION OF FOOD AND WASTE PRODUCTS
The activities will be divided into three thematic areas of chemical analysis and through sensors of food matrices and extraction and valorisation of waste products from the production of such foods:
1) ANALYSIS OF THE ANTIOXIDANT POWER OF FOODS
The antioxidant power is a nutritional parameter indicative of the levels of antioxidant substances present in a food. These molecules are of great interest for human nutrition and health, being various pathologies related to the onset of oxidative processes in our body.
The foods richest in antioxidants are those of plant origin. This depends on the fact that plants, as sessile organisms, cannot escape adverse environmental conditions and therefore had to evolve a large number of bioactive molecules to protect themselves from oxidative damage triggered by stressful situations. Furthermore, unlike foods of animal origin, vegetable foods can often be eaten raw and this allows them to preserve their antioxidant potential as many redox molecules are thermolabile and therefore modified or destroyed through cooking processes.
The determination of the antioxidant power will be carried out using a colorimetric method which involves the use of a radical solution (blue) which, when in contact with an extract or a food product, tends to discolour as a consequence of the neutralization of the radical due to the mixture of antioxidants present in the sample . The extent of the discoloration of the radical solution depends on the quantity of metabolically active antioxidants present in the food being analysed. This allows, other things being equal, to compare theoretically equivalent foods and to define their nutritional value.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of the analysis method: 10 min
Analysis of a food product: 15 min
Discussion of the results obtained: 5 min
2) SENSORS FOR FOOD MATRICES
The development of sensors has always played an important role in certain applications, not least food ones where chemical sensors are predominant for the characterization of particular matrices. Chemical sensors are characterized as a system based on a sensitive part directly in contact with the food or sample to be measured and a transduction system linked to specifically designed electronic interfaces. The Laboratory of Electronics for Sensory Systems ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma will demonstrate the operation of specific sensors for the analysis of food products (orange juice, water, coffee, etc.). The experience consists of a 30-minute activity where the student/participant will be able to come into contact with sensor technologies developed at the Faculty of Engineering and applied in the characterization of food in a multidisciplinary context within the Faculty of Science and Technology for Man and the Environment.
The activities related to the event in question will focus on the qualitative demonstration of the functioning of the sensors and their discriminative capabilities. Some types of sensors generally used in the food sector will be described.
The demonstration will continue with the application of dedicated sensors for the differentiation of some foods. The student/participant will be able to evaluate the importance of these technologies taking into account the analysis times, dimensions and discriminative abilities.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of the sensors used: 5min
Analysis of a food product: 20 min
Qualitative results of the measurements performed: 5 min
3) VALORISATION OF WASTE PRODUCTS FROM THE FOOD CHAINS
Molecules of natural origin, specifically food, have great potential for human well-being, so much so that they are used in the nutraceutical and cosmeceutical fields in the formulation of food supplements and cosmetic products. There are numerous studies demonstrating their effectiveness in maintaining general well-being and in the prevention of various pathologies. The sources of these substances are many, not only foods but also inedible by-products from the cultivation and processing of food matrices deriving in large quantities from agriculture and the agri-food industry. So much so that in recent years several studies have focused precisely on the recovery of bioactive ingredients and their use in other industrial segments (functional foods, food supplements, cosmetics, nutraceuticals). The strong interest in by-products from the food industries is linked to the ever-growing conversion towards a circular economy that makes waste a resource. The use of "green" approaches in the process of extracting the molecules improves the environmental impact of these systems. In this context, various systems have been proposed including alternative solvents with low toxicity characteristics towards humans and the environment such as natural deep eutectic solvents.
The researchers of the Laboratory of Analytical and Food Chemistry will show the extraction of bioactive compounds from food production waste products (orange juice, water, coffee, etc.) using "green" solvents. The activities related to the event in question will focus on the description of what are the waste products of food production and on their composition. Different products will be shown and the extraction of bioactive compounds from them through the use of innovative "green" solvents.
Temporal definition of the experience:
Description of food waste products: 10 min
Description and preparation of “green” solvents: 5 min
Extraction of bioactive molecules from products: 15 min
