General description
The Bioengineering and Medical Informatics Laboratory at the Department of Communication, Computer and Systems Science, University of Genoa is active in Medical Informatics; Bioinformatics; Biomedical Signal and Image Analysis; Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Engineering; Biomedical System Modelling; Nanobiotechnology. Laboratory has been working on medical decision support systems and on biomedical signal analysis and protein structure modelling and prediction, cellular engineering with respect to cell culture onto substrates and to the study of particle adhesion onto surfaces for surface Functionalisation with respect to biocompatibility. The methods used range from artificial intelligence and computer based modelling and simulation to experimental methods. More recently a research line on nanobiofabrication has been started, mainly focused on nanocoatings and nanobiosensors. The research team consists of the scientific responsible, one visiting professor, one researcher, two postdoctoral research fellows, four PhD students and several post graduate students. The Laboratory has numerous intemational collaborations with outstanding foreign universities, such as MIT, Imperial College London among other as well as with small and medium enterprises. This has originated numerous national and intemational research projects. Several such projects have been funded by the EU.

Role in the project
Our principal scientific role in TASNANO will concern NEMS-chip platform's tips nanofunctionalization with which to investigate chemical and physical cell surface properties (fibroblasts and chondrocytes). The presence and distribution of specific binding partners (e. g. receptors for adhesion molecules of growth factors) will be mapped onto the cell surface as a function of specific environmental stimuli and the analysis of the strength of non specific interactions will be carried out by means of force spectroscopy. Experimental results will be complemented by mathematical modelling of cell adhesion onto nanopatterned surfaces taking into account the energy of the interaction between cells and substrates, the topographical and the chemical features of the surfaces.
DIST contribution to TASNANO will also include the setting up of a database in which all involved partners will be able to record data coming from their experiments and results.

www.medinfo.dist.unige.it