INTERNATional awards: DOCTORAL DISSERTATION AWARD RECOGNIZES SANT’ANNA SCHOOL RESEARCHER for innovative biomaterials development
Lorenzo Vannozzi, a young researcher at Sant’Anna School Institute of Biorobotics, is the recipient of the Julia Polak European Doctorate Award for his dissertation "Novel actuated microsystems". On September 9-13, 2018, at the "29th Annual Meeting” of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) - a non-profit organization at the forefront of the scientific community determined to tackle unmet clinical needs by means of advanced materials for medical devices and regenerative medicine - Vannozzi presented his thesis on bio-hybrid actuators for advanced micro-robot locomotion and drug delivery procedures.
In his thesis, Vannozzi focused on novel actuated microsystems based on bio actuators.
Actuation is achieved by combining mechanical force exerted by contractile muscle cells with mechanically responsive “smart” materials as piezoelectric nanoparticle-polymer systems.
The interaction between the stimulus and the “smart-bio-hybrid” system allows generating local electric potentials, which can modulate on-demand phenomena, as drug release process.
During the Biomaterials conference of the Society, the Julia Polak European Doctorate Award judges considered the thesis a highly valuable contribution to research for restoration of functions and the application of bioactive molecules through the drug delivery system. This meeting 2018 of the ESB aimed to establish a clear relationship in the design applied by the nature to the human body and the development of biomimetic-hybrid systems.
Vannozzi received his PhD in Biorobotics from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies Biorobotics Institute. He is currently working as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Professor Arianna Menciassi and Professor Leonardo Ricotti in the area of Surgical Robotics and Allied Technologies at the Micro-Nano-Bio Systems and Targeted Therapies Laboratory.
