Industrial Chemistry

Tissue engineering principles and illustrations of some of the most important scaffold fabrication techniques. Through practical examples, the main classes of biopolymers are described. Methods for crosslinking biopolymers. I Teaching Lab: scaffold fabrication using concentrated emulsions; II Teaching Lab: scaffold fabrication using concentrated gas-in-liquid foams; III Teaching Lab: scaffold fabrication using a 3D printer. Theoretical treatment of polymer solution viscosity. Capillary viscometry. IV Teaching Lab: determination of a biopolymer's intrinsic viscosity and viscosity-average molecular weight. V numerical exercise: numerical elaboration of viscometric experimental data; VI numerical exercise: determination of hyaluronic acid characteristic ratio. Rheology principles, measurements in shear and oscillation modes of biopolymer solutions. VII Teaching Lab: investigation of the rheological behaviour of biopolymer solutions under various concentration regimes and determination of the coil overlapping parameter. VIII Teaching Lab: determining the gel point of a curing biopolymer solution and registering the mechanical spectrum of the formed gel. Biopolymer gel permeation chromatography. IX numerical exercise: calculation of numerical, weight molecular weights, and the polydispersity index. Methodologies for characterising biopolymers in solution using chiro-optical spectroscopies. Circular dichroism (CD) and optical rotatory dispersion (ORD). X Teaching Lab: registration of the CD spectrum of an aqueous solution of polylysine at different pH, corresponding to different conformations (random coil, α -helix, β-sheet); XI numerical exercise: Determination of the binding constants between DNA and synthetic analogues of dystamicin (antiprotozoal and antiviral drugs) through the registration of CD spectra. Students must submit a written report to the teacher for each teaching lab/numerical exercise, which will be corrected and discussed before the exam.

The fundamental concepts of mathematics (differential and integral calculus) and physics are essential.

-Polymer Chemistry – The Basic Concepts P. C. Hiemenz -Biophysical Chemistry – Part II e III C. R. Cantor, P. R. Schimmel -Lecture notes -Book chapters and monographs

Three/four lectures or laboratory or numerical exercises per week for a total of six/eight hours

The course includes a series of required teaching labs. Students will first be asked to write a report based on the results of the experiment. These reports are used to assess the level of learning and comprehension of both the underlying theory and the experimental procedures. Other evaluation elements include data elaboration correctness, exposure clarity, theoretical framing of experimental techniques used, and the ability to critically extract physical meaning from numerical data. In the second part of the exam, students will be required to take an oral exam. The primary goal will be to confirm that the candidate student is the author of the reports. Furthermore, the level of knowledge and comprehension of the background theory of the experimental techniques will be assessed. The oral exam can include open-ended questions on the topics covered in the course. The answers are evaluated for completeness of content, ability to synthesize and links between the different themes developed during the course. In the assessment of the examination, the determination of the final grade takes into account the following elements: the theoretical basis followed by the student in answering the question, ability for reasoning, ownership of language, clarity of exposition and critical ability. To pass the exam, the student must demonstrate that they have acquired sufficient knowledge of the topics related to the course. To achieve the maximum score (30/30 cum laude), the student must demonstrate that they have acquired an excellent knowledge of all the topics covered during the course, being able to link them in a logical and coherent way, with an ability to correlate between the experimental behaviour and physico-chemical properties.

The course is organised around theoretical lectures (6 CFU) and numerous application examples of the experimental techniques covered. To illustrate some theoretical concepts and provide students with standard bases for processing experimental data, there are six numerical exercises (1CFU) on specific programme topics. The lectures are held weekly in the classroom, with three two-hour lessons per week for a total of six hours per week, and the presentation is done using PowerPoint slides. There will also be numerous teaching labs (2 CFU) that will take place during lesson times and at times agreed upon with the students. The frequency of frontal teaching lessons is optional but recommended, whereas laboratory lessons are required. A constant personal study activity is required of the student.