ALTERNATIVE consortium at IFPB – esib
11th International Conference on Fiber and Polymer Biotechnology (IFPB 2022) was held from 13th to 15th November 2022 in Graz, Austria, within ESIB. As biotechnology (e.g. enzyme/metabolic engineering) plays an essential role towards a transition of fibre and textile industries within a circular bioeconomy. This congress witnesses growing scientific and industrial interest and therefore a reason for participation for Project ALTERNATIVE.
The project co-ordinator Gianluca Ciardelli (Politecnico Di Torino) chaired sessions on Biofunctionalisation and Nano/Bio-materials Applications. Both the sessions were about the modern biomaterials while one focused on the modification of materials by microorganisms and their enzymes while the other on areas of applications like tissue engineering, organ modeling, patient-specific drug-releasing patches and the treatment of chronic wounds etc.
Further, upscaling and preparation of market applications is facilitated by the Open Innovation Test Bed on Bio-based Nanomaterials, presented as the BIOMAC project. Here, he presented on Collagen-derived biomaterials in tissue engineering and organ modelling in collaboration with consortium partner Dr. Federico Vozzi, Istitute for Clinical Physiology, National Research Council, Italy.
The bio-material used was gelatin as cell carrier for in vitro cardiac tissue model design. These are hipsc-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) entrapped in GelMA at different ratios: 100&% CMs, 90% CMs and 10% endothelial cells, 80% CMs and 20% endothelial cells after 14 days. Cells were tested for viability and analysis of cell contraction.
Alternative continues to evolve with an integrated approach for testing and assessment of potential of chemicals.
