The development of bioactive platforms that are able to direct and guide cell fate represents a relevant step towards tissue and organ regeneration in vitro and in vivo. One of the greatest obstacles, however, that has hampered the development of such bioactive platforms concerns our limited knowledge on the basic biological principles that govern cell-signal and cell-material interactions. Therefore, an improved understanding on the effects of molecular and physical signals on cell behaviour is of fundamental relevance for developing novel and smart bioactive materials that are able to trigger specific cell functions according to predefined schemes.

The research project aims at defining the most relevant biochemical-biophysical signals for eliciting specific cell activities and developing strategies to encode these signals onto synthetic platforms with a tight control on their spatial arrangement and temporal evolution.