The aim of the course is to provide an interdisciplinary knowledge base to engineers in the so-called "white economy", with specific reference to the role of mechanics in biological and biophysical processes, such as growth and tumor metastasis. These scientific topics, internationally collected under the name Mechanobiology, are already disclosed in courses (or even entire degree courses) at internationally most prestigious universities, such as Cambridge or Stanford. The short-medium term perspectives that inspire the course seem important (https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/notizie/2018-01-31/dalla-filiera-salute-... -driver-Economy-Italian-092136.shtml? uuid = AEiYqurD & refresh_ce = 1).
The setting of the course is borrowed from a course held at the University of Cambridge. The approach, sometimes descriptive, is accompanied by simple quantitative models. It is believed that the course can be of interest also for non-engineer students, for example in the field of medical biotechnology.
Students will be exposed to basics and interdisciplinary topics as:
Fundamentals of biology
Mechanics of cell: force transmission, adhesion, migration.
Mechanotransduction.
Fundamentals of biology
Mechanics of cell: force transmission, adhesion, migration.
Mechanotransduction.
Introduction to Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology by Christopher R. Jacobs & Hayden Huang & Ronald Y. Kwon
Cell Biology by the numbers by R. Milo and R. Phillips
Physical biology of the cell by R. Phillips, J. Kondev, J. Theriot, H.G. Garcia
The course includes lectures, tutorials, and homework.
The examination consists of an oral evaluation. Homework will be
evaluated, too.
Students will be strongly encouraged to go "beyond the lectures", to look
into modern and less intuitive aspects of the mechanics (and multi
physics: why not?) of solids and structures. Personal study, hands on,
interactions with professors and assistants are absolutely favored and
welcome! We will exploit largely the e-learning tools available for the course