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Just like any other field of human knowledge application, also Medicine is going Nano. The keywords announcing the dawn of a new era in the general area of healthcare are personalized therapies, point of care, Nano vectors, microneedles, theranostics. These innovative instruments will fight against old and new plagues, such as silent cancers, cardio-pathologies, degenerative diseases, resistant infections. The new weapons available to medical doctors are the result of highly interdisciplinary collaborations between biologist, chemists, physicists and engineers, stating the supremacy of cross fertilization of culture over isolated box of expertise.

Rapid detection of target bacteria is crucial issue in many areas of social interest to prevent harmful contamination for humans and the environment. Porous silicon (PSi), due to its peculiar physicochemical characteristics and well-defined optical properties, was used to fabricated a label-free PSi biosensor for bacteria detection by surface hydrosilylation and bioconjugation with Protein A.

Microneedles are largely applied in biomedicine, both in diagnostics and therapeutics, since they can be considered the perfect interface between patient and sensing/dispensing devices. In this paper, we present an electro-chemical biosensor based on polymeric microneedles array for the measure of glucose level in interstitial fluids. The microneedles array has been fabricated by photolithography of a polymer, PolyEthylene Glycol DiAcrylate hydrogel, mixed with an enzyme, Glucose oxidase, and a redox mediator, the Vynilferrocene. The microneedles array acts as a working electrode when gold plated by sputtering and their tips have been etched to create a sensitive area. The redox reaction with glucose creates a charge transfer, enhanced by the redox mediator, resulting in a current proportional to the glucose concentration.

Microneedles have been widely applied in biomedicine as tool both in diagnostics and therapeutics. In fact, microneedles are the perfect and painless interface between the derma and a device. Using microneedles as interface and a porous Silicon membrane as reservoir and optical controller, it is possible to realize a smart device for drug delivery. In this paper, we present the fabrication and the results for a patch device loaded with fluorescein molecules, as proof of concept.

In this work we have explored the photoluminescence signal emitted by graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets infiltrated in silanized porous silicon (PSi) matrix. A strong enhancement of the PL emitted from GO by a factor of 2.5 with respect to GO on crystalline silicon was successfully demonstrated. In addition, a weak wavelength modulation of GO photoluminescence emission was observed, resulting in very attractive aspect for its exploitation in innovative optoelectronic devices and high sensible fluorescent sensors.

Microneedles are newly developed biomedical devices, whose advantages are mainly in the non-invasiveness, discretion and versatility of use both as diagnostics and as therapeutics tool. In fact, they can be used both for drugs delivery in the interstitial fluids and for the analysis of the interstitial fluid. In this work we present the preliminary results for two devices based on micro needles in PolyEthylene (Glycol). The first for the drugs delivery includes a membrane whose optical reflected wavelength is related to the concentration of drug. Here, we present our preliminary result in diffusion of drugs between the membrane and the microneedles. The second device is gold coated and it works as electrode for the electrochemical detection of species in the interstitial fluid. A preliminary result in detection of glucose will be shown.

Diatoms are monocellular algae responsible of 20-25% of the global oxygen produced by photosynthetic processes. The protoplasm of every single cell is enclosed in an external wall made of porous hydrogenated silica, the frustule. In recent times, many effects related to photonic properties of diatom frustules have been discovered and exploited in applications: light confinement induced by multiple diffraction, frustule photoluminescence applied to chemical and biochemical sensing, photonic-crystal-like behavior of valves and girdles. In present work we show how several techniques (e.g. digital holography) allowed us to retrieve information on light manipulation by diatom single valves in terms of amplitude, phase and polarization, both in air and in a cytoplasmatic environment. Possible applications in optical microsystems of diatom frustules and frustule-inspired devices as active photonic elements are finally envisaged. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Nanostructured materials, due to their peculiar physical and chemical properties, constitute the new class of functional supports for specific innovative applications. There is a strong competition between synthetic, man-made nanostructured materials and those coming directly from nature: the first ones can be precisely tailored by properly design and fabrication; the second ones are directly available without any cost of production. In this paper, we report our latest achievements on different materials, porous silicon, zinc oxide nanowires and diatomite powders, which belong to these categories.