Biology subjects

Tognato, R.

Publications and source records attributed to Tognato, R..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Bioconvergence of sound-guided and supramolecular assembly strategies to create peptide-protein composite hydrogels with predictable shape-to-function features

Purely protein-based hydrogels are widely used in tissue engineering for their biomimicry and biocompatibility, yet remain challenging to tailor with precision and predictability at biological and mechanical levels. To overcome this, synthetic self-assembling peptide amphiphiles (PAs) offer opportunities for supramolecular customization, both as single-phase materials and co-assembled with proteins to create hybrid nanocomposites with emerging functionalities. Similarly, contactless, sound-guided bioassembly techniques using liquid-phase hydrogel precursors are emerging as strategic tools for obtaining structured and functional hydrogels. Leveraging these advances, here a fast, contactless, one-pot bioassembly strategy merging supramolecular PA self-assembly with sound-guided patterning to fabricate hybrid peptide-protein hydrogels with programmable shape-to-function features is presented. Using fibrin as proof-of-concept, material performance is biologically enhanced by incorporating growth factor-binding PAs, while inorganic microparticles are embedded and spatially organized via acoustic fields to tune mechanical properties. This strategy allows predictable tuning of composite stiffness and architecture by adjusting sound wave frequency, with acoustic fields guiding material organization from micro-to-macroscale. Composite hydrogels result highly permissive to cell infiltration in vitro and versatile platform to tune immune cell-material interactions. This modular biofabrication platform integrating supramolecular and sound-guided processes can be generalized to other building blocks opening unique opportunities for scalable, tunable, and hierarchically-organized biomaterials.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2023

Sound-based assembly of three-dimensional cellularized and acellularized constructs

Herein we show an accessible technique based on Faraday waves that assist the rapid assembly osteoinductive {beta}-TCP particles as well as human osteoblast pre-assembled in spheroids. The hydrodynamic forces originating at seabed of the assembly chamber can be used to tightly aggregate inorganic and biological entities at packing densities that resemble those of native tissues. Additionally, following a layer-by-layer assembly procedure, centimeter scaled osteoinductive three-dimensional and cellularised constructs have been fabricated. We showed that the intimate connection between biological building blocks is essential in engineering living system able of localized mineral deposition. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, the possibility to obtain three-dimensional cellularised and acellularised anisotropic constructs using Faraday waves.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2023

Modelling red blood cell optical trapping by machine learning improved geometrical optics calculations

Optically trapping red blood cells allows to explore their biophysical properties, which are affected in many diseases. However, because of their nonspherical shape, the numerical calculation of the optical forces is slow, limiting the range of situations that can be explored. Here we train a neural network that improves both the accuracy and the speed of the calculation and we employ it to simulate the motion of a red blood cell under different beam configurations. We found that by fixing two beams and controlling the position of a third, it is possible to control the tilting of the cell. We anticipate this work to be a promising approach to study the trapping of complex shaped and inhomogeneous biological materials, where the possible photodamage imposes restrictions in the beam power.

biophysics↗

bioRxiv2023

Engineering sensory ganglion multicellular system to model tissue nerve ingrowth

Discogenic pain is associated with deep nerve ingrowth in annulus fibrosus tissue (AF) of intervertebral disc (IVD). To model AF nerve ingrowth, primary bovine dorsal root ganglion (DRG) micro-scale tissue units are spatially organized around an AF explant by mild hydrodynamic forces within a collagen matrix. This results in a densely packed multicellular system mimicking the native DRG tissue morphology and a controlled AF-neuron distance. Such a multicellular organization is essential to evolve populational-level cellular functions and in vivo-like morphologies. Pro-inflammatory cytokine-primed AF demonstrates its neurotrophic and neurotropic effects on nociceptor axons. Both effects depend on the AF-neuron distance underpinning the role of recapitulating inter-tissue/organ anatomical proximity when investigating their crosstalk. This is the first in vitro model studying AF nerve ingrowth by engineering mature and large animal tissues in a morphologically and physiologically relevant environment. Our new approach can be used to biofabricate multi-tissue/organ models for untangling pathophysiological conditions and develop novel therapies.

bioengineering↗