Bioresorbable polymers for medical devices: a perspective on multiscale modeling

In the biomedical field, materials like aliphatic polyesters and hydrogels are experiencing an ever - growing interest because of their biocompatibility and versatility. This led to a wide variety of applications, such as drug eluting devices, fixation screws/plates and scaffolds for tissue engineering.
In this framework, a multiscale modeling approach proved to be a valuable tool to deepen the understanding of the main involved phenomena and to support experimental activity for a smart device design.
While macroscale models are mainly used for product engineering and optimization, microscale models act as a virtual microscopes, revealing how the molecular peculiarities influence the behavior of the device.
The insights obtained at microscale can be integrated with macroscale modeling, providing a comprehensive overview that constitutes the prerogative of the multiscale approach.

Dr. Tommaso Casalini received his Master degree in Chemical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (Italy) in 2009, where he also got his PhD in Industrial Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in 2013.
Since 2014 he is a post-doctoral fellow in the group of Prof. Massimo Morbidelli at ETH Zürich, where he is  co-titular of the "Homogene Reaktionstechnik" course for the students of the Bachelor in Chemical Engineering. Starting from 2016, he is also a researcher at SUPSI in the Biomaterials Laboratory, headed by Prof. Giuseppe Perale. His research is focused on the multiscale modeling of biomedical devices for drug delivery purposes, combining the typical tools offered by chemical engineering with the insights at fundamental molecular scale offered by computational chemistry methods.