TEACHERS
Claudio Canale
Claudio Canale is Team Leader at the Department of Nanophysics at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). His activity is mainly focused on the application of scanning probe techniques in the study of bio-materials and bio-mechanisms. He graduated in Physics in at the University of Genova (Italy) in 2001, studying the distribution of scalar fields in the atmosphere, with particular interest on the saturation of intermittency in the temperature and humidity fields.
Paolo Facci
Degree in Physics, PhD in Biophysics at the University of Genova, Italy (1996). Post-doc at Dept. of Physics, University of Parma, Italy (1997-1998). Since 1999, Senior Scientist of the Italian National Institute for the Physics of Matter (since 2005 CNR). Head of the nanobiolab of the Research Center “nanoStrucures and bioSystems at Surfaces - S3” of CNR-NANO. In 2002 he has been awarded “Premio Campisano” by the Italian National Institute for the Physics of Matter for his achievements in the field of growth and characterization of organic and biological matter. Author of more than 90 papers and 6 patents.
Miklós Kellermayer
Miklós Kellermayer is the chairman of the Department of Biophysics and Radiation Biology and Vice Rector for Education and International Affairs at Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary. Trained as a medical doctor and having had international research experience in single-molecule biophysics, he currently focuses on nanobiotechnology, biomolecular mechanics, cytoskeletal nanobiology, protein folding and misfolding. He supervises the Nanoscience Network at Semmelweis University and runs a Nanobiotechnology and In Vivo Imaging Center that houses state-of-the-art instrumentation that allows imaging and manipulation from single molecules to small-animal organisms.
Galja Pletikapic
Research assistant at the Department for Marine and Environmental Research, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia. BSc. in biotechnology, PhD in oceanology (2013, Univ. of Zagreb), thesis title: "Nanomechanical properties of diatom cell surfaces and extracellular polymers". She uses AFM as a principle research tool in studying marine polysaccharides, diatoms and engineered nanoparticles.
Alessandro Podestà
Alessandro Podestà is the scientific coordinator of the AFM lab of the Molecular Beam and Nanocrystalline Materials Laboratory (LGM) and of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (CIMaINa) of Università degli Studi di Milano. His research activity is focused on the characterization of physical and chemical properties of interfaces at the nanometre scale using scanning probe techniques based on Atomic Force Microscopy.
Tea Mišić Radić
BSc in chemistry, PhD in physical chemistry (2010, University of Zagreb). Since 2012 research associate at the Department for Marine and Environmental Research, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia. The aim of my PhD thesis was introducing atomic force microscopy as a tool for characterization of marine gel network and marine biopolymer self-assembly at the nanoscale. My current research is focused on application of AFM for studying supramolecular organization of marine organic matter, nanoparticles and marine microorganisms.
Manfred Radmacher
His research focuses on the characterisation and understanding of cellular and molecular processes. The instrument of choice is the atomic force microscope (AFM), due to its unique sensitivity (in terms of forces), spatial resolution, and the possibility of investigating biological samples under physiological conditions. The AFM is supplemented by optical microscopy in many variants, cell culture and biochemical investigations of the samples.
Francesca Sbrana
Francesca Sbrana is a post-doc at Biophysics Institute - CNR of Genoa. Her activity is mainly focused on biomaterial and biomolecule by using AFM imaging and single molecule force spectroscopy with AFM technology. In particular, it concerns with aggregation and interaction mechanism of biomolecule and mechanical unfolding of single peptide. Recently her activity is also moved on biomarine system.
Vesna Svetličić
Senior scientist at the Department for Marine and Environmental Research, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb, Croatia; Head of the Laboratory for Bioelectrochemistry and Surface imaging and Coordinator of the AFM facility. Educated in chemistry and biophysics. Teaching marine biophysics and experimental methods of biophysics. Current research is focused on marine microbiology and ecology at the nanometre scale using atomic force microscopy as the principal method.
Bruno Tiribilli
Bruno Tiribilli graduated in physics at the University of Florence in 1985, with a thesis on Holographic moirè topography. In 1989 he became optics specialist. In 1990 he became a researcher at National Institutr of optics, his activities concerned the design and realization of optical instruments for scientific and industrial application. Currently he is a researcher at the ISC-CNR Institute for Complex Systems. His present activity mainly concerns the design and development of SPM instrumentation for biological applications such as tissue imaging, elasticity maps on living cells and force spectroscopy on single molecule.
Francesco Valle
Francesco Valle, PhD in physics, worked, before at the University of Lausanne and then to Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, on the application of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) to study the conformational changes of proteins and the topology of entangled DNA molecules. Presently he is a researcher at the CNR in the Insitute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials (ISMN-CNR) where he is interested in protein patterning for controlling cell adhesion.