Research interests

Margherita’s research activity mainly involves developing, characterizing and applying ultrasound-excited piezoelectric polymeric biomaterials for electrical stimulation of biological systems.

During her PhD, she developed a piezoelectric membrane integrated within a multi-stimulus bioreactor for bone tissue regenerative medicine applications. Subsequently, she worked with ultrasound-excited piezoelectric nanoparticles to activate the innate immune system against spreading glioblastoma, the most aggressive central nervous system tumour.

Her interest in this “smart” biomaterials class led her to collaborate with Prof. Massimiliano Labardi, a CNR-IPCF staff researcher with extensive experience in electrical characterization at the nanoscale. After completing her doctoral degree, she therefore had the opportunity to participate in Prof. Labardi’s CNR-IPCF fellowship, which allowed her to broaden and deepen her knowledge of these materials and their characterization.

Keywords: Ultrasound-responsive piezoelectric polymers, Bio-Nanotechnology, Cell Stimulations, Atomic Force Microscopy, Piezo-response characterization, Computational modelling