Research Challenges


Human Health


  • Develop innovative engineering approaches to support the manufacturing of cellular (stem cells) and molecular (antibodies, plasmid-based vectors) products for gene and cell therapies and regenerative medicine applications


  • Develop tools, technologies and biomaterials for modeling target diseases (cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, immune-mediated), drug screening and delivery (nanostructured materials, fluorescent probes) and toxicology/pharmacological testing


  • Understand cell and molecular mechanisms underlying specific degenerative diseases, microbial drug resistance and opportunistic infections





  • Bioeconomy

  • Develop sustainable microbial production of biofuels and natural products, carbon-based building blocks and commodities from agro-forest residues and water resource recovery


  • Develop superior microbial strains, data analysis tools, bioprocessing technologies and materials to solve industrial bottlenecks characteristic of biologically based manufacturing