Volume 2, Chapter 10: Stems Cells and Nanotechnology
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- Category: Book "Advances in Audiology ... "
- Last Updated on Saturday, 12 May 2018 14:49
- Written by Laura Astolfi PhD and Serena Danti, PhD
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Summary
The chapter is divided in two parts, respectively describing new findings in the fields of regenerative medicine and nanotechnologies applied to hearing therapies.
The first part will begin with an introduction on stem cell classification, genesis and presence in ear tissues. Applications of stem cells in regenerating the three ear regions (outer, middle and inner ear) will then be examined, analyzing advantages and disadvantages of each procedure. The discussion shall include recent advances in development of medical devices.
The second part will introduce nanotechnologies applied to hearing therapies, discussing the different uses of nanomaterials and nanoparticles. The chemical and physical characteristics of nanocompounds will be reported according to their applications in hearing therapies. The conclusion of the chapter will extensively analyze the concept of biocompatibility, the most relevant issue in application of exogenous compounds.
Multimedia
Link1: What are stem cells https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-are-stem-cells-craig-a-kohn
Link2: Anatomy and development of the external and middle ear.
Link3: Anatomy and development of the inner ear.https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Hearing_-_Inner_Ear_Development
Link4: What are nanoparticles and nanomaterials ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB3nqIXzb0w&t=60s
Chapter Contributors
Laura Astolfi, PhD
Dr Laura Astolfi, (PhD in Biology with a a curriculum in Genetics), is assistant research professor at the Department of Neurosciences University of Padua, Padua, Italy. Since 2008, she directs the Laboratory of Cell and Molecular Biology applied to Bioacoustics, where she supervises the research activities of post-doctoral research fellows and PhD students in Biomedical Sciences in the field of hearing impairment. Dr Astolfi attended many specialization courses and has published 76 papers on international journals and meetings. She has been involved in many national and international research programs. As a Principal Investigator she supervised several research projects and she has been responsible for the experimental part of research projects about prevention of hearing loss and hearing recovery in mouse, rat and Guinea pig models. Her research interests are the improvement of acoustic prosthetics by application of cochlear implants on experimental models, in studies of ototoxicity prevention which employ gene and stem cell therapies for recovering of hearing loss. Dr. Astolfi can be reached at : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Serena Danti, Ph
Serena Danti is Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa (Italy) where she teaches Biomaterials for Materials & Nanotechnology Master Degree and Speech Therapist Bachelor Degree. She received a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pisa in 2003 and her Ph.D. in “Health Technologies” in 2007. Her postdoctoral training was performed at the Centre for the Clinical Use of Stem Cells, and, as a senior Post Doc, at the Otorhinolaryngology Unit, Department of Neurosciences/Surgical, Medical and Molecular Pathology, University of Pisa. She two received research fellowships from Pisa Hospital, ENT, Audiology & Phoniatrics Unit, where she established a laboratory of otologic bioengineering (OtoLab). Dr. Danti has authored 40 papers in international journals, 9 book chapters and 3 patents. Her interests are smart biomaterial-based approaches for ear, bone and cancer. Dr. Danti can be reached at : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.