TY - JOUR
T1 - Chemical Engineering in the "BIO" world
AU - Chiarappa, Gianluca
AU - Grassi, Mario
AU - Abrami, Michela
AU - Abbiati, Roberto Andrea
AU - Barba, Anna Angela
AU - Boisen, Anja
AU - Brucato, Valerio
AU - Ghersi, Giulio
AU - Caccavo, Diego
AU - Cascone, Sara
AU - Caserta, Sergio
AU - Elvassore, Nicola
AU - Giomo, Monica
AU - Guido, Stefano
AU - Lamberti, Gaetano
AU - Larobina, Domenico
AU - Manca, Davide
AU - Marizza, Paolo
AU - Tomaiuolo, Giovanna
AU - Grassi, Gabriele
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Modern Chemical Engineering was born around the end of the 19th century in Great Britain, Germany, and the USA, the most industrialized countries at that time. Milton C. Whitaker, in 1914, affirmed that the difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering lies in the capability of chemical engineers to transfer laboratory findings to the industrial level. Since then, Chemical Engineering underwent huge transformations determining the detachment from the original Chemistry nest. The beginning of the sixties of the 20th century saw the development of a new branch of Chemical Engineering baptized Biomedical Engineering by Peppas and Langer and that now we can name Biological Engineering. Interestingly, although Biological Engineering focused on completely different topics from Chemical Engineering ones, it resorted to the same theoretical tools such as, for instance, mass, energy and momentum balances. Thus, the birth of Biological Engineering may be considered as a Darwinian evolution of Chemical Engineering similar to that experienced by mammals which, returning to water, used legs and arms to swim. From 1960 on, Biological Engineering underwent a considerable evolution as witnessed by the great variety of topics covered such as hemodialysis, release of synthetic drugs, artificial organs and, more recently, delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNA). This review, based on the activities developed in the frame of our PRIN 2010-11 (20109PLMH2) project, tries to recount origins and evolution of Chemical Engineering illustrating several examples of recent and successful applications in the biological field. This, in turn, may stimulate the discussion about the Chemical Engineering students curriculum studiorum update.
AB - Modern Chemical Engineering was born around the end of the 19th century in Great Britain, Germany, and the USA, the most industrialized countries at that time. Milton C. Whitaker, in 1914, affirmed that the difference between Chemistry and Chemical Engineering lies in the capability of chemical engineers to transfer laboratory findings to the industrial level. Since then, Chemical Engineering underwent huge transformations determining the detachment from the original Chemistry nest. The beginning of the sixties of the 20th century saw the development of a new branch of Chemical Engineering baptized Biomedical Engineering by Peppas and Langer and that now we can name Biological Engineering. Interestingly, although Biological Engineering focused on completely different topics from Chemical Engineering ones, it resorted to the same theoretical tools such as, for instance, mass, energy and momentum balances. Thus, the birth of Biological Engineering may be considered as a Darwinian evolution of Chemical Engineering similar to that experienced by mammals which, returning to water, used legs and arms to swim. From 1960 on, Biological Engineering underwent a considerable evolution as witnessed by the great variety of topics covered such as hemodialysis, release of synthetic drugs, artificial organs and, more recently, delivery of small interfering RNAs (siRNA). This review, based on the activities developed in the frame of our PRIN 2010-11 (20109PLMH2) project, tries to recount origins and evolution of Chemical Engineering illustrating several examples of recent and successful applications in the biological field. This, in turn, may stimulate the discussion about the Chemical Engineering students curriculum studiorum update.
KW - Biological engineering
KW - Chemical engineering
KW - Evolution
KW - siRNA delivery
U2 - 10.2174/1567201813666160602230550
DO - 10.2174/1567201813666160602230550
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 27264726
VL - 14
SP - 158
EP - 178
JO - Current Drug Delivery
JF - Current Drug Delivery
SN - 1567-2018
IS - 2
ER -