Study. Study to understand the functioning of cellular processes, the organization of biological organisms, social dynamics and the behavior of materials.
This is the objective of the Center for Complexity and Biosystems of the University of Milan (CC&B), which recently celebrated ten years of scientific commitment in the service of sustainability. We are faced with a story to know for a structure that has decided to face a scientific and technological challenge that requires an interdisciplinary approach and an experimental method, capable of facilitating the passage in the growing quantity of data emerging in all these fields of research.
What is done at the Center for Complexity and Biosystems of the University of Milan (CC&B)
Born in 2015 from the passion of a small group of scientists from the University, coordinated by Caterina La Porta, professor of general pathology, Stefano Zapperi, professor of theoretical condensed matter physics and Sebastiano Vigna, professor of computer science, the CC&B is a research center dedicated to the study of complex systems, which integrates expertise in physics, biology and computer science.
Through the promotion of international collaborations and the development of innovative projects, the Center contributes significantly to the advancement of scientific knowledge, generating new discoveries in the fields of physics and life sciences. In this decade of daily confrontation with the complexities that characterize modern science, the center has pursued a scientific and technological challenge, intrinsically linked to sustainability starting from the concept of “one health” that is, a unique health that combines human health and the environment in its complexity. In particular, the CC&B has developed new strategies for the analysis of environmental data in connection with health, new algorithms for the design of sustainable, recyclable and biodegradable materials, innovative algorithms for precision medicine for inclusive health and new strategies for analyzing socioeconomic data from a public health perspective.
The flagship projects
The Centre’s three areas of action – Physics and Materials, Biosystems and Digital Medicine, and Informatics – have seen numerous projects born and grow.
This is the case, for example, of ARCHIBIOFOAM, which in collaboration with Aalto University (Finland) and the University of Stuttgart (Germany) studies the applicability to construction of a load-bearing expanded bio-material capable of changing shape, as well as reacting based on the surrounding environment, also through the development of algorithms for architectural design.
The objective of METACTOR is different, in collaboration with the CNR-ICMATE of Lecco: the initiative aims to design actuators using Nickel-Titanium metal alloys, which have superelastic and shape memory properties, allowing the generation of actuators that change shape in response to temperature changes.
Again: STELLA is an algorithm that determines the metabolites released by the complex network of microbes that live in the intestine (microbiome) but also in the soil and can be useful for restoring dysbiosis or helping the soil maintain biodiversity or be more fertile (the algorithm was recently the protagonist of a study developed in collaboration with PizzaAut for the understanding of the intestinal microbiome of children with the syndrome of autism).
Finally, still remaining in the examples, we remember BRAIN2MUSIC, which aims to relieve anxiety and stress with personalized music thanks to electroencephalography.
“The strength of CC&B is that of tackling complex problems by bringing together very different skills. In this way it is possible to develop innovative strategies that would often be difficult to imagine while remaining closed in one’s own disciplinary bubble”
comments Zapperi.
Towards personalized medicine
One of the pillars of CC&B research focuses on personalized medicine, as indicated by the ARIADNE project. This is an algorithm developed by La Porta and Zapperi to analyze the gene expression profiles of tumors, the marketing of which is entrusted to Complexdata, a spinoff of the University of Milan, which uses artificial intelligence in an innovative way to determine the aggressiveness of triple-negative breast cancer and allows predicting the response to immunotherapy treatments.
A recent study published in Communications Medicine has demonstrated how ARIADNE is able to predict patients’ response to immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy and to distinguish two main groups with significantly different clinical outcomes: the group with a low score has a greater probability of complete pathological response to the combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, while in the group with a high score this benefit is not observed. The clinical implications deriving from this study are of great importance: a more targeted use of these therapies can not only increase the chances of success, but also reduce exposure to unnecessary and potentially toxic treatments.
“Immunotherapy represents the new frontier in the treatment of tumors but the problem today is to identify the patients who have the greatest chance of obtaining a real benefit. The ARIADNE test provides a concrete answer to this question”
explains Professor La Porta.
