Italian Applied Sciences Fund: two Polimi projects funded
MUR call to enhance industrial research and experimental development
A sustainable label for agri-food products that improves product safety and traceability and a cutting-edge solution for real-time monitoring of the adrotherapeutic treatment of cancer: these are the topics of two projects of Politecnico di Milano funded through the Fondo Italiano per le Scienze Applicate (FISA), established by the Ministry of University and Research in 2022 with the aim of promoting the competitiveness of the national production system through the enhancement of industrial research and experimental development.
APPEAL
APPEAL – Agrifood Protected by Printable Edible Authenticating Label, aims to guarantee the traceability and authenticity of agrifood products through the development of an innovative edible label.
The label will certify 3 levels of security, each verified by readers of progressively increasing complexity. Specifically, consumers will use a common smartphone to access public information about the product, while food processors will use a dedicated optical reader to retrieve information that cannot be disclosed to the public.
By using edible and compostable materials, the label developed by APPEAL also aims to contribute to reducing the environmental impact of agri-food packaging, an objective of great importance: the European Commission itself has pointed out that, without a change of course in this area, the continued growth of packaging as a form of waste, and the consequent increase in greenhouse gas emissions from its disposal, risks thwarting efforts to achieve the European goal of zero emissions by 2050.
Responsible: Prof. Carlo Casari, Department of Energy.
REALPATH
A state-of-the-art solution for real-time monitoring of adrotherapy treatment of cancer. Responsible: Prof. Carlo Fiorini, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering.
Hadrontherapy is rapidly gaining importance in cancer treatment, with about a hundred clinical centers operating worldwide. Hadrontherapy involves treating patients with charged particles, such as protons or carbon ions, that deposit their energy in a much more localized area (the so-called “Bragg peak”) than conventional radiotherapy with electrons and photons. Localized irradiation, however, would require real-time monitoring of the Bragg peak, to verify correspondence with the treatment plan and avoid irradiation of organs at risk.
The project aims to develop a real-time verification system based on measuring gamma rays emitted almost instantaneously after the particle beam interacts with the patient’s tissues. Although research groups around the world have explored various detection techniques and proposed numerous test prototypes, there are still no actual clinical devices and standard procedures available for routinely monitoring areas of the patient’s body irradiated by therapeutic particle beams.
To achieve this goal, the project is based on an industry-oriented approach and intends to build a comprehensive prototype that includes the most advanced technological solutions for gamma-ray detection but at the same time is designed to successfully demonstrate, in a real-world clinical scenario, the application of an online irradiation range testing technique.
