On-chip fabrication of tailored 3D hydrogel scaffolds to model cancer cell invasion and interaction with endothelial cells.

The high mortality associated with certain cancers can be attributed to the invasive nature of the tumor cells. Yet, the complexity of studying invasion hinders our understanding of how the tumor spreads. This work presents a microengineered three-dimensional (3D) model for studying cancer cell invasion and interaction with endothelial cells.

A simplified and defined serum-free medium for cultivating fat across species.

Cultivated meat is a promising technology with the potential to mitigate the ethical and environmental issues associated with traditional meat. Fat plays a key role in the meat flavor; therefore, development of suitable adipogenic protocols for livestock is essential. The traditional adipogenic cocktail containing IBMX, dexamethasone, insulin and rosiglitazone is not food-compatible.

A microfluidic chip carrier including temperature control and perfusion system for long-term cell imaging.

Microfluidic devices are widely used for biomedical applications but there is still a lack of affordable, reliable and user-friendly systems for transferring microfluidic chips from an incubator to a microscope while maintaining physiological conditions when performing microscopy. The presented carrier represents a cost-effective option for sustaining environmental conditions of microfluidic chips in combination with minimizing the device manipulation required for reagent injection, media exchange or sample collection. The carrier, which has the outer dimension of a standard well plate size, contains an integrated perfusion system that can recirculate the media using piezo pumps, operated in either continuous or intermittent modes (50-1000 µl/min).

Muscle-derived fibro-adipogenic progenitor cells for production of cultured bovine adipose tissue.

Cultured meat is an emergent technology with the potential for significant environmental and animal welfare benefits. Accurate mimicry of traditional meat requires fat tissue; a key contributor to both the flavour and texture of meat. Here, we show that fibro-adipogenic progenitor cells (FAPs) are present in bovine muscle, and are transcriptionally and immunophenotypically distinct from satellite cells.

Local governments' communication through Facebook. Evidences from COVID-19 pandemic in Italy.

The study aims at demonstrating how social communication has changed in terms of flows and content in the different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic to get to the fact that public administrations have embarked on a path of rapprochement with the citizen that starts from the methods of communication and interaction. This article presents an exploratory and multidisciplinary study conducted through the analysis of the Facebook page of the Italian municipalities with the highest Covid19-induced mortality rates (Piacenza, Bergamo, Lodi, Cremona, Brescia, Pavia, Parma, Mantova, Alessandria, Lecco and Sondrio). Fanpage Karma has been used to conduct the investigation and get the analytics.