Current Trends and Future Developments on Biomembranes: Membrane Applications in Artificial Organs and Tissue Engineering

Angelo Basile, a Chemical Engineer, is a senior Researcher at the ITM-CNR where is responsible of the research related to both the ultra-pure hydrogen production and CO2 capture using Pd-based Membrane Reactors. Basile is also Editor associate of the Int. J. Hydrogen Energy and Editor-in-chief of the Int. J. Membrane Science & Technol. and Editor-in-chief of Membrane Processes (Applications), a section of the international journal Membranes: Basile also prepared 42 special issues on membrane science and technology for many international journals (IJHE, Chem Eng. J., Cat. Today, etc.). He participated to and was/is responsible of many national and international projects on membrane reactors and membrane science. Basile served as Director of the ITM-CNR during the period Dec. 2008 - May 2009. In the last years, he was tutor of 30 Thesis for master and Ph.D. students at the Chemical Engineering Department of the University of Calabria (Italy). From 2014, Basile is Full Professor of Chemical Engineering Processes.

Maria Cristina Annesini is full professor of Chemical Engineering Fundamentals at the Faculty of Engineering of Rome University "La Sapienza" where now she teaches Transport Phenomena and Chemical reactors for undergraduate and graduate students respectively. Her research activity is supported by over 150 scientific works; in the biotechnological and biomedical fields, she studied phase equilibrium thermodynamics of complex mixtures involved in biotechnological processes, drug controlled release and enzymatic processes in liposomes, bioreaction engineering (in particular, two-pahse sequenting batch reators for xenobiotics removal), artificial organ engineering. In the last field, she studied the physico-chemical phenomena involved in artificial liver devices, based on albumin-bound toxin removal by adsorption or albumin dialysis, and proposed mathematical models to "engineer" the artificial device or to model the artificial device-patient system. She also active in studying transport phenomena in membrane reactors, for hydrogen separation in reforming processes

Vincenzo Piemonte is an associate professor at the University "Campus Bio-medico" of Rome (academic courses: Artificial Organs Engineering, Biorefinery Fundamentals, Chemical Engineering Principles, Bioreactors) and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the University "La Sapienza" of Rome (academic course: Artificial Organs Engineering). His research activity is primarily focused on the study of Transport phenomena in the artificial and bioartificial organs; new biotreatment technology platform for the elimination of toxic pollutants from water and soil; Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of petroleum-based plastics and bio-based plastics; extraction of valuable substances (polyphenols, tannins) from natural matrices; hydrogen production by membrane reactors for water gas shift reaction; concentrated Solar Power Plant integrated with membrane steam reforming reactor for the production of hydrogen and hydro-methane. He has about 120 publications on chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, biomedical devices modeling, Bioreactors, LCA studies.

Catherine Charcosset got her PhD from Compiègne University (France) and then spent 2 years as a postdoctoral fellow at MIT (Boston, USA). She was appointed research scientist at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France) first as a junior and then as a senior scientist. Her field of research concerns membrane and membrane processes, especially in biotechnology and pharmaceutics as well as for drinking water treatment. Catherine Charcosset has been (or is) responsible for several national and international projects on membrane and membrane processes. She has supervised 15 PhD students and 20 Master students and has published over 100 papers and chapters in international journals and books, and 3 patents. She is the author of one book "Membrane Processes in Biotechnology and Pharmaceutics" published by Elsevier in 2012. She is co-editor with Angelo Basile of another book "Integrated Membrane Systems and Processes" published by Wiley in 2016.