Chemical Engineering in the "BIO" World.
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.
Gianluca
G
Chiarappa
Department of Engineering and Architecture, Trieste University, Trieste, Italy.
Mario
M
Grassi
Michela
M
Abrami
Roberto Andrea
RA
Abbiati
Anna Angela
AA
Barba
Anja
A
Boisen
Valerio
V
Brucato
Giulio
G
Ghersi
Diego
D
Caccavo
Sara
S
Cascone
Sergio
S
Caserta
Nicola
N
Elvassore
Monica
M
Giomo
Stefano
S
Guido
Gaetano
G
Lamberti
Domenico
D
Larobina
Davide
D
Manca
Paolo
P
Marizza
Giovanna
G
Tomaiuolo
Gabriele
G
Grassi
D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D002616:Chemical Engineering; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
Biological engineering; chemical engineering; evolution; siRNA delivery