iNEST – Interconnected Nord-Est Innovation Ecosystem: General frame of the project and Activities of Young Researchers at the University of Trieste

Biopolymers inspired by human elastin, such as HELP and its fusion products with protein functional domains (HUG, HhBD1, HIn, UELP4), offer promising biomedical applications as substrates for cell growth or drug vehicles, or complex biosensors. UELP and HELP-fusion biopolymers improve cell adhesion and show antimicrobial activity. HhBD1 and Hln show enhanced antimicrobial activity and HUG acts as a fluorescent biosensor for bilirubin analysis of bile pigments in human and veterinary medicine.

The analysis of bile pigments in human biofluids is essential for the discovery of new disease mechanisms. HUG is a recombinant biopolymer combining a human elastin domain (HELP) with the bilirubin-binding, fluorescent UnaG protein. It exhibits thermal responsiveness and high-affinity bilirubin detection, enabling efficient purification and nanoscale quantification of bilirubin, conjugated bilirubin, and biliverdin. Its application spans pre-clinical research, clinical and veterinary diagnostics. HUG supports biomarker development for diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and neurological disorders, aligning it with precision medicine goals. The HUG assay has been validated on paediatric and cerebrospinal fluid samples and provides new perspectives in early diagnosis and treatment follow-up. The quantification of bilirubin and biliverdin in cell cultures enables the monitoring of oxidative stress and ferroptosis, which is useful for the investigation of disease mechanisms and drug screening.

The involvement of the University of Trieste in iNEST Spoke 4 offered a valuable opportunity to address environmental, energy, social, and economic challenges in the north-eastern Italian territories. Through an interdisciplinary planning and design approach, research explored three main fields: smart networks for biodiversity and water; innovative technologies and solutions to transform the construction sector and retrofit existing buildings; and new urban policies and design strategies to tackle growing conditions of poverty and social vulnerability.

The research on Design for Adaptability (DfA), Design for Flexibility (DfF), and Design for Change (DfC), developed with Carlo Antonio Stival and Paola Limoncin within THE Research Topic RT 2 of iNEST Spoke 4, addresses two complementary areas. The first explores new materials and innovative technologies, including digital applications, with the aim of reducing material intensity. The second is methodological and design-oriented, investigating case studies of interventions on existing buildings. Together, these approaches seek to ensure adaptability, flexibility, and transformability of the built environment. The work develops along several axes, assessing the innovation value of solutions against circularity, energy efficiency, and reduction of the supply chain’s ecological footprint. This multidimensional framework enables a more balanced understanding of the state of the art, avoiding strategies that privilege a single performance criterion at the expense of others. As a result, technological solutions are evaluated qualitatively across multiple concurrent parameters.

The research aims to contribute to the definition of new planning paradigms aimed at fostering ecological transition and achieving climate neutrality. It focuses on the relationship between territorial resilience and water management, which—shifting from a risk factor to a design framework—serves to redefine the interconnections among settlements, infrastructures, and landscapes. Through this perspective, the study promotes a circular, self-sufficient, and resilient territorial model. The investigation is applied to the territories of the Lower Plain of Friuli Venezia Giulia, with the objective of attaining climate neutrality at both urban and regional scales.