Scale/Physics/Time properties and functions in bioartificial systems

Recent research on biological materials and bioartificial systems has created one of the most dynamic field at the confluence of physical sciences, molecular engineering, cell biology, materials sciences, biotechnology and (nano)medicine. This field concerns better understanding of living systems, design of bio-inspired materials, synthesis of bioartificial technologies with new properties depending on their multi-scale architectures. Biological and man-made systems show the first level of organization at the nanoscale, where the fundamental properties and functions are settled (e.g., proteome and genome). The nanoscale properties reflect on larger scales: mesoscale, microscale, and continuum. Mechanisms by which phenomena at the different length and time scales are coupled and influence each other is the central issue in linking properties to functionalities, with a dramatic impact in designing and engineering biosystems. To get insights into the progressive trough-scales cascade effects -from molecular to macroscale level and from nanoseconds to life expectancy duration- multiscale/multiphysics models are required, dealing with inorganic, biological and hybrid matter. Thus, bioartificial systems technology depends upon our ability in assembling molecules into objects, hierarchically along several length scales, and in disassembling objects into molecules, in a tailored manner. As a peculiar feature, in bioartificial systems, the definition of the interactions between artificial and biological components needs to incorporate the "time" variable, in order to reproduce the evolution of the overall system, and to simulate complex phenomena as biodegradation and tissue remodeling. Herein, a number of paradigmatic multiscale models that attend the investigation of biological systems and the engineering of bioartificial systems is reviewed and discussed.