FBK laboratories available for research on the Coronavirus

When one thinks of solutions to contrast Covid-19, what comes to mind are vaccines or, as happens more frequently these days, mathematical models capable of estimating the evolution of epidemics. But science in this area moves in the most varied fields: personal protective equipment (PPE), new diagnostic tools, sensors and/or materials for medical equipment and much more. In order to verify the validity of these solutions, the CERIC-ERIC consortium, an important European research infrastructure, has set up the FastTrack COVID-19 project. This will allow researchers who are developing new tools in the fight against the Coronavirus to access cutting-edge characterization tools, i.e. machines capable of verifying composition and characteristics of materials. These will be made available by research institutes, with the direct support of their respective staff.

The participation in the project by Fondazione Bruno Kessler stems from the FastTrack COVID-19 accreditation of It-fab, a consortium of Italian clean rooms of which FBK is one of the founders. This will make it possible to provide characterization machines present at the Founation’s Povo facilities. In particular, the MNF unit at the Materials and Microsystems Center will actively participate in the project with analysis and characterization of samples based on XPS, AFM, D-SIMS, ToF-SIMS, PTR-MS techniques.