IMDEA Materials Institute has welcomed Prof. Andrés Díaz Lantada as a new Principal Investigator and leader of the research line on Bioinspired, Smart, and Living Materials.

With this appointment, the Institute strengthens its ‘Materials for Health’ area and reaffirms its commitment to cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research.

After nearly two decades as a professor and researcher at the School of Industrial Engineering of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), where he will continue leading the Product Development Laboratory, Prof. Díaz Lantada embarks on a new chapter at IMDEA Materials.

His goal? To promote “a multidisciplinary and internationally ambitious research line that will focus on several families of materials clearly geared towards the development of medical devices,” he explains.

This new line is a natural evolution of his scientific career and his close collaboration with IMDEA Materials through projects such as iMPLANTS-CM, BIOMET4D, and METALIA.

“The opportunity to work daily with researchers from many countries and with such diverse yet complementary backgrounds is what motivates me most about starting at the Institute,” says Prof. Díaz Lantada.

New families of emerging materials

The research led by Prof. Lantada will focus on three families of emerging materials. Bioinspired materials aim to mimic the properties of biological systems, such as hierarchical structures, multifunctionality, or self-healing capacity, taking advantage of computational design and additive manufacturing to achieve complex and efficient geometries.

“Bioinspiration has gained even more prominence since the development of additive manufacturing technologies, which have made it possible to create the highly complex geometries found in living beings,” he explains.

Smart materials, on the other hand, respond in a controlled manner to external stimuli. Also known as “active materials,” this category includes piezoelectric polymers and ceramics, shape memory alloys and polymers, electroactive polymers or “artificial muscles,” among many others.

“By combining bioinspired and smart materials, we hope to generate radically innovative medical applications, like those we have been developing between IMDEA Materials and UPM in the iMPLANTS-CM project,” says Prof. Díaz Lantada.

Taking it a step further, living materials integrate cells into a structural matrix. This research line draws on disciplines such as biofabrication, tissue engineering, and bioethics. Living entities can serve as microfactories for materials, miniaturised energy generators, or as sensors or actuators with unprecedented specificity and sensitivity.

Projects and collaborations

Among Prof. Díaz Lantada’s most notable work in the field of bioinspired materials is INKplant, one of the most significant tissue engineering projects funded by the European Union in recent years. It focuses on personalised medical implants made through multimaterial 3D printing.

As for smart materials, a highlight is iMPLANTS-CM, a synergistic project funded by the Community of Madrid. In collaboration with Prof. Jon Molina and the IMDEA Materials team, the project developed “probably the largest collection of medical devices (cardiovascular, neurological, renal, etc.) manufactured additively using such smart alloys to date.”

Reimagining the hospitals of the future

One of the most striking aspects of Prof. Díaz Lantada’s long-term vision is his proposal to reimagine the hospitals of the future, advocating for a new model of medicine that is more personalised, technological, and sustainable.

In this vision, the hospitals of the future will not only be places of medical care but also high-tech centres for the design and fabrication of personalised biodevices.

“Obviously, there’s still a long way to go before we reach such a future, but I believe IMDEA Materials can be an excellent testing ground to help define those future hospitals,” he says.

“It’s an ideal place for research, and to develop the materials technologies and medical devices that will be used in the coming decades and to test them in a controlled environment.”

In this new phase, working between UPM and IMDEA Materials, Prof. Díaz Lantada remains committed to teaching and enthusiastic about learning.

He concludes with a quote from poet Nâzım Hikmet that reflects his excitement for this new stage: “The most beautiful sea is the one we have not yet seen… the one we have yet to sail. That’s exactly how I feel right now about this proposed line and my start at IMDEA Materials.”