Team

LAMBDA Lab

The Lambda Lab (Laboratory of Measurements for Biomedical Applications) is part of the Measurement and Experimental Techniques area. The main research’s fields of the group are based on fiber optic and image-based measurements for biomedical applications, along with light-based approaches for minimally invasive therapy and monitoring. The Lambda Lab develops innovative and experimental solutions for thermometry in biological tissues undergoing laser and nanoparticles-enhanced photothermal treatments. The team works on novel algorithms for temperature-based therapy control, and in the field of fiber optic sensors and hyperspectral imaging for biomedical applications. Two new research lines are developed in the field of biomechanical monitoring for health and sport activities (with focus on ballet dancing), and in the field of fiber-optic sensing for continuous monitoring of environmental quantities.

Principal Investigator

Prof. Paola Saccomandi

Paola is the project coordinator of the ERC Starting Grant LASER OPTIMAL. She received the PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2014 from "Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma". From 2016 to 2018, Paola has worked at the Institute of Image-guided Surgery of Strasbourg as research fellow and PI of several research projects. She joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Politecnico di Milano in May 2018 as Associate Professor. Her main research interests include the study and development of light-based approaches for tumor treatment and its real time monitoring, and the measurement of physiological parameters.

paola.saccomandi@polimi.it

Group members

Prof. Alfredo Cigada

Alfredo Cigada is Full Professor of mechanical and thermal measurements with the Politecnico di Milano. He is also a PI of several national and international projects aimed at the development of new sensing systems, data networks, and analysis. His main research interests include the development of new measurement systems for structural health monitoring of civil structures and cultural heritage. He is currently involved in the LASER OPTIMAL@POLIMI project (Fondazione Cariplo and Regione Lombardia).

alfredo.cigada@polimi.it

Leonardo Bianchi, PhD

Leonardo Bianchi is a post-doctoral research associate (RTDA) at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano. He graduated cum laude in Biomedical Engineering and earned a European PhD with honors in Mechanical Engineering, focusing on nanoparticles-mediated photothermal therapy for cancer treatment. His research includes periods at renowned institutions like MIT and University of Twente. He specializes in monitoring temperature and thermal damage during tumor removal treatments and has contributed to the ERC LASER OPTIMAL project, collaborating with various research centers. His interests lie in developing photonic measurement systems, including fiber-optic sensors and hyperspectral imaging, for controlling thermal effects in biological tissues and for industrial and healthcare applications.

leonardo.bianchi@polimi.it

Andrea Pacheco, PhD

Andrea has received her Ph.D. in Science – Physics from the University College Cork (Ireland), and conducted her bachelor and master’s studies in Physics at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. She has experience in biomedical optics, spectroscopy, translational research, and science communications. She joined our team in June 2024 as awardee of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Fellowship. The goal of her MSCA project "INTUIT" ( IN-situ Thermometry gUidance In phoTomedicine) is to develope photonics-based tools for temperature monitoring in-situ.

andrealiliana.pacheco@polimi.it

Matteo Savazzi, PhD

Matteo holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Lisbon (2023), along with an M.Sc. (2017) and B.Sc. (2015) in Biomedical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano. During his Ph.D., Matteo focused on developing a microwave imaging prototype for the detection and diagnosis of axillary lymph nodes in breast cancer patients. Currently, as a post-doctoral fellow at the Politecnico di Milano, he explores the spectral properties of biological tissues through hyperspectral imaging across the visible to short/mid-wavelength infrared spectrum.

matteoluciano.savazzi@polimi.it

Vikas, PhD

Vikas is a Ph.D. graduate in Physics from Central University of Rajasthan (India), and before joining POLIMI, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at City, University of London, United Kingdom. As Research Fellow, his main research interests include plasmonics, nanophotonics, fiber optic sensors, long period gratings, 2-D materials and biosensors. He is the winner of a Young Researcher Grant following the public selection made by the Fondazione Cariplo. He is actively working on optical fiber sensors for monitoring heavy metals pollution in water and environment.

vikas@polimi.it

Alessandro Bossi

Alessandro is a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering. He has received his master's degree in Physics Engineering from Politecnico di Milano (fall 2021). His master thesis was on time-domain diffuse Raman (TDDR), where he finalized a TDDR spectrometer. His research includes Time-domain Diffuse optics and diffuse Raman spectroscopy. His main research interest is the study of the optical properties during thermal therapies using diffuse optical techniques to estimate the amount of damage received by a tissue.

alessandro.bossi@polimi.it

Leonardo Maggioni

Leonardo Maggioni received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, in 2021 and 2023 respectively, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. with the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His main research interest involves the design, development and qualification of measurement systems based on fiber-optic sensors, for biomedical (e.g., wearable devices) and structural health monitoring applications.

leonardo.maggioni@polimi.it

Emma Lacagnina

Emma has received her M.Sc. degree in biomedical engineering from the Poliecnico di Milano in 2024, and she is currently collaborating with the Department of Mechanical Engineering as research fellow. Her research activity focuses on the development of measurement systems based on hyperspectral imaging for the characterization of biological tissues and phantoms, that will be used in the fields of biorobotics and minimally invasive surgery, with the goal of creating a new multisensory tool.

emma.lacagnina@polimi.it

Fellowships

Sundeep Singh, PhD

Sundeep is a Ph.D. graduate in Mechanical Engineering (Thermo-fluids) from the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, India. Since, 2021 he is working as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Calgary, Canada on several research projects related to numerical simulations of viscoelastic fluids. His main research interest includes thermo-fluids, bio-heat transfer, bio-electromagnetics, computational fluid dynamics, computational modeling and simulation of thermal therapies for tumor treatment, and coupled multiscale problems in bioengineering.

ssingh@wlu.ca

Dongjoo Shin, PhD

Dongjoo Shin received Bachelor of Science degree in Electric Electronic Engineering from SungKyunKwan University, South Korea in 2017. He received his Master of Science, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea in 2023. Dr. Shin currently works as postdoctoral fellow in the department of mechanical engineering at Sungkyunkwan University and visiting postdoctoral fellow at Politecnico di Milano. His research field is focused on optical fiber and optical sensor applications.

skizp1224@gmail.com