CONTACTS

TEACHING

PUBLICATIONS

  

  

  

RESEARCH

PROFILE

Current position

• Associate Professor of Industrial Bioengineering
• Lecturer of Experimental Biomechanics and Advanced Modelling in Biomechanics for the Ph.D. program in Bioengineering,
• Member of the PhD Board in Bioengineering
• Lecturer of Endoprostheses Design and Laboratory of Tissues Characterization for the Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering
• Member of the Board of Graduate Studies in Biomedical Engineering
• Memberships: Virtual Physiological Human Institute (VPHi), European Society of Biomechanics (ESB) and Italian Chapter (ESB-Ita), EuroSpine (Spine Society of Europe), Bioengineering National Group (GNB), American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) - Committee F04 on Medical and Surgical Materials and Devices

Other roles

• Organizing and Scientific Committee per Virtual Physiological Human Institute nel 2026 (1-4 September 2026, Milan)
• Organizing and Scientific Committee per European Society of Biomechanics-Italian Chapter in 2026 (31 August – 1 September 2026, Milan)
• Scientific Committee Member (Track 3 - Biomechanics and prosthetics) per il Congresso del Gruppo Nazionale Bioingegneria nel 2025 (https://www.gnb2025.it/scientific.html, IX Congress of the National Group of Bioengineering, 16-18 June, Palermo, Italy), 2023 (http://gnb2023.it/scientific.html, VIII Congress of the National Group of Bioengineering, 21-23 Jun 2023, Padova, Italy)
• Scientific Committee Member e Special Session Chair per International Symposium on Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering (https://www.cmbbe-symposium.com/2023/special-sessions/, “Recent advances in 3D modeling, diagnosis and treatment of spinal deformities”, at, 3-5 May 2023, Paris, France)
• Core reviewer in Basic Spine Biomechanics ai congressi Eurospine nel 2023 (4-6 Oct., Frankfurt, Germany) e nel 2022 (12-14 October 2022, Milan, Italy)
• Scientific Committee Member per European Society of Biomechanics-Italian Chapter in 2023 (18-19 Sept., Turin, Italy) and 2022 (6-7 Oct., Massa Carrara, Italy)
• Scientific Committee Member e Spine Track Chair per il Congresso della European Society of Biomechanics nel 2021 (11-14 July, Milan, Italy)

Experience

• November 2021 – November 2024: Senior Researcher (tenure-track) in the field of Industrial Bioengineering and Bioengineering (Dip. Chimica, Materiali e Ingegneria Chimica, Politecnico di Milano)
• November 2020 – November 2021: Junior Researcher (untenured) in the field of Industrial Bioengineering and Bioengineering (Dept. Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano) funded by MIUR – FISR
• November 2018 – October 2020: Post-doctoral Research Associate (Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnique Montréal; CHU Sainte-Justine, Université de Montréal; TransMedTech Institute, Canada) in Prof. Carl-Eric Aubin’s group funded by Canada First Excellence Fund
• March 2015 – October 2018: Post-doctoral Research Fellow (Dept. Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano) funded by Scoliosis Research Society (Milwaukee WI, USA) and FROM foundation (Bergamo, Italy)
• April 2013 – October 2013: Visiting Ph.D. (Institute of Orthopaedic Research and Biomechanics, Center of Musculoskeletal Research Ulm, Ulm University, Germany) in Prof. Prof. Hans-Joachim Wilke’s group
• November 2010 – February 2015: Research fellow (Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics, Dept. Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano) funded by Scuola Interpolitecnica di Dottorato, (Politecnico di Torino, Milano e Bari, Italy)

Education

• March 2015: D. Degree in Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering (Scuola Interpolitecnica di Dottorato, Politecnico di Torino, Milano e Bari, Italy) 
  Dissertation title: “Preclinical evaluation of posterior spinal fixators – Critical assessment of the current international standards and proposals for improvement” (http://hdl.handle.net/10589/109901)
• July 2010: Master Degree in Biomedical Engineering (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
  Dissertation title: “Viscoelastic behaviour of HXLPE under three-point bending loading”
• September 2007: Bachelor Degree in Biomedical Engineering (Politecnico di Milano, Italy)
  Dissertation title: “Movement monitoring systems: components, applications and experimental tests”

Scientific interests

• In vitro, ex vivo and in silico characterization of biological tissues mechanics,
• Biomechanical design and preclinical in silico, in vitro and ex vivo evaluation of orthopaedic and spinal devices, including custom-made 3D-printed prostheses,
• Development of surgical techniques for spine stabilization in patients with osteoporosis, tumours and sagittal imbalance,
• Patient-specific optimization of 3D correction of paediatric spinal deformities (scoliosis),
• Development and revision of ASTM/ISO standards for preclinical evaluation of medical devices.

Selected publications

• Ninarello et al. “A comprehensive systematic review of marketed bone grafts for load-bearing critical-sized bone defects”. J Mech Behav Biomed Mater. 2024 Dec;160:106782. doi: 1016/j.jmbbm.2024.106782
• Carpenedo et al. “A Virtual Response Surface Strategy to Predict the Effects of Contouring on the Static and Fatigue Mechanical Behavior of Spinal Rods”. Ann Biomed Eng. 2024 Dec 2. doi: 1007/s10439-024-03649-z
• Bellina et al. “Assessment of a fully-parametric thoraco-lumbar spine model generator with articulated ribcage.” J Biomech. 2024 Feb;164:111951. doi: 1016/j.jbiomech.2024.111951
• Lopez Poncelas, La Barbera et al. “Proximal junctional failure after surgical instrumentation in adult spinal deformity: biomechanical assessment of proximal instrumentation stiffness”. Spine Deform. 2023 Jan;11(1):59-69. doi: 1007/s43390-022-00574-w [Doug Burton Award for best paper on Adjacent Segment Disease https://link.springer.com/journal/43390/updates/26595274]
• La Barbera et al. “How do spine instrumentation parameters influence the 3D correction of thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis? A patient-specific biomechanical study”. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2021 Apr;84:105346. doi: 1016/j.clinbiomech.2021.105346
• Lopez Poncelas, La Barbera, et al. “Credibility assessment of patient-specific biomechanical models to investigate proximal junctional failure in clinical cases with adult spine deformity using ASME V&V40 standard”. Comput Methods Biomech Biomed Engin. 2021 Aug 24;1-11. doi: 1080/10255842.2021.1968380
• La Barbera et al. “Load-sharing biomechanics of lumbar fixation and fusion with pedicle subtraction osteotomy”. Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 11;11(1):3595. doi: 1038/s41598-021-83251-8
• La Barbera et al. “In silico patient-specific optimization of correction strategies for thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis”. Clin Biomech. 2020 Oct 24. doi: 1016/j.clinbiomech.2020.105200
• Palanca et al. “The strain distribution in the lumbar anterior longitudinal ligament is affected by the loading condition and bony features: an in vitro full-field analysis”. PLoS One. 2020 Jan 14;15(1):e0227210. doi: 1371/journal.pone.0227210
• Cianfoni et al. “Vertebral body stent augmentation to reconstruct the anterior column in neoplastic extreme osteolysis”. J Neurointerv Surg. 2019 Mar;11(3):313-318. doi: 1136/neurintsurg-2018-014231 [Gallucci Award for best paper in the field of Spine Intervention]
• La Barbera et al. “Stent-screw assisted internal fixation of osteoporotic vertebrae: a comparative finite element analysis on SAIF technique”. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 7:291. 25 Oct. 2019. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2019.00291
• La Barbera et al. “Biomechanical comparison of anterior column realignment and pedicle subtraction osteotomy for severe sagittal imbalance correction”. Eur Spine J. 2019 Aug. 14. 29(1):36-44. doi: DOI: 1007/s00586-019-06087-x
• La Barbera et al. “Stent-screw assisted internal fixation of severe lytic spinal metastases: a comparative finite element analysis on SAIF technique”. World Neurosurg. 2019 Aug; 128:e370-e377. doi: 1016/j.wneu.2019.04.154
• La Barbera et al. “Modelling 3D-printed trabecular metal structures with a homogenization approach: application to hemipelvis reconstruction”. Int J Artif Organs. 2019 Oct; 42(10):575-585. doi: 1177/0391398819848001
• Piovesan et al. “Computational and experimental fatigue analysis for contoured spinal rods”. J Biomech Eng. Apr 2019, 141(4): 044505. doi: 1115/1.4042767
• Berti, La Barbera et al. “Residual stresses in titanium spinal rods: effects of two contouring methods and material plastic properties”. J Biomech Eng. 2018 May 31. 140(11): 111001. doi: 1115/1.4040451
• La Barbera et al. “Biomechanical advantages of supplemental accessory and satellite rods with and without interbody cages implantation for the stabilization of pedicle subtraction osteotomy”. Eur Spine J. 2018. 27(9):2357–2366. doi: 1007/s00586-018-5623-z
• La Barbera and Villa. “Toward the definition of a new worst-case paradigm for the preclinical evaluation of posterior spinal stabilization devices”. Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 2017 Feb, 231(2):176-185. doi: 1177/0954411916684365

KEYWORDS