4 questions with Chiara Micheletti – exploring the secrets of bone and bioinspired design

Chiara Micheletti, Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology and a speaker at this year’s Materials for Tomorrow conference. She believes nature teaches us to think smarter: “One key lesson is that less is more. Natural materials often rely on just a few simple ingredients – but they’re arranged in incredibly clever ways.”

At this year’s Materials for Tomorrow conference, researchers explore how nature’s smart solutions can inspire the next generation of materials and technology. In this short Q&A series, we meet some of the speakers who bring fresh perspectives on bioinspired design.
Here, Chiara Micheletti, Assistant Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, shares how studying bone at the tiniest scales can inspire stronger, smarter materials of the future.

Your research looks at how nature builds strong and lightweight materials like bone. What fascinates you most about this field?
"I find it truly fascinating that within our bodies, little tiny machineries – the cells – can build such a complex material like bone, adapting it as we grow and even replacing it with newer material if it gets damaged or old. Our bones are incredibly dynamic: we get an entirely new skeleton roughly every ten years!"

What can engineers and designers learn from nature’s way of solving complex material challenges?
"I think one key lesson is that “less is more.” Natural materials often rely on just a few simple ingredients, like proteins and minerals, but they’re arranged in incredibly clever ways. The result is a material whose performance often far exceeds that of its individual components."

If you could apply one principle from your research to real-world materials, what would it be – and why?
"I really like the concept of hierarchical structuring, where smaller components are progressively assembled into larger ones, with each level contributing to the overall material’s properties. It’s a clever way of building synergies across length scales and combining different mechanisms to improve mechanical performance, or even to reconcile seemingly conflicting properties."

Finally, what are you most looking forward to at the Materials for Tomorrow conference?
"I’m excited to see the breadth of research being showcased at the event, with different fields coming together, all united by a common source of inspiration – Nature! Since my own research is not very applied, I’m especially curious to see how other researchers are able to replicate or take inspiration from natural structures around us."

▶ Materials for Tomorrow 2025 – Bioinspired Materials
▶ Register to the conference by 3 November

▶ 4 questions with Andreas Dahlin – on nature’s smart design, artificial nanopores, and the world’s smallest pixels