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Journal "BIOMEDICAL GLASSES" is accepting papers for Volume 5 (2019)

Biomedical Glasses is a peer-reviewed, Open Access journal covering the field of glasses for biomedical applications. It provides an international forum for the publication of original research reports and authoritative review articles on biomedical glasses and their use in clinical applications. The journal, which is the official journal of the Technical Committe TC04 "Bioglasses" of the Internatioal Commission on Glass (ICG), has completed the publication of Vols. 1-4 and it is now accepting papers for Volume 5 (2019). More information can be found at: www.degruyter.com/view/j/bglass

Tissue Engineering book co-edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

The book: "Tissue Engineering Using Ceramics and Polymers", 2nd Edition, co-edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Prof. Peter X. Ma (University of Michigan, USA) has been just published by Woodhead/Elsevier. This second edition presents and updated comprehensive review of the advances in the uses of ceramics, polymers and their composites in tissue regeneration approaches, and includes a detailed treatment of the wide range of biomaterials used for tissue engineering reviewing techniques for processing, characterisation and modelling of materials. Tissue and organ regeneration in specific parts of the body are also discussed in dedicated chapters.

October2019

• FunGlass researchers start their research training program in the Institute of Biomaterials

  In the framework of our participation in the activities of the Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass), Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia, we are hosting four researchers of the FunGlass Centre, who will carry out research activities in our Institute for one year. Dr. Zulema Vargas (post-doctoral researcher) will work on a project entitled “Multifunctional scaffolds for bone and dental tissue regeneration”, Mr. Susanta Sengupta (PhD student) will work on “Polymer composites with incorporated mesoporous bioactive glass as enhanced multifunctional platforms for biomedical applications”, Mr. Fatih Kurtuldu (PhD student) on “Mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for drug delivery application” and Ms. Nursen Mutlu (PhD student) will carry out a project on “Borate bioactive glasses for wound healing applications”. Dr. Liliana Liverani and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini are responsible for the training program of the visiting researchers.

• "Maus-Türöffnertag 2019": Public relation activity at the Institute of Biomaterials

  On 3rd of October (German Unity Day) 70 children aged 6-12 years visited the laboratories of the Institute of Biomaterials. At this nationwide "door opener day" of the very famous TV series “Sendung mit der Maus”, PhD students and researchers involved in the Collaborative Research Centre SFB / TRR 225 and the Institute of Biomaterials explained to the curious visitors the 3D printing of biomaterials, the microscopy of cells and tissues as well as plaster casting. All children were able to visit 3 stations, with the highlights being the independent weighing and working with ceramic powders, the 3D printers and the microscopes. Parents waited patiently for about 90 minutes for their interested children, who could get a very nice insight into the laboratory routine of biomaterials research.

• Our new paper on bioactive glasses in collaboration with colleagues at University of Heidelberg published in Biomaterials Science

  Our paper "Favorable angiogenic properties of the borosilicate bioactive glass 0106-B1 result in enhanced in vivo osteoid formation compared to 45S5 Bioglass" has been published in Biomaterials Science [1]. (Co-authors: F. Westhauser, B. Widholz, Q. Nawaz, S. Tsitlakidis, S. Hagmann, A. Moghaddam, A. R. Boccaccini). In this comprehensive experimental study, we compared the in vitro and in vivo performances of two bioactive glasses, namely Hench's 45S5 bioactive glass and a novel Boron containing formulation (0106-B1) in terms of angiogenic properties and in vivo osteoid formation ability. Osteogenic differentiation, viability and proliferation of human mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) were assessed /in vitro/. Furthermore, MSC-seeded scaffolds were implanted subcutaneously in immunodeficient mice. An important finding was that the superior angiogenic properties of 0106-B1-BG resulted in improved osteogenic properties /in vivo/, concluding that this novel 0106-B1 formulation is a promising bioactive glass for further investigation for bone tissue engineering. The in vitro and in vivo studies were led by the team of Dr. Fabian Westhauser  at University of Heidelberg. ////[1] F. Westhauser, et al. Favorable angiogenic properties of the borosilicate bioactive glass 0106-B1 result in enhanced in vivo osteoid formation compared to 45S5 Bioglass, Biomater. Sci. (2019) in press. 

September2019

• European Commission supports new international research centre on bone regeneration

  With support of the European Commission, the new Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence (BBCE) will be establishrd in Latvia. BBCE will provide an opportunity to combine the expertise and infrastructure of internationally recognized Research Teams from Latvia, Germany and Switzerland, ensuring the platform for excellence in the development of biomaterials for bone regeneration and new solutions for creative biomedical applications. BBCE has ensured 15 million EUR funding under the frame of Horizon 2020 Teaming Phase 2 program. BBCE will be based on the research excellence and expertise of internationally recognized research teams and industry representatives - Riga Technical University (RTU), Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis (LIOS), Riga Stradiņs University (RSU), AO Research Institute Davos, Switzerland (ARI), Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany (FAU) and LLC Riga Stradiņs University Institute of Stomatology (RSU IS). FAU is represented by Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini, Head of the Institute of Biomaterials, who will lead the research and scientific training activities in the field of bioactive materials for bone tissue engineering. Raised EU funding is only half of the total funding ensured for the establishment of the BBCE, another 15 million EUR for the development of infrastructure will be provided from the Government of Latvia, European Regional Development Fund and the project partners in Latvia themselves. The strategic direction of the BBCE is research and development of patient-specific personalized solutions for bone regeneration. BBCE will ensure the full cycle of bone regeneration biomaterial development starting from the materials, their characterization, followed by preclinical investigations and finally clinical trials. Prof. Boccaccini said: "it has been a true honor to have been invited to participate in this consortium as one of the two international partners outside Latvia and to have the opportunity to play a key role in the establishment of this new biomaterials Centre of Excellence. We are excited about the impressive opportunities that will be created by this international collaboration, in terms of joint research activities and exchange of technical and scientific personnel, which has the potential to lead to breakthroughs in the development of biomaterial based therapies for bone related diseases". Pictured: Prof. Janis Locs (Riga Technical University, Latvia), Dr. Matteo D'Este (AO Research Institute, Davos, Switzerland) and Prof. Boccaccini.

• Our latest review on 3D printing of electrically conductive hydrogels published in Acta Biomaterialia

  Our review paper "3D printing of electrically conductive hydrogels for tissue engineering and biosensors - A review" (authors: T. Distler and A. R. Boccaccini) has been recently published in Acta Biomaterialia [1]. This review covers the main 3D printing techniques used to obtain electrically conductive hydrogel constructs, their properties and applications, focusing in tissue engineering and biosensor applications. The recent advances in the field of 3D printing of electrically conductive hydrogels has been covered, promising materials and future perspectives in the field are discussed." [1] T. Distler, A. R. Boccaccini, 3D printing of electrically conductive hydrogels for tissue engineering and biosensors - A review, Acta Biomat. (2019) doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.08.044. 

• Prof. Boccaccini finalises his term as Spokesperson of the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering

  On 30th September, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini finalises his term as Spokesperson of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (WW), to be followed by Prof. Michael Zaiser, Head, Institute of Material Simulation (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini). Prof. Boccaccini said: "it has been an honor to be in charge of the affairs of the WW Department for the last two years and I thank all members of the Department, including academic, research, technical and administrative staff, as well as students, for their contributions to our successes and achievements as Department, I thank especially the staff at the managing office, for their great support and hard work. I wish Michael a successful term as our new spokesperson".

• Werkstoffwoche 2019 in Dresden

  On 18-20 September 2019 Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Mr Jonas Hazur (PhD student) attended the Werkstoffwoche 2019 conference in Dresden, Germany, a conference organised by the German Materials Society (DGM). Prof. Boccaccini was the co-organiser of two symposia, namely "Biomaterials" and "Biofabrication". He presented the oral contribution: Bioactive glass-based scaffolds incorporating phytotherapeutics and biologically active ions for tissue engineering applications. In the sesion "Biofabrication", Mr Hazur presented the lecture Rheological characterisation and 3D printing of cross-linked alginate bioinks. The "Biofabrication" symposium was co-organised by Prof. T. Scheibel (Univ. of Bayreuth), Prof. J. Groll (Univ. of Würzburg) and Prof. A. R. Boccaccini under sponsorship of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models" . TRR 225 members Prof. L. Ionov, Dr. S. Salehi, Prof. T. Scheibel (Univ. of Bayreuth), Mr J. Hazur and Prof. Boccaccini (pictured).

• Our Institute participated in the initiative "Girls/boys and technology"

  On 2nd and 3rd September, the Institute of Biomaterials took part in the initiative "Girls/boys and technology" (“Mädchen/Jungen und Technik”) at FAU aiming to attract the interest of children to science and technology topics, specially showing examples of experimental / laboratory work carried out by scientists. In our Institute, children received lectures and carried out experimental activities (how to make a scaffold, wettability test on electrospun mats with food colors, light microscopy and SEM analysis) around the topic: “Electrospinning for wound dressing” under supervision of: Dr. L. Liverani, Dr. J. Will, Ms. K. Schuhladen and Ms. L. Vogt were the researchers in charge.

• Visit from Thessaloniki

  In the framework of the DAAD PPP funded project "Biodegradable osteoinductive scaffolds based on new functionalised polyesters, calcium silicate bioceramics and mesoporous nanocarriers, for bone tissue engineering", in collaboration with the School of Dentistry, the Department of Physics and the Department of Chemistry of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,  we received the visit of Prof. Eleana Kontonasaki, Prof. Anna Theocharidou, Dr. Anastasia Beketova and Ms Georgia Pouroutzidou (PhD student). On 16th September Prof. Eleana Kontonasaki, principal investigator, presented a talk entitled "Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Aspects in Dental Science". In the following days meetings and experimental activities in the labs were carried out. The project involves exchanges of senior and young researchers between the participating institutions. Members of the Institute of Biomaterials will travel to Thessaloniki before the end of the year.

• CRC 1270 "Electrically Active Implants" retreat in Hasenwinkel, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

  The retreat of the DFG funded Collaborative Research Centre (CRC /SBF 1270) - Electrically Active Implants (ELAINE) took place on 18-20 September 2019 in Hasenwinkel, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Thomas Distler (PhD student) and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the meeting and presented the latest results of the project "B01 - Electrically conductive and piezoactive materials for multifunctional implants for bone and cartilage regeneration", which is being carried out in the framework of ELAINE in collaboration with Christian Polley (PhD student) and Prof. Hermann Seitz , Chair of Mikrofluidics, University of Rostock (pictured). ELAINE (spokesperson: Prof. Ursula van Rienen, University of Rostock) is developing a new family of electrically active implants for the regeneration of bone and cartilage, and for deep brain stimulation to treat movement disorders.

• Symposium "Bioactive glasses: from the laboratory to the clinic" co-organised by Prof. Boccaccini at ESB 2019

  The Symposium "Bioactive glasses: from the laboratory to the clinic" co-organised by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Prof. Delia Brauer (University of Jena) was held in the framework of the "30th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials" (ESB 2019). Keynote speakers were Prof. Julian Jones (Imperial College London) and Prof. Nina Lindford (Helsinki University Hospital). There were two contributed presentations, from Prof. Jonathan Massera (Tampere University) and Dr Si Chen (University of Trencin) (all pictured with Prof. Boccaccini). The symposium was organised to mark the 50 year anniversary of bioactive glass, invented by the late Prof. Larry Hench (University of Florida, USA) in 1969. At ESB 2019 also a meeting of four editors of the journal "Biomedical Glasses"  took place (Profs. Chengtie Wu, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Julian Jones, Delia Brauer and Aldo R. Boccaccini).

• Strong participation of our Institute at ESB 2019 conference in Dresden

  A large delegation of our Institute attended the 30th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) held in conjuction with the 26th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM) in Dresden on 9-13 September 2019. Professor Boccaccini was a member of the Scientific Committee of ESB 2019 and organised two special symposia, namely " Bioactive glasses: from the laboratory to the clinic", together with Prof. Delia Brauer (Univ. of Jena) and "3D Structures in Tissue Engineering and Disease Modelling" together with Prof. Ipsita Roy (University of Sheffield, UK). Our contributions included 17 posters and 5 oral presentations. Ms Susanne Heid (PhD student) was among the winners of the "Best student poster award". Participation of members of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models" was also prominent, as well as the contributions from researchers collaborating with us within the "_Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass)".

• Congratulations to the poster prize winner Susanne Heid at the 30`th ESB/26`th DGBM Conference in Dresden

  Susanne Heid, PhD student at the Institute for Biomaterials supervised by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, was awarded the "Best Poster Award" of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) <http://www.esbiomaterials.eu/> at the 30`th ESB annual meeting, which took place together with the 26`th annual meeting of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM) <https://www.dgbm.org/start.html> in Dresden from 09`th -13`th September 2019. The award-winning poster is entitled "Alginate-Based Bioinks for 3D Biofabrication", co-authors: Susanne Heid, Rainer Detsch and Aldo R. Boccaccini (in the picture with S. Heid). It shows results from the doctoral project of S. Heid in the Collaborative Research Centre SFB TRR 225 <http://trr225biofab.de/de/startseite/> (Project B03). The Poster Award is one of four equivalent awards in the category "Best Student Poster Presentation".Congratulations to Susanne Heid and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini!

• Thomas Kreller receives Best Master Thesis Award of the German Society for Biomaterials (DGBM)

  Thomas Kreller, PhD student supervised by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, was awarded the prize for the Best Masters Thesis in Biomaterials 2019, which is awarded annually by the German Society for Biomaterials (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Biomaterialien e.V., DGBM). The thesis with the title: "Hierarchical Bioplotting for Cartilage Tissue Engineering" was supervised by Prof. Boccaccini in collaboration with Thomas Distler and Dr. Rainer Detsch at the Institute of Biomaterials. The prize was awarded at the Annual Meeting of the DGBM, held in Dresden, Germany, on September 09-13, 2019, in paralell to the ESB 2019 Conference, where Mr Kreller presented the key results of the project. In the photo Mr Kreller, Dr. Detstch, Prof. Anke Bernstein (president, DGBM) and Prof. Wilhelm Jahnen-Dechent (past president, DGBM) and Prof. Boccaccini.

• Prof. Boccaccini elected vice-president of the European Society for Biomaterials

  Prof. *Aldo R. Boccaccini* has been reelected for a second period of 4 years as member of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB). In the new Council, Prof. Boccaccini will become vice-president of the society for the period 2019-2023. The European Society for Biomaterials as one of the largest professional societies in the world dedicated to biomaterials, brings together scientists, clinicians and industrialists from various disciplines to promote scientific knowledge and technological advancements in the field of materials for biomedical applications. In the picture Prof. Boccaccini with the members of ESB Council: Professors Nicholas Dunne, Peter Dubruel, Marc Bohner, Ana Pego, Abhay Pandit, Silvia Fare and Karine Anselme.

• Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini elevated to Fellow of the Society of Glass Technology

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini has been elevated to the category of Fellow of the Society of Glass Technology (SGT)  in the framework of the Annual Conference of SGT, held in Cambridge, UK, on 2-5 September 2019.
  Prof. Boccaccini said: "I have been participating in numerous conferences organised by SGT for many years and I have served in the SGT Basic Science and Technology Committee for more than 15 years. It is a real honor to have been recognised with the Fellowship of SGT, the prestigious international Society for glass science and technology".
  In the photos: Boccaccini receiving the Fellowship certificate from Mr. Stuart Hakes, SGT president, and signing the book of SGT fellows.

• Prof. Boccaccini at EUROMAT 2019 in Stockholm

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was member of the scientific committee of the EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES (EUROMAT 2019), held in Stockholm, Sweden, on 1-5 September 2019. He was the Coordinator for Area F: Materials for Healthcare (with Prof. Håkan Engqvist, Uppsala University, Sweden). Prof. Boccaccini also co-organised the symposium "Bioactive Ceramics, Bioactive Glasses and Composites for Tissue Engineering and other Advanced Healthcare Applications" together with Prof. Cecilia Persson (Uppsala University, Sweden) and Prof. Antonio Salinas (UCM, Spain) (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini).
  In this section, Boccaccini presented the talk "Bioactive glass-based scaffolds with dual release of phytotherapeutics and biologically active ions for tissue engineering".
  Our Institute was also represented by Dr. Kai Zheng (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini), who presented the talk "Multifunctional surface modified mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications" and a poster.
  Prof. Boccaccini attended also the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) of which he is a member represeting the German Materials Societies (DGM).
  Prof. Boccaccini with colleagues: Prof. Paula Vilarinho (Portugal, EC FEMS), Prof. Nikolaos Michailidis (Greece, EUROMAT Chair of Scientific Committee), Prof. Ana Zervaki (Greece, EC FEMS), Prof. Janis Locs (Latvia), Prof. Pamela Habibovic (The Netherlands, Keynote speaker), Prof. Havard Haugen (Norway, Symposium organiser), Prof. Leena Hupa (Finland, Keynote speaker).

• Prof. Boccaccini: invited speaker at SGT Annual Conference in Cambridge

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was an invited speaker at the Annual Conference of the Society of Glass Technology (SGT) "Sand to Splendour" held in Cambridge, UK, on 2-5 September 2019. He presented the lecture "Bioactive glasses: from bone regeneration to wound healing" at the Science Session of the Conference. At the same conference, Prof. Boccaccini was awarded the Fellowship of SGT. He has been a member of the Basic Science and Technology Committee (BSTC) of SGT for more than 15 years. In the photos: Prof. Boccaccini receiving the Fellowship certificate from Mr. Stuart Hakes, SGT president, and with Prof. Delia Brauer (University of Jena, Germany) and Prof. Paul Bingham (Sheffield Hallam University, and secretary of the BSTC of SGT).

• Prof. Wojciech Swieszkowski (Warsaw University of Technology) visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  On 29-30 August 2019, we received the visit of Prof. Wojciech Swieszkowski, Biomaterials Group, Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Poland. We discussed with Prof. Swieszkowski future research collaboration in the field of bioactive composites and 3D printing of scaffolds. Currently we have an ERASMUS student exchange program between our Department and WUT, initiated by Prof. Swieszkowski and Prof. Boccaccini.

• Interview with Prof. Boccaccini published in SciTech Europa Quarterly

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was interviewed by SciTech Europa Quarterly,  the important digital publication linking the European scientific community and the leading trends in science, research and innovation, and enterprise. The interview appears in Issue 32 (Sept. 2, 2019) of SciTech Europa Quarterly, recently published and available on-line under the title "Bioactive glasses: from bone regeneration to wound healing". Prof. Boccaccini addresses biomedical applications of bioactive glasses and, specially, he discusses the emerging use of bioactive glasses in wound healing and soft tissue repair.

August2019

• Highlighted research outputs from our collaboration with Toyohashi University of Technology

  The research collaboration between the Toyohashi University of Technology (TUT) and our Institute led by Associate Professor Go Kawamura has resulted in important developments in the field of multiferroic materials, which were recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C [1]. An advanced liquid process for fabrication of affordable multiferroic nanocomposite films was developed at TUT in collaboration with Japan Fine Ceramics Center, National Institute of Technology Ibaraki College, International Iberian nanotechnology Laboratory, Chang'an university and our Institute. The multiferroic material exhibits novel electric and the magnetic properties, which may open applications such as low-power-consumption large-volume memory, spatial light modulator, and sensors among others. Prof. Go Kawamura, Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering,(Matsuda-Muto-Kawamura lab), TUT, was an academic visitor in our Institute during different periods in the last 3 years, funded by the Program for Fostering Globally Talented Researchers (R2802), JSPS. The press release from TUT is available (in English): https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-09/tuot-amm090319.php [1] Go Kawamura, et al. (2019). Nanotube array-based barium titanate-cobalt ferrite composite film for affordable magnetoelectric multiferroics. /Journal of Materials Chemistry/C, 7, 10066-10072. 

• Doctoral thesis success: Supachai Reakasame

  Supachai Reakasame (Boo) successfully defended his doctoral thesis on 30th August 2019 at the Institute of Biomaterials. He carried out his thesis (Dr.-Ing.) under academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, with a fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). His project was in the field of Alginate-Gelatin-Based Hydrogels for Scaffold Development and Biofabrication in Tissue Engineering, which involved the development of a series of advanced processing strategies for expanding the applications of oxidized alginate-gelatin (ADA-GEL) hydrogels in tissue engineering. Prof. Wojciech Swieszkowski (Warsaw University of Technology, Poland), Prof. Bernhard Hensel (Department of Physics, FAU), Prof. Erik Bitzek (Chair for General Materials Science, FAU) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board. Prof. Boccaccini commented on the outstanding research work carried out by Boo, highlighting that Boo had started his project four years ago, at the beginnng of our efforts in the field of biofabrication using the ADA-GEL bioink platform, and Boo`s research has contributed notably to our understanding of oxidized aliginate and ADA-GEL properties and their capability for cell encapsulation and 3D printing. Publications have already resulted from Boo's research work [1, 2] and other papers are being finalised for publication. We congratulate Boo for achieving his Dr.-Ing. degree and wish him all the best in his future career. [1] S. Reakasame, A. R. Boccaccini, Oxidized Alginate-Based Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications: A Review, Biomacromolecules 19 (2018) 13-21.[2] S. Reakasame, et al., Cell laden alginate-keratin based composite microcapsules containing bioactive glass for tissue engineering applications, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 29 (2018) 185. 

• JECS Trust grant: Visit of Lorenzo Degli Esposti (ISTEC-CNR, Faenza, Italy)

  In August 2019 we received the visit of Lorenzo Degli Esposti, PhD student based at the Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics (ISTEC-CNR) (Director: Dr. Anna Tampieri) in Faenza, Italy, where he carries out research under supervision of Dr. Michele Iafisco in the field of inorganic nanomaterials for biomedical applications. Lorenzo was a recipient of a JECS-Trust  fellowship, sponsored by the European Ceramic Society(ECERS). We collaborate with the Bioceramics and Bio-hybrid Composites Group at ISTEC-CNR in the field of inorganic nanoparticles for bone tissue engineering and dental applications. On 29th August 2019, Lorenzo presented the lecture: "ISTEC-CNR Bioceramics and Bio-hybrid Composites Group: calcium phosphates from nanoparticles to organized hierarchical 3-dimensional scaffolds" in the framework of the Seminar series of the Institute of Biomaterials. In the picture Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Dr. Kai Zheng (collaborator in the project).

• Prof. Boccaccini attends scientific seminar of Dr. Sukhdeep Singh (Habilitation) at Ilmenau University of Technology

  On 27th August 2019, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was at Ilmenau University of Technology (TU Ilmenau), Ilmenau, Germany, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, where he attended the scientific presentation of Dr. Sukhdeep Singh entitled "Chemical toolbox for designing small bioactive molecules and fragments in search of tunable bioactive surfaces", which was given in the framework of his "Habilitation" procedure. In the picture, Prof. Boccaccini, Dr. Sukhdeep Singh and Prof. Andreas Schober, Department of Nano-biosystem Technology TU Ilmenau. We plan future collaboration with Dr. Singh and Prof. Schober in the field of biochemical functionalization of engineered biomaterials. Prof. Boccaccini was a research lecturer at TU Ilmenau, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, in the period 1997-2000 and received his "Habilitation" in Materials Technology at TU Ilmenau (mentor: Prof. Heinrich Kern) in 2001.

• FunGlass Centre: Drs. Martin Michálek and Si Chen finalize their research training period at the Institute of Biomaterials

  Dr. Martin Michálek and Dr. Si Chen from the Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass),Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia, have finalized their one-year research training period at the Institute of Biomaterials in the framework of our international collaboration within the H2020 FunGlass project. Drs. Michalek and Chen (pictured with Dr. Liliana Liverani and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini) carried out research in different areas of bioactive glass technology, developing novel bioactive glass compositions and composites for regenerative medicine, wound healing and drug delivery. Our Institute leads the training of personnel (PhD students, post-docs and senior researchers) of the FunGlass Centre in the field of biomaterials. Prof. Boccaccini is a member of the FunGlass Centre's scientific board. A new group of FunGlass researchers and PhD students will arrive in Erlangen for their training period in September 2019. 

• Our University: top 20 worldwide in the category "Citations per Faculty"

  The University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) has done well in the recently published QS World University Rankings® 2020 and the ShanghaiRanking's Academic Ranking of World Universities 2019. Indeed in the subject "Materials Science and Engineering", to which our Institute contributes, FAU is listed as one of the top 5 universities in Germany. Moreover, in the QS World University Rankings® 2020, one particular indicator is very interesting and shows an excellent result for FAU, it is the "Citation per Faculty"  category. Here our university is listed as number 20 in the world well above all other German universities. Prof. Boccaccini said: "our University has several "highly cited researchers" whose contributions surely count to this excellent outcome. Indeed our Department of Materials Science and Engineering  has three highly cited researchers (2018), which is a notable achievement for a single academic Department, unique in Germany. In the subject "Materials Science", in the mentioned indicator, FAU is listed at number 5 in the world."

• New micro-CT system installed at the Institute of Biomaterials

  HY2Print (hybrid hydrogel-printing of craniomaxillofacial (CMF) bone defects implants) is a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (FKZ: WAPM100262672), which addresses the different requirements of CMF bone healing. The aim of the project is the production of titanium-hydrogel-ceramic composite structures using three-dimensional (3D) bioplotting. The generated structures should mimic the biological and mechanical function of the natural bone and be able to stimulate its regeneration. In order to achieve a highly accurate characterisation of the 3D constructs, a μCT system was installed at the Institute of Biomaterials in August based on our collaboration with the Development Center X-ray Technology (EZRT), Fürth, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, partner in HY2Print. On the photo Vera Bednarzig (PhD student), Dr. Rainer Detsch (Project Manager), Susanne Heid (PhD student), and cooperation partner Dr. Stefan Gerth (Fraunhofer EZRT). Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Head, Institute of Biomaterials) said: "we are very pleased to have this μCT imaging system in our Institute which will support the assessment of the quality of the printed constructs made within project HY2Print. We are grateful and appreciate the very fruitful collaboration with all partners in this project".

• Our new paper on 3D biofabrication of cell laden hydrogel vessels published 

  Our paper "Development of 3D Biofabricated Cell Laden Hydrogel Vessels and a Low‐Cost Desktop Printed Perfusion Chamber for In Vitro Vessel Maturation" (co-authors: Thomas Distler, Florian Ruther, Aldo R. Boccaccini and Rainer Detsch) has been published in Macromolecular Bioscience [1].In this paper, cell-laden 3D bioplotted vessel-like constructs made from alginate di-aldehyde (ADA) and gelatin (GEL) are presented. The aim wasto increase the mechanical stability of fibroblast-laden ADA-GEL vessels, tailoring them for maturation under dynamic cell culture conditions. Moreover, a customized, low-cost 3D printed polycarbonate perfusion chamber for perfusion of vessel-like constructs is presented. The results are part of our research activities in the field of "Biofabrication" in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC/TRR 225) "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models”.  [1] T. Distler, et al., "Development of 3D Biofabricated Cell Laden Hydrogel Vessels and a Low‐Cost Desktop Printed Perfusion Chamber for In Vitro Vessel Maturation", Macromol. Biosci. 2019, 1900245.

• Pan American Ceramics Congress 2020: *Prof. Boccaccini to co-organise the Bioceramics/Biocomposites symposium

  The Pan American Ceramics Congress and Ferroelectrics Meeting of Americas (PACC-FMAs) 2020 will be held in Panama City, Panama, on July 19-23, 2020, organised by the American Ceramic Society. Prof. Boccaccini will be a co-organiser of Symposium 4. "Bioceramics and Biocomposites". The Congress will provide a forum for research exchange on the current status and future trends in ceramic technologies in the American continent (South and Central America, Canada, and the United States). Prof. Boccaccini said: "It is an honor to have been invited to co-organise this symposium with colleagues from USA, Argentina and Colombia. We maintain strong and long-standing collaborations with researchers in many countries in the Americas, in particular Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the USA, thus I expect to contribute effectively (even if from Germany) to the success of the Pan American Ceramics Congress. The deadline for abstract submission is: January 15, 2020. 

• We welcome our new visiting researchers and guest students in summer 2019

  Many international researchers and students have selected the FAU Institute of Biomaterals to conduct research projects during this summer period. We welcome Ms Nayla Lores, from National Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina, Dr. Miguel Fuentes Chandia, visiting researcher, Chile, Dr. Si Chen and Dr. Martin Michálek, visiting researchers, Alexander-Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia, Mr Arturo Aguilar Rabiela, visiting PhD student from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, Dr. Eduin Ivan González Castillo, visiting researcher, Mexico, Dr. Özlem Ertekin, visiting reseacher, Turkey, Ms Kanwal Ilyas, visting researcher, Pakistan, Ms Mahshid Monavari, visiting PhD student, Iran, Mr Xinglong Hu, visiting PhD student from East China University of Science and Technology, P. R. China, Mr Lorenzo Degli Esposti, visiting researcher from CNR, Faenza, Italy, and Ms Sihui Ouyang, visiting PhD student from East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, P. R. China. They are working on a wide range of research topics, including bioactive glass scaffolds, electrophoretic deposition of bioactive coatings, electrospinning of biopolymers and composites, mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles, antibacterial materials, hydrogels for drug delivery, biofabrication, 3D cancer models and 3D printing as well as cell biology characterisation of a variety of biomaterials. Welcome to Erlangen ! 

• Our paper on Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles With High Cu Concentration published in Frontiers in Chemistry

  Our paper entitled: "Toward Highly Dispersed Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles With High Cu Concentration Using Cu/Ascorbic Acid Complex as Precursor", authors: Kai Zheng, Jeonil Kang, Bogdan Rutkowski, Magdalena Gawȩda, Jue Zhang, You Wang, Niklas Founier, Maciej Sitarz, Nicola Taccardi, Aldo R Boccaccini, has been published in the Open Access journal Frontiers in Chemistry [1]. The paper belongs to the Research Topic: Multifunctional Bioactive Nanomaterials for Tissue Regeneration and reports a novel method to synthesize chemically homogenous Cu-containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (Cu-MBGNs) with controlled Cu concentration by using ascorbic acid/Cu complexes as precursor of Cu in a microemulsion-assisted sol-gel approach. The project leading to this paper involved collaborations with researchers at AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland, School of Medicine, Renji Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, and other colleagues at FAU. [1] K. Zheng, et al. Toward Highly Dispersed Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles With High Cu Concentration Using Cu/Ascorbic Acid Complex as Precursor, Front. Chem. 7 (2019) 497. 

• Our new paper in collaboration with researchers of Argentina and Spain published

  Our paper entitled *Bioactive glass (45S5)-based 3D scaffolds coated with magnesium and zinc-loaded hydroxyapatite nanoparticles for tissue engineering applications*,  co-authors: Maria Laura Dittler, Irem Unalan, Alina Grünewald, Ana M. Beltran, Claudia A. Grillo, Rainer Destch, Monica C. Gonzalez, Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces. This paper shows the development and characterization of a new family of scaffolds based on bioactive glass structures (45S5 BG) coated with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles containing Mg or Zn, to enhance the biological activity of such scaffolds for bone tissue engineering applications. It results from the work led by Ms Laura Dittler, PhD student based at Department of Chemistry, National University of La Plata, Argentina, under supervision of Prof. Monica C. Gonzalez. Laura spent two research periods at the Institute of Biomaterials in Erlangen with support from the scholarship program ALEARG (funded by DAAD, Germany, and Ministerio de Educación, Argentina). [1] M. L. Dittler, et al., Bioactive glass (45S5)-based 3D scaffolds coated with magnesium and zinc-loaded hydroxyapatite nanoparticles for tissue engineering applications, Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 182 (2019) 110346. 

• Visit from University of Rostock

  On 29-30 July 2019, we received the visit of Prof. Rainer Bader, Dr. Anika Jonitz-Heinke and Ms Franziska Jahn (PhD student), from Orthopedic Medical Center and Polyclinics, University Medicine Rostock, University of Rostock. We have currently several collaborations with Prof. Bader's group including the the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC)/SFB 1270 "ELAINE - Electrically Active Implants". The collaborators visited our laboratories and discussed current joint research and potential future projects for collaboration. Moreover Prof. Bader presented the lecture "Regeneration of bone and cartilage tissue: Relevance of biophysical stimulation and specific biomaterials", hosted by Dr. R. Detsch and Prof. A. R. Boccaccini in the framework of our seminar series in CRC /TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models".

July2019

• Prof. Boccaccini: invited speaker at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, UK

  On 26th July, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini presented an invited lecture in the framework of the Graphene CDT Advanced Technology Lectures series at the Cambridge Graphene Centre, the Research Centre on Graphene, Layered Crystals and Hybrid Nanomaterials directed by Prof. Andrea C. Ferrari at University of Cambridge, UK. He presented the lecture "Electrophoretic deposition: versatile processing technique for graphene and related carbon nanomaterials". Prof. Boccaccini discussed areas for future collaborations with members of the Centre. He also met Dr. Yan Yan Shery Huang, lecturer in the Engineering Department, University of Cambridge. Dr. Shery Huang (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini) was student at Imperial College London (Department of Materials) at the time Prof. Boccaccini was an academic staff member at Imperial.

• Visit from East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai

  In the framework of the academic exchange program "Synergistic effects of bioactive implanted materials, trace elements and small molecules promoting bone regeneration and osseointegration under osteoporotic conditions" with the Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials of Ministry of Education in East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST), <https://www.ecust.edu.cn/_t41/main.htm> Shanghai, China, we received the visit of Prof. Jie Wei, Professor at School of Materials Science and Engineering, ECUST. We are currently collaborating with the group of Prof. Wei in the development and characterization of bioactive composite materials for improved bone repair strategies. Mr Xinglong Hu (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini, Dr. Kai Zheng, Inst. of Biomaterials, and Prof. Wei), PhD student of ECUST is visiting our Institute. The project is supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) <https://www.daad.de/de/>.

• End of Summer Term 2019

  The end of the summer term 2019 was marked by the traditional Summer BBQ of the Institute of Biomaterials, which took place on a very hot afternoon in Erlangen, on 24th July 2019. Prof. Boccaccini remarked the very international character of our Institute, which is maintained over the years: people from sixteen nationalities were present at this meeting, including our visiting students and other academic visitors. We wish everyone happy summer holidays.

• Our review paper in the Advanced Engineering Materials Hall of Fame

  Our new review paper entitled "Bioactıve Glass‐Polymer Nanocomposites for Bone Tıssue Regeneration Applicatıons: A Revıew", authors: Melek Erol‐Taygun, Irem Unalan, Maizlinda Izwana Binti Idris, João F. Mano, Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in the "Hall of Fame" collection of the journal Advanced Engineering Materials. This is a collection of invited review articles that highlight the work of top scientists in the field of engineering materials to mark the 20th Anniversary of the journal. Our review covers comprehensively the field of polymer-bioactive glass nanocomposites for bone tissue engineering, discussing a wide range of morphologies, compositions and composite functionalities. [1] M. Erol‐Taygun, et al., Bioactıve Glass‐Polymer Nanocomposites for Bone Tıssue Regeneration Applicatıons: A Revıew, Adv. Eng. Mater. (2019) 1900287.

• Summer 2019 Colloquium of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini chaired the Summer Colloquium <http://www.biomat.techfak.uni-erlangen.org/img/uploaded/pdf/2018_ww-sommerfest-flyer.pdf> of the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering <https://www.ww.tf.fau.de/> that took place on 18th July 2019. In his introduction Prof. Boccaccini highlighted the latest achievements of our Department, which included several awards and prizes collected by students and researchers of the different Department's Institutes, the acquisition of substantial research funding and the achievement of high positions in national and international rankings (all documented in the Department webpage)<https://www.ww.tf.fau.de/>. The scientific program included two invited speakers. Dr. Tayebeh Ameri, <https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/bnano/en/people/prof.-dr.-christine-selhuber-unkel> Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, LMU, Munich, presented the talk: "Near-IR sensitization of polymer/fullerene solar cells: controlling the morphology and transport in ternary blends", while Dr. Olga Kasian,  Young Investigator Group: Material Transformations in Electrocatalysts, Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy (HZB), presented the talk: "Tuning atomic scale structure of materials to enhance their catalytic performance in energy conversion and storage applications". Moreover prizes were awarded to outstanding students in Materials Science and Engineering and Nanotechnology, namely the awards of the company Semikron (represented by Mr Clemens Vennebusch), and the prizes of the Fa. Brose (represented by Prof. Dr. Peter Weidinger). Prof. Boccaccini acknowledged also the representatives of the Department's student committee (Fachschaft) for their great effort in the organization of the Summer Party. The Department's webpage informs about further details of the event.

• Visit from Kazakhstan

  We received the visit of Prof. Mohammad Ahmad, Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Prof. Ahmad has carried out research on bioactive glasses, in fact Prof. Boccaccini and Prof. Ahmad shared time at Imperial College London, Department of Materials, UK, more than 10 years ago, when Dr. Ahmad carried out a research project and earned his PhD under supervision of Prof. Larry Hench. We plan collaboration with Prof. Ahmad in the field of sol-gel derived bioactive glasses for drug delivery. In the Photo: Prof. Ahmad, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, Mr Qaisar Nawaz (PhD student).

• PhD success in London: Ms Christy Thomas

  We are happy to report that Ms Christy Thomas successfully defended her PhD thesis at University of Westminster, London, UK, on 11th July 2019. Ms Thomas carried out her doctoral thesis entitled: "Development of biodegradable SCL-PHA composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering" under supervision of Prof. Ipsita Roy, School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, and co-supervised by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. We congratulate Christy on her success and wish her the best in her future career.

• Our new paper on gelatin coated bioactive glass scaffolds, in collaboration with Heidelberg University Hospital, published in JTERM

  Our paper entitled: "Gelatin coating increases in vivo bone formation capacity of three‐dimensional 45S5 bioactive glass‐based crystalline scaffolds", the result of our current collaboration with Dr. Fabian Westhauser and colleagues at Heidelberg Trauma Research Group (HTRG), Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany, has been published in J. Tissue Engineering Regenerative Medicine (JTERM). The study demonstrated the favorable effect of gelatin coating on bioactive glass scaffolds derived from maritime sponges on both the scaffold mechanical properties and biological outcomes (bone formation) in vivo [1]. [1] Westhauser, F., Senger, A.-S., Obert, D., Ciraldo, F. E., Schuhladen, K., Schmidmaier, G., Moghaddam, A., Boccaccini, A. R., Gelatin coating increases in vivo bone formation capacity of three-dimensional 45S5 bioactive glass-based crystalline scaffolds,J. Tissue Eng. Regen. Med. 13 (2019) 179-190.

• Prof. Boccaccini at the Conference of the European Society for Biomechanics in Vienna

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was a member of the organizing committee of the 25th Conference of the European Society for Biomechanics (ESB 2019), which took place in Vienna, Austria, from 7 – 10 July 2019. He chaired the sessions "Biomaterials" together with Dr. Olivier Guillaume (TU Vienna, pictured with Prof. Boccaccini) and he presented the lecture: "ENHANCING THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF BIOACTIVE GLASS TISSUE ENGINEERING SCAFFOLDS BY POLYMER COATINGS". He also met Prof. Peter Pivonka, (Queensland University of Technology, Australia, pictured with Prof. Boccaccini) a collaborator in an international bilateral project in the field of bioactive glass scaffolds.

• Meeting of DFG funded project on biofabrication of vascularized tissue constructs

  The progress meeting of the project "biofabrication of vascularized tissue constructs" funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) took place on 4th July 2019 at the Institute of Biomaterials, hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The project is led by Dr. Raminder Singh and Prof. Iwona Cicha from the Cardiovascular Nanomedicine Unit, Section of Experimental Oncology and Nanomedicine (SEON)(Head: Prof. C. Alexiou), University Hospital Erlangen, in collaboration with Dr. R. Detsch and Prof. Boccaccini (FAU Institute of Biomaterials), and it is developing novel bioinks and biofabrication approaches to produce vascularized tissue constructs, with focus on alginate/silk fibroin-based hydrogels. Our previous review paper entitled: _Biofabrication of vessel grafts based on natural hydrogels_ (LINK: ) was published in Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering [1]. [1] I. Cicha, et al., Biofabrication of vessel grafts based on natural hydrogels, Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering 2 (2017) 83-89.

• Research collaboration with Paracelsus Medical University

  The Master thesis of Ms Sonja Kuth in the field of 3D printing and characterization of oxidized alginate-gelatin hydrogels for cartilage repair has been completed in collaboration with the group of Prof. Gundula Schulze-Tanzil at Institute of Anatomy, Paracelsus Medical University (PMU), Salzburg and Nuremberg. We plan further collaborations with the PMU group in the field of 3D printing and biofabrication of hydrogels for cartilage repair, which was discussed during a visit of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and members of the Institute of Biomaterials (Dr. R. Detsch, Mr. T. Distler and Ms S. Kuth) to PMU on 3rd July 2019. Our most recent paper in collaboration with Prof. Gundula Schulze-Tanzil and her team has been recently published [1]. [1] G. Conoscenti, et al., Human nasoseptal chondrocytes maintain their differentiated phenotype on PLLA scaffolds produced by thermally induced phase separation and supplemented with bioactive glass 1393, Connective Tissue Research, 60 (2019) 344-357.

• Collaboration with Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia

  Prof. Boccaccini will be an international collaborator in two research projects funded by the Malaysian Education Ministry and led by colleagues of the Department of Materials Engineering and Design, Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), Johor, Malaysia. The projects relate to natural hydroxyapatite for biomedical applications, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Hasan Zuhudi Abdullah, and alginate composites with magnetic properties, led by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maizlinda Izwana Idris. Both Prof. Zuhudi Abdullah and Prof. Izwana Idris were academic visitors at the Institute of Biomaterials in 2017-2018 and we have already published joint articles (the latest in Adv. Eng. Mater. with Prof. Idris [1]). We look forward to collaborating with our colleagues in Malaysia on such interesting projects. [1] M. Erol-Taygun, et al., BIOACTIVE GLASS-POLYMER NANOCOMPOSITES FOR BONE TISSUE REGENERATION APPLICATIONS: A REVIEW, Adv. Eng. Mater. (2019) in press. 

• Prof. Leonid Ionov visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  On 2nd July 2019, we received the visit of Prof. Leonid Ionov, Prof. for Biofabrication at Faculty of Engineering Science, University of Bayreuth. Prof. Ionov presented the lecture: "4D Biofabrication using shape-changing polymers", in the framework of the scientific seminar series of the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB/TRR 225) "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models", hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Head, Institute of Biomaterials at FAU). We discussed with Prof. Ionov areas of for future research collaborations in the fields of bioactive materials and biofabrication.

June2019

• Bioactive glasses meet herbal medicine: our review paper published in Biomaterials

  Our review paper entitlted: "Bioactive glasses meet phytotherapeutics: The potential of natural herbal medicines to extend the functionality of bioactive glasses", co-authors: Katharina Schuhladen, Judith A. Roether and Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in the journal Biomaterials [1]. Given the increasing interest in the use of phytotherapeutics in combination with modern biomaterials, we cover in this review the relatively new but rapidly emerging concept of combining plant extracts with known therapeutic effects with bioactive glasses. The resultant new bioactive glass-organic agent compounds have the potential to exhibit multifunctional activity, enhanced by synergistic effects provided by the controlled release of biologically active ions and the therapeutic activity of the plant extract, this being one of the aspects discussed in this review paper. [1] K. Schuhladen, et al., Bioactive glasses meet phytotherapeutics: The potential of natural herbal medicines to extend the functionality of bioactive glasses, Biomaterials 217 (2019) 119288.

June2019

• Prof. Boccaccini attended "Verbundwerkstoffe" Symposium in Kaiserslautern, Germany

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini presented the talk "Biomedical Composite Coatings by Electrophoretic Deposition" at the 22nd Symposium Composite Materials (22. Symposium Verbundwerkstoffe und Werkstoffverbunde) held on 26-28 June in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Prof. Boccaccini was a member of the Organizing Committee of the symposium and chaired a scientific session. He also presented the poster "Mechanical properties of novel fly ash geopolymer reinforced flax fiber composites" (first author: Eyerusalem Adefrs Taye, PhD student). Prof. Boccaccini is a member of the Joint Committee "Verbundwerkstoffe" of the German Materials Society (DGM),  where he represents the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG). In the photos Prof. Boccaccini with Prof. Guntram Wagner, Chemnitz University of Technology (Chair of Joint Committee "Verbundwerkstoffe"), and with Prof. Heinrich Kern, Ilmenau University of Technology (member of Joint Committee "Verbundwerkstoffe").

• Collaboration with Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

  In the framework of the DAAD PPP Greece project (project title: "Biodegradable osteoinductive scaffolds based on new functionalized polyesters, calcium silicate bioceramics and mesoporous nanocarriers, for bone tissue engineering"), in collaboration with the School of Dentistry, Department of Physics and Department of Chemistry of _Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Dr. Liliana Liverani visited Thessaloniki from 20-27 June. This project consolidates a previously existing fruitful collaboration between Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and different Departments of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Dr. Liverani also attended the 1st Congress of the Hellenic Society of Regenerative Medicine Research on 21-22 June in Thessaloniki, giving a talk entitled: “Electrospun scaffolds by using benign solvents: blends, composites and novel field of applications” (in the picture at the congress with Dr. Eleana Kontonasaki, Greek PI of the DAAD project) and during the talk with Prof. Dimitrios Bikiaris, chairman of the session. During her stay in Thessaloniki she had meeting and performed experimental activities with the Greek partners.
  (Picture in the lab with Dr. Anastasia Beketova and Ms. Evangelia Christodoulou).

• Prof. Boccaccini: speaker at CET scientific meeting at Polytechnic of Milan, Italy

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini presented the lecture "The behaviour of cells on a composite scaffold" in the session "Bone scaffolding and drugs" at the 1st Seminar and Meeting "Cells and Extracellular Templates (CET)", held at Polytechnic of Milan, Italy, on 20-22 June 2019. Prof. Boccaccini was a member of the scientific committee of the meeting, which was chaired by Prof. Antonio Ravaglioli (formerly at CNR, Faenza, Italy). In the photo Prof. Boccaccini, Prof. Ravaglioli and Ms Rossella Ravaglioli (conference scientific secretariat).

• Visit from Australia

  On 25th June 2019, we received the visit of Prof. Thomas Fiedler, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Australia. We collaborate with the group of Prof. Fiedler in the field of bioactive glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering: 3D scaffolds fabricated in Erlangen are characterised at Univ. of Newcastle in terms of mechanical properties. Previous results of our collaboration have been published (e.g. [1]). (Pictured: Prof. Fiedler, Prof. Boccaccini and Mr Q. Nawaz (PhD student))
  
  [1] M. A. Sulong, et al., A model of the mechanical degradation of foam replicated scaffolds, J. Mater. Sci. 51 (2016) 3824–3835.

• Dr. Kai Zheng awarded Emerging Talents Initiative (ETI) grant

  Dr. Kai Zheng was awarded an “Emerging Talents Initiative” (ETI) grant of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, which is designed to support excellent postdoctoral researchers by providing them with an opportunity to develop scientific independence and establish themselves in their field of research. Dr. Zheng's project involves the development of novel sol-gel derived bioactive glasses for wound healing applications. One area of research of Dr. Zheng is the interaction of bioactive glasses and proteins, as discussed in a recent review paper
  
  [1]. [1] K. Zheng, et al., Protein interactions with bioactive glass surfaces: a review, Applied Materials Today 15 (2019) 350-371

• XVI Conference of the European Ceramic Society (ECERS) in Turin, Italy

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the XVI Conference of the European Ceramic Society<https://www.ecers2019.org/>, which was held in Turin, Italy (16-20 June, 2019). Prof. Boccaccini presented the invited lecture: "MULTIFUNCTIONAL BIOACTIVE GLASSES RELEASING BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE IONS: FROM BONE ENGINEERING TO WOUND HEALING", in which he summarized the developments and applications of ion releasing bioactive glasses for bone and soft tissue regeneration. Prof. Boccaccini was also a co-organiser of the Session "Ceramics and Glasses for Healthcare" at the conference. He also presented the poster: "CHARACTERIZATION OF REFRACTORIES MADE FROM STEEL PRODUCTION SLAG FOR THERMAL ENERGY INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES", co-authored by Ms Abi Sengottuvelan (PhD student) and colleagues from Finland, which included joint results obtained in the framework of the EU (HORIZON 2020) research project "Turning waste from steel industry into valuable low cost feedstock for energy intensive industry" (RESLAG). In the photos, Prof. Boccaccini with colleagues at ECERS 2019, including Prof. Monica Ferraris (Italy), Prof. Paolo Colombo (Italy, ECERS 2019 conference general chair), Prof. Sasa Novak (Slovenia), Prof. Bikramjit Basu (India), Prof. Jerome Chevalier (France), Prof. Chiara Vitale Brovarone (Italy), Prof. Omer van der Biest (Belgium), Prof. Janis Locs (Latvia), Prof. Dusan Galusek (Slokavia), and the co-chairs of the "Ceramics and Glasses for Healthcare" session: Prof. Anna Tampieri (Italy) and Prof. Isabel Izquierdo-Barba (Spain).

• Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini elected Fellow of the European Ceramic Society

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, head of the Institute of Biomaterials, was elevated to Fellow of the European Ceramic Society and received the fellowship certificate at the XVI Conference of the European Ceramic Society (ECERS) held in Turin, Italy, on 17-20 June 2019. ECERS fellows are persons of good reputation who have been members of a national ceramic organization that is affiliated to ECERS. The elevation to the grade of Fellow is based on outstanding contributions to the ceramic arts or sciences; through broad and productive scholarship in ceramic science and technology, by conspicuous achievement in ceramic industry or by outstanding service to the Society. Prof. Boccaccini said: "it is a great honor to have been elected Fellow of ECERS, the Society has been an important part of my career for many years, my first ECERS conference was indeed in Madrid in 1993, when I was still a PhD student at RWTH Aachen !" (Photo: Prof. Boccaccini and Prof. Jon Binner (UK), ECERS president, at the awards dinner in Turin).

• Prof. Boccaccini: invited speaker at the XVI Conference of the European Ceramic Society in Turin, Italy

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was an invited speaker at the XVI Conference of the European Ceramic Society, which is being held in Turin, Italy (16-20 June, 2019). Prof. Boccaccini presented the lecture: "MULTIFUNCTIONAL BIOACTIVE GLASSES RELEASING BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE IONS: FROM BONE ENGINEERING TO WOUND HEALING", in which he summarized the developments and applications of ion releasing bioactive glasses for bone and soft tissue regeneration. Prof. Boccaccini was also a co-organiser of the Session "Ceramics and Glasses for Healthcare" at the conference.

• Our paper on electrospun scaffolds for ovarian follicles infiltration, published in PLOS ONE.

  Our paper entitled “Novel approach for the assessment of ovarian follicles infiltration in polymeric electrospun patterned scaffolds”  has been accepted as contribution for the Special Collection “Open Biomaterials Research” in PLOS ONE, co-edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The paper is another important outcome of the collaboration between our Institute, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Head: Prof. Matthias W. Beckmann) and the Department of Radiology, Preclinical Imaging Platform Erlangen (led by Prof. Tobias Bäuerle) at Erlangen University Hospital. The paper deals with an innovative approach to investigate ovarian follicles infiltration inside the scaffolds by using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In general, the application of tissue engineering for the regeneration of reproductive organs and tissues raised the interest of the scientific community in the last years. Moreover, the application of MRI for tissue engineering purpose is a quite novel field and it is becoming an interesting topic recently. IMAGE. Confocal microscopy images of the follicles inside the scaffolds (a,c) PCL and (b,d) PCL/gelatin. Green points correspond to living cells, blue fibers represent the electrospun mesh and, within the follicle, the presence of single cells. Snapshots of 3D View are reported in (c,d). Scale bar 50μm. (Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0) in PLOS ONE). [1] Raffel N, et al. (2019) Novel approach for the assessment of ovarian follicles infiltration in polymeric electrospun patterned scaffolds. PLoS ONE 14(4): e0215985.

June2019

• TRR-225: "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models": Meeting of Project A01

  The progress meeting of project A01 ("Functionalised adhesive alginate-based hydrogels with controlled degradation behavior") within the Collaborative Research Centre TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models" took place on 7th June 2019 at the Biophysics Group, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, hosted by Prof. Ben Fabry. This project is a research collaboration between the groups of Prof. Ben Fabry and the FAU Institute of Biomaterials (Head: Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini). The project is investigating a new family of alginate-based bioinks for biofabrication (3D printing) with emphasis on achieving both superior biological response and enhanced printability. Pictured: Jonas Hazur (PhD student, Biomaterials), Elham Mirzahossein (PhD student, Biophysics), Prof. Ben Fabry and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini.

• International research collaboration leads to novel antibacterial Ag-containing bioactive glass nanoparticles

  Our paper [1] entitled: "Ag modified mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for enhanced antibacterial activity in 3D infected skin model", co-authors: Kai Zheng, Preethi Balasubramanian, Thomas E.Paterson, Rene Stein, Sheila MacNeil, Sonia Fiorilli, Chiara Vitale-Brovarone, Joanna Shepher and Aldo R.Boccaccini has been published in Mater. Sci. and Eng. C.The paper is the result of our collaboration with researchers from School of Clinical Dentistry, Department of Materials Science & Engineering, and The Kroto Research Institute, at University of Sheffield, UK, and Department of Applied Science and Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, in the framework of the EU (Horizon 2020) funded project MOZART (MesopOrous matrices for localiZed pH-triggered releAse of theRapeuTic ions and drugs), coordinated by Prof. Chiara Vitale Brovarone. Ag containing silica-calcia mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles were tested in their antibacterial effect, for the first time, in a 3D tissue-engineered infected skin model. [1] K. Zheng et al., Ag modified mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles for enhanced antibacterial activity in 3D infected skin model, Materials Science and Engineering: C 103 (2019) 109764. 

• Researchers from Argentina visit the Institute of Biomaterials

  Three researchers from the Research Institute of Materials Science and Technology (INTEMA), National University of Mar del Plata, Argentina, are visiting our Institute. Prof. Josefina Ballarre, from the Applied Electrochemistry group, is visiting us with an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation fellowship together with Dr. Julieta Merlo, research associate at INTEMA. They are collaborating with investigators of our Institute on the development of a new series of bioactive coatings with drug delivery capability for orthopedic and dental applications. In the framework of a DAAD short-term fellowship, Ms Nayla J. Lores, PhD student at INTEMA, Biomedical Polymers Division, under supervision of Prof. Gustavo A. Abraham, is visiting our Institute and she is working on the cell biology characterisation of bioactive glass-biopolymer scaffolds obtained by 3D printing.

• We welcome our international guests, visiting researchers and students, in summer 2019

  Numerous international researchers and students have selected the Institute of Biomaterals to carry out their research projects during the summer of 2019. We welcome Prof. Josefina Ballarre, Dr. Julieta Merlo and Ms Nayla Lores, from National Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina, Dr. Miguel Fuentes Chandia, visiting researcher, Chile, Dr. Si Chen and Dr. Martin Michálek, visiting researchers, Alexander-Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia, Camilla E. Mariotti, visiting researcher, University of Pavia, Italy, Ms Rachele Sergi, visiting PhD student, University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia, Italy, Arturo Aguilar Rabiela, visiting PhD student from Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico, Dr. Özlem Ertekin, visiting reseacher, Turkey, Amandine Sene, visiting undergraduate student, Univ. Paris Diderot, France, Mahshid Monavari, visiting PhD student, Iran, and Xinglong Hu, visiting PhD student from East China University of Science and Technology, P. R. China. They are working on topics as varied as bioactive glass scaffolds, electrophoretic deposition of bioactive coatings, mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles, electrospinning of biopolymers and composites, antibacterial materials, hydrogels for drug delivery, biofabrication, 3D cancer models and 3D printing as well as cell biology characterisation of a variety of biomaterials. Welcome to Erlangen !

• Visit from Portugal

  In June 2019 we received the visit of Ms Viviana Gomes (graduate student at Department of Materials & Ceramic Engineering,) University of Aveiro (UA), Portugal, in the group of Dr. Maria Helena Fernandes and Dr. Jose Carlos Almeida. We are collaborating with the research group at UA in the framework of a DAAD  bilateral funded project on borosilicate sol-gel derived biomaterials involving also collaborators at CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, Centre for Research in Ceramics and Composite Materials. The project focuses on a new family of hybrid borosilicate bioactive glasses for biomedical applications (e.g. wound healing and bone regeneration). (Pictured: Ms Viviana Gomes, Ms Irem Unalan, PhD student, FAU, and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini)

• PLOS ONE - Open Biomaterials Research Collection Published

  The PLOS ONE - Open Biomaterials Research Collection, co-edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in PLOS ONE. Co-editors of the collection were Prof. Kimberly Hamad-Schifferli, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA, Prof. Michael McAlpine, University of Minnesota, USA and Prof. Jie Song, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA. The collection features 24 Open Access contributions which cover a wide range of cutting-edge biomaterial topics, ranging from the design and fabrication of biomaterials, their advanced characterization and specific applications. The range of research topics featured in the collection, their contributions to open science and promotion of reproducibility via shared protocols in biomaterials research are discussed in a recent Guest Blog co-authored by Prof. Boccaccini. Of relevance for Open Science, authors were asked to consider sharing and utilizing new open source tools and protocols and to share the underlying raw data, including reporting relevant previous studies, or null and negative results. Papers included in the collection report the full characterizations of the biomaterials used and reveal the close link between processing methods, physico-chemical properties and applications. Image by John Rogers and colleagues, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA http://www.bpod.mrc.ac.uk/archive/2015/3/27 Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0) - Research published in Nature Communications, March 2015

May 2019

• Prof. Boccaccini at University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was a visiting professor at University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Universität für Bodenkultur - BOKU), Vienna, Austria, hosted by Professor Cornelia Kasper, Department for Biotechnology, BOKU. In the week 27th-31st May 2019, Prof. Boccaccini delivered the course: "Biomedical Materials: Synthesis, Functionalization and Applications". He visited the laboratories in Prof. Kasper's group and discussed future research collaborations on the application of bioactive materials developed at the FAU Institute of Biomaterials in the framework of the cell culture technologies established in the group of Prof. Kasper. Our previous collaboration led to a paper published in JBMR-A "Osteogenic differentiation of umbilical cord and adipose derived stem cells onto highly porous 45S5 Bioglass®-based scaffolds"[1]. In the pictures, Prof. Kasper, Prof. Boccaccini, Ms Ciarra Almeria (PhD student), Dr. Sebastian Kress. [1] Detsch, R., Alles, S., Hum, J., Westenberger, P., Sieker, F., Heusinger, D., Kasper, C., Boccaccini, A. R., Osteogenic differentiation of umbilical cord and adipose derived stem cells onto highly porous 45S5 Bioglass®-based scaffolds, J. Biomed. Mater. Res. Part A 103 (2015) 1029–1037 <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jbm.a.35238/abstract>.

• Best Poster Award for Prof. Josefina Ballarre at international symposium in Croatia

  Congratulations to Prof. Josefina Ballarre, visiting researcher from INTEMA, National Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina, who won the Best Poster Award at the 7th Regional Symposium on Electrochemistry of South-East Europe (RSE-SEE-7) held in Split, Croatia, on 27-30 May 2019. The title of the awarded poster was: “Coatings of chitosan/gelatin/Si-Ge nanoparticles by electrophoretic deposition on surgical grade stainless steel: morphological and antibacterial characterization”, co-authors: Josefina Ballarre, Liliana Liverani, Wolfgang Goldmann, Silvia M. Ceré and Aldo R. Boccaccini. The poster showed results of our research collaboration with Dr. Ballarre in the framework of her Alexander von Humboldt Foundation visiting fellowship. Prof. Ballarre presented also the talk: "Sol-gel spray and electrophoretic deposition techniques to enhance bioactive and antibacterial response of titanium implants", co-authors: Josefina Ballarre, Tuba Aydemir, Liliana Liverani, Wolfgang Goldmann, Aldo R. Boccaccini, including more results of our joint project. The conference was sponsored by the International Society of Electrochemistry.

• Prof. Boccaccini at acatech "Akademietag 2019" in Hamburg

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the Akademietag 2019 of acatech (National Academy of Science and Engineering), held in Hamburg on 24th Nov. 2019. The meeting was devoted to "Biotechnology and its growing importance" and it was led by acatech's president Prof. Dieter Spath. Prof. Boccaccini said: "this was my first event as member of acatech. It was a very interesting meeting with excellent speakers who presented the broad fields of biotechnology for health, materials, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology processes and new products, with emphasis on current status and future opportunities, and with the possibility to discuss in-depth the future biotechnology driven societal challenges from different view points and the perspective of different disciplines". The national academy acatech is the voice of the technological sciences in Germany and abroad providing advice on strategic engineering and technology policy issues to policymakers and the public. Prof. Boccaccini pictured with Prof. Albrecht Winnacker, emeritus professor of University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, also a member of acatech.

• Doctoral thesis success: Muhammad Maqbool

  Muhammad Maqbool successfully defended his doctoral thesis on 27th May 2019 at the Institute of Biomaterials. He carried out his thesis (Dr.-Ing.) under academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, and in collaboration with industrial partner Lucideon Ltd, (Stoke-on-Trent, UK). His project involved the synthesis, characterisation and applications of a novel group of ion substituted hydroxyapatites exhibiting antibiotic-free antibacterial properties, which was completed in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EU MSCA-ITN-2014-EID - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network "Drug-Free Antibacterial Hybrid Biopolymers for Medical Applications - HyMedPoly", in collaboration with Dr. Phil Jackson (Lucideon Ltd, UK) and Dr. Mark Cresswell (Lucideon Ltd, UK). Prof. Uwe Gbureck (University of Würzburg), Prof. Wolfgang Goldmann (Biophysics Group, FAU), Prof. Dominique De Ligny (Chair for Glass and Ceramics, FAU) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board. Prof. Boccaccini commented on the outstanding research work carried out by Maqbool, highlighting the fact that within the HyMedPoly Engineering Doctorate program, PhD students spend half of the time (18 months) in the industrial partner (Lucideon Ltd). He also remarked the very positive collaboration with Lucideon Ltd. The work of Maqbool led to the development and characterization of a new familiy of ion substituted hydroxyapatite powders with antibacterial capability which can be applied for example as coatings on orthopedic and dental implants. Publications from Maqbool's thesis are being finalised for publication. We congratulate Maqbool for achieving his Dr.-Ing. degree and wish him all the best in his future career.

• Prof. Boccaccini at FEMS Annual General Meeting in Dresden

  Prof. Boccaccini attended the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) and the FEMS Annual General Meeting, that took place in Dresden, Germany, on 23rd May 2019, which was hosted at Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS) by Prof. Ehrenfried Zschech. Prof. Boccaccini met the Chair of the scientific committee of the next EUROMAT 2019 conference (Stockholm, Sweden, 1-5 September 2019), Prof. Nikolaos Michailidis (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini and Prof. Sten Johansson, EUROMAT 2019 Managing Committee). Prof. Boccaccini is a member of the Scientific Committee of EUROMAT 2019 and he represents the German Materials Society (DGM) at FEMS, in the photo with DGM representatives Dr. Stefan Klein and Prof. Zschech.

• Prof. Boccaccini: invited lecture at Society of Glass Technology Annual Conference in Cambridge, UK

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini has been announced as one of the speakers at the Science & Technology sessions of the Society of Glass Technology (SGT) Annual Conference "Sand to Splendour" to be held in Murray Edward College, Cambridge, UK, on 2nd-4th September 2019. Prof. Boccaccini will present the lecture: "Bioactive glasses: from bone regeneration to wound healing". He will discuss the wide range of classical and modern applications of bioactive glasses in hard and soft tissue enginering. Prof. Boccaccini is a member of the Basic Science and Technology Committee of SGT and he was elevated to Fellow of SGT in 2018.

• Visit from University of Rostock

  On 20-24 May 2019, we received the visit of Ms Alina Weizel, PhD student at University of Rostock, in the group of Prof. Hermann Seitz, Chair for Microfluidics. Ms Weizel visited also the research group of Dr. Silvia Budday (pictured with Ms Weizel and Prof. Boccaccini) at the FAU Chair of Applied Mechanics (Head: Prof. Paul Steinmann). We are collaborating with the group of Prof. Seitz in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/CRC 1270 'ELAINE' (Electrically Active Implants) (FAU PhD student: Thomas Distler) and with Dr. Budday and Prof. Steinmann in the context of the Emerging Fields Initiative (EFI) of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, project: "Novel Biopolymer Hydrogels for Understanding Complex Tissue Biomechanics". The collaborative research involves investigation of the time-dependent mechanical properties of a new series of biocompatible hydrogels developed in our Institute for use in 3D models of soft tissues exhibiting a broad range of mechanical properties.

• Visit from AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland

  On 15-16 May 2019 we received the visit of researchers from AGH University of Science and Technology,  Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics, namely Prof. Maciej Sitarz, Ms Magdalena Gaweda (PhD student) and Dr Jakub Marchewka (post-doctoral researcher). After research presentations of the visitors, we discussed the continuation of our successful collaboration with the research group of Prof. Sitarz (e.g. [1, 2]), which will involve advanced characterisation techniques for inorganic and composite biomaterials. The visitors from Krakow visited our laboratories and discussed with different members of our Institute (Ms Katharina Schuladen, Ms Susanne Heid, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, among other). [1] A. Wajda, et al., Influence of zinc ions on structure, bioactivity, biocompatibility and antibacterial potential of melt-derived and gel-derived glasses from CaO-SiO2 system, J. of Non-Cryst. Solids 511 (2019) 86-99.  [2] A. Wajda, et al., Structural characterization and evaluation of antibacterial and angiogenic potential of gallium-containing melt-derived and gel-derived glasses from CaO-SiO2 system, Ceram. Int. 44 (2018) 22698-22709. 

• 6th Int. Symposium "Interface Biology of Implants" in Rostock

  Our institute was represented at the 6th International Symposium "Interface Biology of Implants" held in Rostock, Germany, on 8th-10th May 2019. Dr. Rainer Detsch, as an invited speaker, presented the talk "Osteoclastogenesis: A physiologically relevant strategy for bone regeneration" (Co-author: Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini), whereas Thomas Kreller (PhD student) presented a poster as an excerpt of his Master’s thesis entitled “Physico-chemical modification of gelatin as a valuable tool for the improvement of 3D hierarchical printability of oxidized alginate-gelatin hydrogels” (co-authors: Thomas Distler, Dr. Rainer Detsch, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Aldo R. Boccaccini), which was conducted in the context of the Collaborative Research Centre 1270 ELAINE (ELectrically Active ImplaNts), project B01.

• Best poster award for Qaisar Nawaz at DGG Conference

  Qaisar Nawaz was awarded the best poster prize at the joint meeting of the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG) and the French Union for Science and Glass Technology (USTV), held in Nuremberg on 13-15 May 2019. Qaisar is a doctoral student at the Institute of Biomaterials under supervision of Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini, and he is carrying out research on new bioactive glasses in the framework of a DFG funded project in collaboration with University of Jena and Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, Halle. Qaisar's poster entitled: "Evolution of crystallization kinetics, and mineralization of partially crystallized 45S5 bioactive glass".

• Special session "FunGlass" at Annual Meeting of German Society of Glass Technology in Nuremberg

  The Special Session "FunGlass" dedicated to the "Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass" based in Trencin, Slovakia, took place on 13th May 2019 in the framework of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG) in conjunction with the French Union for Science and Glass Technology (USTV) Annual Meeting, in Nuremberg, Germany. The FunGlass Special Session was organized by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (member of FunGlass Scientific Board). Prof. Dusan Galusek, FunGlass director, provided an overview of the activities of the Centre with focus on areas for academic and industrial cooperation, short and long term employment opportunities, and PhD program studies, while researchers of the four FunGlass Departments presented research in progress at the Centre in collaboration with the four international partners: Prof. Alicia Duran (Institute of Ceramics and Glass, Madrid, Spain), Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Prof. Lothar Wondraczek (University of Jena, Germany) (pictured) and Prof. Enrico Bernardo (University of Padova, Italy).

• Annual Meeting of the German Society of Glass Technology in Nuremberg

  On 13th-15th May 2019, the first joint Meeting between the German Society of Glass Technology, DGG, and the French Union for Science and Glass Technology, USTV, (93rd Annual Meeting of German Society of Glass Technology (DGG) in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the French Union for Science and Glass Technology)  took place in Nuremberg with strong participation of our Institute. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Dominique de Ligny (Chair for Glass and Ceramics) while Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Institute of Biomaterials), was member of the organizing committee (pictured with Prof. De Ligny, Prof. E. Bitzek and Prof. U. Lohbauer, FAU members of the committee). This was a truly international meeting with participants from 16 different countries. In total 361 participants attended the conference and more than 180 communications were offered. Prof. Boccaccini was the organizer of the special symposium "FunGlass", dedicated to presentations of the Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass) Alexander Dubček University of Trencin, Slovakia. He also co-organized the symposium "Glasses in Healthcare", together with Prof. Delia Brauer (University of Jena) (pictured with all presenters in the symposium). Prof. Boccaccini presented the lecture: "Bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications". Participants of our Institute were also Marcela Arango-Ospina (oral presentation entitled: "In vitro activity of ion-doped silicon oxycarbide-based bioactive glasses for bone tissue engineering"), Katharina Schuhladen (oral presentation entitled: "Silicate, borosilicate and borate bioactive glasses: A comparison of the dissolution behavior under different conditions") and Qaisar Nawaz (poster presentation entitled: "Evolution of crystallization kinetics, and mineralization of partially crystallized 45S5 bioactive glass", in collaboration with colleagues from University of Jena and Fraunhofer Institute Halle), and Dr. Liliana Liverani (FunGlass session). The poster of Qaisar Nawaz was awarded the First Prize of the poster competition at the conference.

• Dr. Sebastien Harleep (Strasbourg University) visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  Dr. Sebastien Harlepp, Lab for Tumor Biomechanics, University of Strasbourg, France, visited the Institute of Biomaterials on 16th May 2019. His visit was in the framework of the current DFG project led by Dr. Aldo Leal-Egana (Institute of Biomaterials), which is investigating 3D biomaterial models for tumour research. A scientific seminar was organized by Prof. Boccaccini (Head, Institute of Biomaterials) with presentations of Dr. Aldo Leal-Egana ("The new horizon: Biomaterials for mimicking cancer environments”) and Dr. Sebastien Harlepp ("Chemistry Physics and Biology interactions give new inputs to tackle cancer from molecular interactions to in vivo studies"). The visit was an opportunity to discuss new areas for research collaboration with Dr. Harlepp.

• Our paper on Cu-bioactive glass containing injectable gels in collaboration with Huazhong University of Science and Technology researchers published in Acta Biomaterialia

  The paper "Thermally triggered injectable chitosan/silk fibroin/bioactive glass nanoparticle hydrogels for in-situ bone formation in rat calvarial bone defects", presenting results of our collaboration with colleagues at National Engineering Research Center for Nanomedicine, and Department of Orthopaedics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,Wuhan, China (leading author: Prof. Ying Wan), has been published in Acta Biomaterialia, one of the top journals in the field of biomaterials [1]. The study is based on the project carried out by Ms Jingjing Wu during her research stay in our Institute and presents the development, characterization and applications on an innovative composite injectable hydrogel based on incorporating copper-doped bioactive glass nanoparticles, synthesised in our Institute in Erlangen, in a chitosan based hydrogel matrix exhibiting thermally triggered in-situ gelation. The composite was shown to achieve angiogenic and osteogenic properties and was able to fully repair critical-size rat calvarial bone defects without using growth factors. [1] Wu, J., Zheng, K., Huang, X., Liu, J., Liu, H., Boccaccini, A. R., Wan, Y., Guo, X., Shao, Z., Thermally triggered injectable chitosan/silk fibroin/bioactive glass nanoparticle hydrogels for in-situ bone formation in rat calvarial bone defects, Acta Biomater. 91 (2019) 60-71.

• Euro Biomat Conference in Weimar

  Our Institute was well represented at the 5th European Symposium and Exhibition of Biomaterials and Related Areas (Euro BioMAT 2019), held in Weimar, Germany, on 8-9 May 2019. Prof. Boccaccini is a member of the scientific committee of EuroBiomat conference series, which is chaired by Prof. Klaus Jandt (University of Jena) (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini), and it is held evey two years in the framework of the German Materials Society (DGM). In this conference Dr. Liliana Liverani presented the oral contribution "Using benign solvents in biopolymer electrospinning: Advantages and challenges" and Dr. Raminder Singh, presented a poster entitled "Alginate/silk fibroin-based hydrogels for vascularized tissue constructs", presenting results obtained in collaboration with our Institute. Prof. Boccaccini also pictured with Prof. J. Groll (Univ. Würzburg) and Prof. T. Scheibel (Univ. Bayreuth), project coordinator and Bayreuth spokesperson, respectively, of the Collaborative Research Centre (TRR 225) "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models” and with Ms Maria Cracau (PhD student at: University of Magdeburg) a former Master student in our Institute.

April 2019

• Visit from Dr. Ahmad Eweida, BG Trauma Center Ludwigshafen

  Dr. Ahmad Eweida, MD, currently at the Department of Hand, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at BG Trauma Center Ludwigshafen (Plastic and Hand Surgery, Head: Prof. Ulrich Kneser), visited the Institute of Biomaterials in April. His visit is part of our long term collaboration with the Department of Prof. U. Kneser in the general field of tissue engineering [1]. We are planing research collaboration with Dr. Eweida in the development and characterization of new bioactive materials with drug delivery capability for bone regeneration and to be used in/in-vivo /experimental vascularisation strategies. [1] S. Tansaz, et al., Soy protein isolate/bioactive glass composite membranes: Processing and properties, Europ. Polym. J. 106 (2018) 232-241.

• Prof. Boccaccini attends inaugural lecture of Prof. Delia Brauer at University of Jena

  The inaugural lecture of Prof. Delia S. Brauer, who holds the professorship for bioactive glasses  at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research (OSIM ) , was held on 29th April 2019. We have several research collaborations with the group of Prof. Brauer in the field of new compositions of bioactive glasses and their advanced characterisation. Prof. Brauer is also an editor of the journal "Biomedical Glasses"  of which Prof. Boccaccini is the Editor-in-Chief. In the photo, Prof. Lothar Wondraczek (FSU), Prof. Dominique De Ligny (FAU) and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (FAU) with Prof. Brauer in Jena. 

• New Bioprinter (BioScaffolder) installed at the Institute of Biomaterials

  Craniomaxillofacial (CMF) bone defects, with a critical size, caused by trauma, laceration or burns are challenging for aesthetic and/ or functional reconstruction surgeries. HY2Print (Hybrid Hydrogel printing of CMF Implants) is a Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funded project (FKZ:WAPM100262672) addressing the different demands of CMF bone healing. The aim of the project is to fabricate a titanium-hydrogel-bioceramic hybrid structure by three-dimensional (3D) bioplotting. The generated structures should mimic the biological and mechanical function of natural bone and be able to stimulate the formation of new bone. To perform the ambitious printing challenges a novel, exclusively for this project designed BioScaffolder of the project partner GeSiM was delivered and installed at the Institute of Biomaterials in April.In this photo, Ms Vera Bednarzig (PhD student), Dr. Rainer Detsch (Principal Investigator), Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Head of the Institute of Biomaterials), collaboration partners Dr. Hendik Fiehn and Mr Julian Schroll (GeSiM). 

• Dr. Julietta V. Rau, CNR-ISM, Italy, visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  Dr. Juietta V. Rau, senior researcher at National Research Council - Institute of the structure of matter (CNR-ISM), visited the Institute of Biomaterials on 25th April 2019. We collaborate with the research group of Dr. Rau in the field of bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics for orthopeadic antibacterial coatings. Our recent results have been published in the journal ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces[1]. Moreover we collaborate with Dr. Rau in the organisation of the biennial conference series "Biomaterials and Novel Technologies for Healthcare, BioMaH", previous editions were held in Rome in 2016 and 2018, while the 3rd BioMaH conference will take place in Pisa, Italy, on October 13-16, 2020. Prof. Boccaccini is one of the presidents of the BioMAH confererence series. During her visit, Dr. Rau toured our laboratories and she presented the seminar: "Ion doped coatings and cements for biomedical implants". [1] J. V. Rau, et al., "Cu-Releasing Bioactive Glass Coatings and Their in Vitro Properties", ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 11 (2019) 5812-5820. 

• Halle-Jena-Erlangen collaboration on bioactive glass-ceramics: DFG project meeting in Erlangen

  The progress meeting of the DFG (German Science Foundation) funded project on advanced characterization of bioactive glass-ceramics was held at the Institute of Biomaterials, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, on 24th April 2019, organized by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. Project partners from University of Jena (Prof. Delia S. Brauer), Dr. Altair Contreras), Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems (IMWS), (Dr. Araceli Pablos-Martin), met with Mr. Qaisar Nawaz (PhD student) and Prof. Boccaccini from the FAU Institute of Biomaterials. This collaborative research effort in the field of advanced microstructural characterisation of bioactive glasses and glass-ceramics is in its second year and is employing as special characterization techniques X-ray tomography and X-ray microscopy (XCT & XRM), available at project partner IMWS.

• Our latest papers on electrophoretic deposition (EPD) published in Electrochimica Acta

  Two papers on electrophoretic deposition (EPD) co-authored by members of our Institute have been recently published in the journal Electrochimica Acta. The papers are part of the special issue ISE 2018 (69th Annual ISE Meeting, Bologna, Italy), where these papers were presented at Symposium 12: "Electrophoretic Deposition of Functional Coatings: from Materials Science to Biotechnology ", chaired by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, Dr. Begona Ferrari (ICV, Madrid, Spain) and Dr. Carmen Galassi (ISTEC, Italy). The results of these two investigations confirm the versatility of EPD in the production of bioactive composite coatings for biomedical applications, in both cases utilizing chitosan as the biocompatible polymer component of such coatings. [1] S. Heise et al., Electrophoretic deposition of gelatine nanoparticle/chitosan coatings, Electrochimica Acta 307 (2019) 318-325.  [2] A. Pawlik, et al., Fabrication and characterization of electrophoretically deposited chitosan-hydroxyapatite composite coatings on anodic titanium dioxide layers, Electrochimica Acta 307 (2019) 465-473.

• Doctoral thesis success: Lukas Gritsch

  Lukas Gritsch successfully defended his doctoral thesis on 17th April 2019 at the Institute of Biomaterials. He carried out his thesis (Dr.-Ing.) under academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, and in collaboration with industrial partner Lucideon Ltd, UK. His thesis entitled: “An investigation on antibiotic-free antibacterial materials combining bioresorbable polyesters, chitosan and therapeutic ions” was carried out in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EU MSCA-ITN-2014-EID - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network "Drug-Free Antibacterial Hybrid Biopolymers for Medical Applications - HyMedPoly", in collaboration with Dr. Chris Lovell (Lucideon Ltd, UK). Prof. Silvia Fare (Polytechnic of Milan, Italy), Prof. Wolfgang Goldmann (Biophysics Group, FAU), Prof. Stephan Wolf (Chair for Glass and Ceramics, FAU) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board.
  Prof. Boccaccini highlighted the outstanding research work carried out by Lukas, in particular considering the special conditions of the HyMedPoly Engineering Doctorate program, involving spending half of the time (18 month) in the industrial partner (Lucideon Ltd). He remarked the fruitful collaboration with the industrial partner, Lucideon Ltd. (Stoke-on-Trent, UK). The work of Lukas led to the development and characterization of a completely new chitosan-Cu system exhibiting high antibacterial capability, no cytotoxicity and capable to be used in medical devices to achieve antibiotic-free surfaces. Some papers from Lukas's thesis have been already published [1, 2] and other publications are being prepared.
  We congratulate Lukas for achieving his Dr.-Ing. degree and wish him all the best in his future career.
  
  [1] Gritsch, L., et al., Fabrication and characterization of copper(II)-chitosan complexes as antibiotic-free antibacterial biomaterial, Carbohydr Polym. 179 (2018) 370-378.
  
  [2] Gritsch, L., et al., Do bioresorbable polyesters have antimicrobial properties?, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 29 (2018) 18.

• ESB Council meeting in Dresden

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the meeting of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) in Dresden on 11-12 April 2019. The Council members met Prof. Michael Gelinsky, chairman of the 30th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB 2019), which will take place from September 9 to 13, 2019, in Dresden, Germany, and they visited the venue of the conference. Late posters can still be submitted to ESB 2019 untl May 06, 2019. Pictured: Profs. Ana Pego (Portugal, ESB secretary), Pamela Habibovic (Netherlands, ESB president), Marc Bohner (Switzerland, ESB treasurer), Michael Gelinsky, Silvia Fare (Italy, ESB Council member), Abhay Pandit (Ireland, ESB Council member), and Aldo R. Boccaccini (Germany, ESB Council member).

• Prof. Chiara Vitale Brovarone visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  On 9-10 April 2019 we received the visit of Prof. Chiara Vitale-Brovarone, from the Department of Applied Science and Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. Prof. Vitale-Brovarone is scientific coordinator of the EU (Horizon 2020) funded project "MesopOrous matrices for localiZed pH-triggered releAse of theRapeuTic ions and drugs" (MOZART) in which our Institute is participating. We have collaborated for many years with the group of Chiara and co-authored a comprehensive review paper about applications of bioactive glasses in soft tissue repair [1], which is one of the most cited papers published in the J. of Non-Cryst. Solids in the last 5 years.
  

  [1] F. Baino et al., Bioactive glasses: Special applications outside the skeletal system, Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 432, Part A (2016) 15-30.

• Doctoral thesis success: Francesca Ciraldo

  Ms Francesca Ciraldo successfully defended her doctoral thesis on 10th April 2019. Francesca carried out her project at the FAU Institute of Biomaterials under supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, in the field of Ion doped mesoporous bioactive glasses for antibacterial applications. The project was conducted in the framework of the Horizon 2020 EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network action (MSCA-ITNs) "Advanced glasses, Composites And Ceramics for High growth Industries European Training Network - CoACH". Prof. Chiara Vitale-Brovarone (Polytechnic of Turin, Italy), Prof. Wolfgang Goldmann (Biophysics Group, FAU), Prof. Dominique De Ligny (FAU Institute for Glass and Ceramics) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board.
  Prof. Boccaccini congratulated Francesca and highlighted the novelty and application potential of the results, mentioning the interesting approaches used by Francesca to extend the application of such ion releasing mesoporous glasses in coatings and other medical devices. He also praised the excellent collaboration with other members of the CoACH consortium. Several scientific papers have resulted from Francesca’s thesis, including a comprehensive review paper (for example: [1, 2]).
  We congratulate Francesca for her achievements and wish her all the best in her future career.
  
  [1] FE Ciraldo, et al., Synthesis and Characterization of Silver-Doped Mesoporous Bioactive Glass and Its Applications in Conjunction with Electrospinning, Materials (Basel, Switzerland) 11 (2018) 692.
  
  [2] FE Ciraldo, et al., Tackling bioactive glass excessive in vitro bioreactivity: Preconditioning approaches for cell culture tests, Acta Biomat. 75 (2018) 3-10.

• Prof. Boccaccini at TRACE-2 Conference in Italy

  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the "Tissue Regeneration: Advanced Ceramics and Composites: 2nd International Meeting on Biophysics of Cell-Surface Interactions (TRACE 2)" , held on 4-5 April 2019 in Villa Vigoni , Menaggio on Lake Como, Italy, the German-Italian Centre for European Excellence. Prof. Boccaccini acted with Prof. R. Gadow (Univ. of Stuttgart) as president of the Meeting, while Prof. Anna Tampieri (ISTEC, Faenza), Dr. Luca Giacomelli (Univ. of Genova) and Prof. Robert Eggenhoeffner (Univ. of Genova) (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini) were the conference chairs. Prof. Boccaccini chaired the sessions "Chemistry of Biomaterials" and presented the talk: “Bioactive glasses meet herbal medicine: Combining bioactive glass scaffolds with phytotherapeutics for tissue engineering".

• Engineering students from University of Technology of Pereira, Colombia, visit the Department of Materials Science and Engineering

  On 4-6 April 2019 a delegation of students from Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira, Colombia, with sponsorship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)visited the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering (WW). The visit was coordinated by Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini (Head, Institute of Biomaterials, and Chair, FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering), and hosted by Prof. Kyle Webber (Institute of Glass and Ceramics, FAU) and Dr. Liliana Liverani (Institute of Biomaterials, FAU). Fifteen students of mechanical engineering disciplines took part in this study trip, coordinated by Dr. Carlos Andres Mesa (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini and Dr. L. Liverani). The program included presentations of professors and researchers from the different Institutes of the WW Department and by Mr. Jonas Löffler of the Bavarian University Centre for Latin America (BayLat). The students benefited from academic presentations and technical discussions on their topics of interest.

• Meeting of the Executive Board of DGM Regionalforum Erlangen

  The first meeting of the Executive Board of the DGM Regionalforum Erlangen was held on 2nd April 2019 in the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering (WW). The Board members present were: Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (FAU, Board Chair), Prof. Mathias Goeken (FAU), Prof. Carolin Koerner (FAU), Dr. Tobias Fey (FAU), Ms Pratishtha Mukoo (student representative, FAU), Prof. Uwe Glatzel (Univ. of Bayreuth), Dr. Jörn Probst (Fraunhofer ISC Würzburg), Dr. Anton Stich (AUDI AG), Dr. Katharina Neuerer (RIBE®), Dr. Astrid Heckl (Schaeffler AG), Dr. Thomas Grögler (Siemens AG), Prof. Ulrich Tetzlaff (TH Ingolstadt), Prof. Berthold von Großmann (TH Nuremberg), Prof. Simon Reichstein (TH Nuremberg). The managing committee of the DGM Regionalforum Erlangen is formed by Profs. Boccaccini, Goeken and Koerner and Dr. Fey. The DGM Regionalforum Erlangen was founded in 2018 as the local chapter of the German Materials Society (DGM), the Forum offers a communication platform to connect and facilitate the exchange between the different sectors involved in "materials science and engineering" in the Erlangen and Northern Bavaria region, with strong emphasis in developing networks between industry, universities and other research institutions.

• 1st Meeting of DGM Regionalforum Erlangen

  
  The first meeting and scientific seminar of the DGM Regionalforum Erlangen was held on 2nd April 2019 in the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering (WW). The program included presentations by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Chair of DGM Regionalforum Erlangen and Chair of WW Department), Dr.-Ing. Anton Stich (Audi AG Ingolstadt) and Prof. Carolin Koerner (Head, Chair of Materials Science and Engineering for Metals -WTM), with a final discussion round table moderated by Prof. Mathias Goeken (Head, Institute for General Materials Science). Moreover a poster session was organised in which PhD students of the different Chairs of the WW Department presented their latest results. Also the student association of the WW Department was present. The DGM Regionalforum Erlangen was founded in 2018 as the local chapter of the German Materials Society (DGM)  with the goal to offer a communication platform to connect and facilitate the exchange between the different sectors involved in "materials science and engineering" in the Erlangen and Northern Bavaria region, with strong emphasis in developing networks between industry, universities and other research institutions. In the first meeting of the Forum the two DGM presidents were present: Prof. Frank Mücklich (science) and Dr. Oliver Sven Schauerte (industry), pictured with the members of the Executive Board of DGM Regionalforum Erlangen, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, Dr. Tobias Fey (Institute of Glass and Ceramics), Prof. Carolin Koerner and Prof. Mathias Goeken.

March 2019

• Kick-off meeting of new EFI funded project "Novel hydrogels for understanding complex tissue biomechanics"

  
  The kick-off meeting of the new collaborative research project "Novel Biopolymer Hydrogels for Understanding Complex Tissue Biomechanics" took place on 29th March 2019 at The Institute of Applied Mechanics (LTM), hosted by Prof. Paul Steinmann and Dr. Silvia Budday. This is a new research project funded by the "Emerging Fields Initiative" (EFI) of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg involving, in addition to the Institute of Applied Mechanics, the Biophysics Group led by Prof. Ben Fabry, the Institute for Functional and Clinical Anatomy, led by Prof. Dr. med. Friedrich Paulsen and the Institute of Biomaterials led by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The project will provide a new perspective to characterize biological tissues according to their mechanical behavior and to identify biofabricated tissue mimicking biomaterials with similar properties to natural tissues to reduce challenges related to experimental characterization of living tissues. The project will also develop appropriate mathematical models to computationally predict the tissue response based on a variety of novel (soft) biomaterials. (Photo: participants at the Kick-off meeting on 29th March 2019).

• Third "Klausurtagung" of SFB/TRR 225 "Biofabrication"

  
  The Second Closed Meeting of SFB /TRR 225: "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models" took place on 25-27 March 2019 in Kloster Banz, Germany. The PhD students in the project based at the Institute of Biomaterials; Susanne Heid, Jonas Hazur and Emine Karakaya attended the meeting as well as Dr. Rainer Detsch and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (principal investigators). In SFB TRR 225, Prof. Boccaccini is the spokesperson for the location Erlangen, which includes principal investigators of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the University Hospital Erlangen (UKER). Principal investigators from Erlangen Prof. D. W. Schubert, Prof. F. Engel and collaborators in project B03 (Prof. S. Salehi, Univ. of Bayreuth and PhD students Claudia Müller, Bayreuth, and Marius Gensler, Würzburg) are also pictured.

• Our new review paper on bioactive glass scaffolds with ion delivery capability published

  
  Our review article entled:"Enhancing biological activity of bioactive glass scaffolds by inorganic ion delivery for bone tissue engineering" (co-authors: V. Mouriño, R. Vidotto, J.P. Cattalini, A.R. Boccaccini) was recently published in Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering [1]. In this review paper, written in collaboration with Prof. Viviana Mouriño,  University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her team, summarizes the latest developments in the field of bioactive glasses incorporating biologically active ions wíth specific applications in bone tissue engineering. [1] V. Mouriño, et al., Enhancing biological activity of bioactive glass scaffolds by inorganic ion delivery for bone tissue engineering, Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering 10 (2019) 23-34. 

• Visit from Argentina

  
  On 22nd March 2019 we received the visit of Ms Ana Belén Peñaherrera Pazmiño and Mr Gustavo Rosero, doctoral researchers from Universidad Tecnologica Nacional, Regional Haedo and Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IIB-UBA), Faculty of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the research group led by Dr. Betiana Lerner. Ms Peñaherrera Pazmiño presented a seminar entitled: "Microfluidic devices: fabrication and applications". The visitors toured the laboratories of the Institute of Biomaterials. We are exploring collaboration with the group of Dr. Lerner at IIB-UBA in the field of microfluidic approaches to biomaterial characterization.

• Scientific Board meeting of FunGlass Centre in Trencin, Slovakia

  
  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and Dr. Liliana Liverani attended the last meeting of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Functional and Surface Functionalized Glass (FunGlass) held on 13-15 March 2019 at Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia. The meeting brought together all scientific board members from Slovakia, Germany, Italy and Spain. The progress of the research activities of the Centre were discussed highlighting the progress and the development plans of the different Departments. Prof. Boccaccini is member of the Scientific Board of FunGlass and advisor of the Department of Biomaterials of the Centre. In the photos Prof. Boccaccini, Dr. Liverani and Prof. Dusan Galusek, FunGlass director. Also pictured, the current members of the FunGlass Department of Biomaterials.

• *Our Review paper on protein-bioactive glass interactions published*

  
  Our review paper entitled: "Protein Interactions with Bioactive Glass Surfaces: A Review"has been published in Applied Materials Today (Authors: K. Zheng, M. Kapp, A. R. Boccaccini). This review covers comprehensively for the first time the literature available in the complex field of protein adsorption on time changing bioreactive surfaces (bioactive glasses) [1]. The research was carried out in the framework of a "bridge" project within the Cluster of Excellence Engineering of Advanced Materials (EAM) at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. Free access to the article until 30th April 2019 can be obtained following this link. [1] K. Zheng et al., Protein Interactions with Bioactive Glass Surfaces: A Review, Appl. Mater. Today 15 (2019) 350-371. 

• *Prof. Boccaccini elected to the National Academy of Science and Engineering of Germany (acatech)*

  
  Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, Head of the Institute of Biomaterials, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, has been elected member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) of Germany. Election to the Academy is based on scientific achievements and reputation. Members are drawn from the fields of engineering, the natural sciences, medicine, the humanities and the social sciences. Acatech currently has around 500 members. Acatech is the voice of technological sciences at home and abroad providing advice on strategic engineering and technology policy issues to policymakers and the public.

• Special Issue "Advanced Glasses, Composites and Ceramics for High Growth Industries" co-edited by Prof. Boccaccini published in the journal Materials

  
  The special issue "Advanced Glasses, Composites and Ceramics for High Growth Industries", resulting from the EU funded (Horizon 2020) ITN project "CoACH", has been published in the journal Materials. The special issue was co-edited by Prof. Milena Salvo (Polytechnic of Turin, Italy), Prof. Mike Reece (Queen Mary University, London, UK) and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and includes 14 open access papers. From our Institute, papers by CoACH researchers Dr. Nicoletta Toniolo and PhD students Francesca Ciraldo and Rocio Tejido-Rastrilla are included [1-3]. 1. Ciraldo, F.; Schnepf, K.; Goldmann, W.; Boccaccini, A. R., Development and Characterization of Bioactive Glass Containing Composite Coatings with Ion Releasing Function for Antibiotic-Free Antibacterial Surgical Sutures. Materials 2019, 12(3), 423. 2. Tejido-Rastrilla, R.; Ferraris, S.; Goldmann, W.; Grünewald, A.; Detsch, R.; Baldi, G.; Spriano, S.; Boccaccini, A. R., Studies on Cell Compatibility, Antibacterial Behavior, and Zeta Potential of Ag-Containing Polydopamine-Coated Bioactive Glass-Ceramic. Materials 2019, 12(3), 500.  3. Rincón Romero, A.; Toniolo, N.; Boccaccini, A. R.; Bernardo, E. Glass-Ceramic Foams from ‘Weak Alkali Activation’ and Gel-Casting of Waste Glass/Fly Ash Mixtures. Materials 2019, 12(4), 588.

• Prof. Boccaccini visits Imperial College London

  
  On 4-7 March 2019, Prof. Boccaccini visited Imperial College London, where he met different colleagues in the Department of Materials.  He met also Prof. Chris Cheeseman (pictured with Prof. Boccaccini), Professor of Materials Resources Engineering at the Imperial Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. We are planing further collaboration with the group of Prof. Cheeseman in the field of sustainable materials, including new materials developed from industrial residues for a circular economy. In addition, our Institute is a partner in the EU funded (Horizon 2020) project "Turning waste from steel industry into a valuable low cost feedstock for energy intensive industry")(RESLAG) in which also Imperial College London (Prof. E. Saiz, Department of Materials) is participating.

February 2019

• Prof. Boccaccini reelected Working Group "Biomaterials" coordinator of KMM-VIN

  
  At the General Assembly Meeting of the European Virtual Institute on Knowledge-based Multifunctional Materials (KMM-VIN ), <http://www.kmm-vin.info/> held on 26th February 2019 in Brussels, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini was reelected coordinator of the Working Group Biomaterials (together with Prof. C. Hellmich, Technical University of Vienna, Austria). KMM-VIN is a single legal entity with a supranational character to offer integrated basic and applied commercial research, educational and innovation activities in the field of knowledge-based multifunctional materials. The aim of KMM-VIN is to foster the creation of a powerful platform for research and development and industrial application of advanced multifunctional materials in order that Europe may become a global power in this field, thus contributing to enhancing the quality of life of European society. In the photos, Prof. C. Hellmich, <http://www.imws.tuwien.ac.at/mitarbeiter/institutsleitung/profil/HELLMICH/>, TU Vienna, Prof. M. Basista, Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT) <http://www.ippt.pan.pl/en/home.html>,  Warsaw, Poland, and CEO of KMM-VIN, Prof. K. Dolinski, IPPT, Secretary of KMM-VIN, Prof Katarzyna Kowalczzyk-Gajewska, IPPT and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini with Profs. Monica Ferraris, Milena Salvo, Federico Smeacetto and Cristina Balagna of Polytechnic of Turin; Italy.

• Prof. Boccaccini attends FEMS Executive Committee meeting in Paris

  
  On 27-28 February 2019 Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini attended the meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) of the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) held in the Maison de la Chimie, in Paris, France. Prof. Boccaccini is FEMS EC member representing the German Materials Society (DGM). The next major event sponsored by FEMS is the _EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES (EUROMAT 2019) to be held in Stockholm, Sweden on 1-5 September 2019. In the photo FEMS EC Members: Prof. Sten Johansson (Sweden), Prof. Paula Vilarinho (Portugal), Prof. Rodrigo Moreno (Spain), Ms Efi Fragkou (UK, FEMS Executive Secretary), Dr. Anna Zervaki (Greece), Prof. Eric Le Bourhis (France), Prof. Gian Luca Garagnani (Italy), Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (Germany), Dr. Bernard Rickinson (UK), Dr. Frans Vos (Belgium) and Prof. Paloma Fernandez (Spain, FEMS President).

• Davidge Award for Agata Lapa

  
  We are happy to announce that Dr. Agata Lapa, who completed her doctoral studies at the Institute of Biomaterials last December, is the recipient of the Davidge Award 2018 of the journal Advances in Applied Ceramics: Structural, Functional and Bioceramics, the specialist ceramics journal of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and the publisher Taylor & Francis. The Davidge Award is an annual prize for the best literature review by a PhD student on an innovative topic in ceramics. The review paper entitled "Phosphate glass fibres with therapeutic ions release capability-a review", co-authors: Agata Lapa, Mark Cresswell, Phil Jackson & Aldo R. Boccaccini, is available (Open Access) online [1]. Agata Lapa carried out her doctoral studies in the framework of the EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network (Horizon 2020) "HyMedPoly – Drug-Free Antibacterial Hybrid Biopolymers for Medical Applications", under supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini at the Institute of Biomaterials, in collaboration with Dr Mark Cresswell and Dr Phil Jackson, at the industrial partner Lucideon Ltd, Stoke on Trent, UK, and she defended her thesis in Dec. 2018. We congratulate Agata on this nice accomplishment ! [1]A. Lapa, et al., Phosphate glass fibres with therapeutic ions release capability – a review, Adv. Appl. Ceram. (2019) in press.

• New paper on electrospun scaffolds for supporting ovarian follicles growth

  
  Our paper “Electrospun patterned porous scaffolds for the support of ovarian follicles growth: a feasibility study”  has been recently published in Scientific Reports. The paper is the outcome of a fruitful interdisciplinary collaboration between members of our Institute (Dr. Liliana Liverani, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini) and gynecologists from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Head: Prof. Dr. med. Matthias W. Beckmann), led by Prof. Ralf Dittrich at Erlangen University Hospital. The paper presents the application of electrospun macroporous scaffolds as useful substrate for the seeding of ovarian follicles, being able to support and promote their growth in vitro. The application of tissue engineering principles to reproductive organ regeneration represents an innovative approach not yet widely investigated. Moreover, the authors presented the use of polymers and polymeric blends never investigated previously for any applications related to artificial ovary design. The publication of the article has been highlighted in the FAU webpage/NEWS . [1] L. Liverani et al., Electrospun patterned porous scaffolds for the support of ovarian follicles growth: a feasibility study, Sci. Reports 9, Article number: 1150 (2019).Image from: Liverani L, et al, Electrospun patterned porous scaffolds for the support of ovarian follicles growth: a feasibility study. Scientific reports. 2019;9. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37640-1, this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

• 9th Scientific Seminar of the North Bavarian Biomaterials Alliance (NBBA) in Erlangen

  The 9th Scientific Seminar of the North Bavarian Biomaterials Alliance (NBBA) was held at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, on 21st February 2019, hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. Three presentations of each participating university (Univ. of Bayreuth, Würzburg and Erlangen-Nuremberg) were given by PhD students. The program of the seminar is available. The seminar attracted almost 80 participants from the three universities, including PhD students, post-docs and professors. Several founding members of NBBA were present, including Prof. J. Groll (Würzburg), Prof. T. Scheibel (Bayreuth, Dr. A. Leal and Profs. B. Fabry and A. R. Boccaccini (FAU). The next NBBA Scientific Seminar will be held in Bayreuth in the Winter Term 19/20.

• Visit from Japan: Assist. Prof. Go Kawamura, Toyohashi University of Technology

  
  Assit. Prof. Go Kawamura, Matsuda-Muto-Kawamura lab., Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, TUT, Japan, is visiting the FAU Institute of Biomaterials, in the framework of the research program funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) entitled: Program for Advancing Strategic International Networks to Accelerate the Circulation of Talented Researchers, which aims to build up and expand international collaborative research networks through the circulation of young researchers among research institutes in Japan, Germany and USA. The objective of the project is to develop artificial magnetic lattices (AML) with innovative features, such as controlling optical and electromagnetic waves by designing nanostructures, and results of the research collaboration led by Prof. Kawamura have been recently published [1, 2]. [1] Kawamura, G., Ohara, K., Tan W. K., Goto, T., Nakamura, Y., Inoue, M., Muto, H., Yamaguchi, K., Boccaccini, A. R., Matsuda, A., Multiferroic nanocomposite fabrication via liquid phase using anodic alumina template, Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 19 (2018) 535-542. [2] Kawamura, G., Ohara, K., Tan, W. K., Muto, H., Yamaguchi, K., Boccaccini, A. R., Matsuda, A., Sol-gel template synthesis of BaTiO_3 films with nano-periodic structures, Mater. Lett. 227 (2018) 120–123. 

• Prof. Dietmar Hutmacher visits the Institute of Biomaterials

  
  Prof. Dietmar Hutmacher, Distinguished Professor and Chair in Regenerative Medicine, Science and Engineering Faculty, Queensland University of Technology (QUT),  visited the FAU Bioresearch Centre on 19th February 2019, where he visited the laboratories and research facilities of the Institute of Biomaterials (Head: Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini) and the Institute of Medical Biotechnology (Head: Prof. Oliver Friedrich). We discussed with Prof. Hutmacher collaboration in the field of biomaterials for bone tissue engineering. Prof. Hutmacher also presented the invited lecture "Convergence of guided bone regeneration principles into scaffold-based bone tissue engineering - From bench to bedside back to bench", in the framework of the International Seminar series of the the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models". 

• Eugeni Cañas (ITC, Castellon, Spain) completes fellowship at Institute of Biomaterials

  
  Eugeni Cañas, PhD student at Jaume I University (Universitat Jaume I), and researcher at Instituto de Tecnología Cerámica (ITC), Castellón, Spain, has just completed his research stay at the Institute of Biomaterials. Eugeni was awarded a research fellowship of The European Virtual Institute on Knowledge-based Multifunctional Materials AISBL (KMM-VIN) to carry out a research project in our Institute. He investigated the biological activity of bioactive glass coatings obtained by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) employing different types of bioactive glass powders and precursors, as reported in the literature [1-3]. MC3T3-E1 bone cells were cultured and seeded onto the coatings and positive results in terms of cell viability, cell adhesion, distribution, and morphology were achieved. This project is part of a long standing research collaboration between ITC and the FAU Institute of Biomaterials on the development and characterization of bioactive coatings on metallic alloys by APS. [1] V. López, M. Vicent, E. Bannier, E. Cañas, A.R. Boccaccini, L. Cordero, E. Sánchez, 45S5 bioactive glass coatings by atmospheric plasma spraying obtained from feedstocks prepared by different routes,J. Mater. Sci. 49 (2014) 7933–7942. [2] E. Cañas, M. Vicent, E. Bannier, P. Carpio, M.J. Orts, E. Sánchez, Effect of particle size on processing of bioactive glass powder for atmospheric plasma spraying, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc. 36 (2016) 837–845. [3] E. Cañas, M. J. Orts, A. R. Boccaccini, E. Sánchez, Solution Precursor Plasma Spraying (SPPS): A novel and simple process to obtain bioactive glass coatings, Materials Letters 223 (2018) 198-202. 

• Darmstadt-Erlangen collaboration on bioactive glasses: DFG project meeting in Darmstadt

  
  The latest progress meeting of the DFG funded project on ion-doped bioactive glasses with outstanding high temperature crystallization resistance took place on 15th February 2019 at the Institute for Materials Science, Dispersive Solids (Head: Prof. R. Riedel), TU Darmstadt. The project involves collaboration between researchers from TU Darmstadt, and from the FAU Institute of Biomaterials. Mr Fangtong Xie (PhD student, TU Darmstadt), Ms Marcela Arango Ospina (PhD student, FAU Institute of Biomaterials) and principal investigators Dr. Isabel Gonzalo Juan (TU Darmstadt), Dr. Emanuel Ionescu (TU Darmstadt) and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (FAU Institute of Biomaterials) (pictured) attended the meeting. This project is developing a new family of bioactive glasses containing biologically active ions for tissue engineering applications. The glasses are synthesized and characterized at TU Darmstadt and they are investigated in terms of their intrinsic bioactive behavior and cytocompatibility at the Institute of Biomaterials in Erlangen. 

• Highly cited papers

  Several of our papers appear in the list of the Most Cited articles of different journals (papers published in the last 5 years), according to the data base Scopus.
• Journal of the European Ceramic Society
• W. Li, et al., "Preparation and characterization of vancomycin releasing PHBV coated 45S5 Bioglass®-based glass-ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, J. Europ. Ceram. Soc. 34 (2014) 505-514
• Acta Biomaterialia 
• V. Miguez Pacheco, et al., "Bioactive glasses beyond bone and teeth: Emerging applications in contact with soft tissues", Acta Biomater. 13 (2015) 1-15.
• Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 
• F. Baino, et al. "Bioactive glasses: Special applications outside the skeletal system", J. Non-Cryst. Solids 432 (2016) 15-30.
• Current Opinion in Solid State and Materials Science
• M. Diba, et al., "Magnesium-containing bioactive polycrystalline silicate-based ceramics and glass-ceramics for biomedical applications", Curr. Op. Solid State Mater. Sci. 18 (2014) 147-167.
• Other papers of our group are also listed as "Most Downloaded", for example: 
• S. Hoehn et al., "Protein adsorption on magnesium and its alloys: A review", Appl. Surf. Sci. 464 (2019) 212-219.
• N. Toniolo and A. R. Boccaccini, "Fly ash-based geopolymers containing added silicate waste. A review", Ceram. Int. 43 (2017) 14545-14551.

• Prof. Boccaccini celebrates 25 years as member of the German Society of Glass Technology (DGG)

  
  Professor Boccaccini celebrates (more than) 25 years as an active member of the German Society of Glass Technology (Deutsche Glastechnische Gesellschaft) (DGG), which he joined as doctoral student in 1993. Prof. Boccaccini says: "I am proud of my continuous membership of the German Society of Glass Technology. The DGG was in fact one of the first professional societies I joined after arriving in Germany from Argentina, when I was carrying out my doctoral thesis at RWTH Aachen University. Indeed one of my first research papers [1] was published in "GLASS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – Glastechnische Berichte", the former official journal of DGG. The DGG has been very important in my career for more than 25 years, at DGG meetings I have met numerous highly qualified experts and colleagues in the field of glasses and glass-ceramics, and I have benefited over the years from scientific exchanges with several colleagues who I first met at DGG meetings, certainly participating at the DGG Annual Meeting is a very gratifying experience both professionally and personally. Prof. Boccaccini is a co-founder of the DGG-DKG Working Group: Glass-crystalline multifunctional materials (AK Glasig-kristalline Multifunktionswerkstoffe) (established in 2002) and this year, he serves in the Organizing Committee of the 93rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Glass Technology in Conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the French Union for Science and Glass Technology (USTV) to be held on 13-15 May 2019 in Nuremberg. [1] A. R. Boccaccini and G. Ondracek, Viscous sintering of non-spherical borosilicate-glass powder, Glastech. Ber., 65 (1992) 73 -78.

• Master students (MAP) poster presentations evening

  
  We congratulate Ms Helly Atiya, who received the 2nd Best Poster Prize at the Poster presentations evening of the Elite Master’s Programme “Advanced Materials and Processes“ (MAP) which took place on 30th January 2019. Ms Atiya presented the poster with the title: "Evaluation of Printability and Biocompatibility in Hydrogel Composites Containing Doped Bioactive Glass", with results of her "mini-project" carried out at the Institute of Biomaterials under supervision of Ms Susanne Heid (pictured with Ms Atiya). We congratulate also Mr Sulistio Adityia (pictured), who completed his Master thesis in our Institute under supervision of Mr Thomas Distler and successfully finished his MAP Master degree.

• The Erlangen Institute of Biomaterials celebrates 10 years in 2019

  
  It has been already 10 years since the establishment of the Institute of Biomaterials within the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. The Institute started research and teaching activities on 1st October 2009 with the appointment of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (formerly at Imperial College London, UK) as Professor and Head of the Institute. Over the years the Institute has been successful in acquiring substantial extramural research funding and it has grown in research infrastructure, laboratory and office space, scientific, technical and administrative personnel as well as incorporating advanced experimental capabilities for the processing and characterisation a wide range of biomedical materials. We are grateful to all researchers and students that have come to our Institute from all over the world, in different stages of their careers, and have contributed to our expansion and innovative outputs with their motivation, new ideas and hard work, so that in the last 10 years the Institute has become a major player in the biomaterials community in Germany and internationally. We also acknowledge the exchanges and interactions with a very broad network of national and international collaborators, which has grown continuously over the years. We will celebrate the first 10 years of the Erlangen Institute of Biomaterials with an International Symposium to be held on *29th November 2019*. Details of this Anniversary Symposium will be communicated in due time. For now: mark the date in your calendars ! 

• Prof. Boccaccini visits his Alma Mater: RWTH Aachen University

  
  On 4th February 2019, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini returned to his Alma Mater, RWTH Aachen University, in particular he was at the Institut für Gesteinshüttenkunde, GHI, where he carried out research activities between 1989 and 1994 and where he earned his doctoral degree (Dr.-Ing.) in 1994 (supervisor: Prof. Gerhard Ondracek). Prof. Boccaccini was examiner in a doctoral thesis defense, which was supervised by Prof. Reinhard Conradt (former Professor and Chair at GHI, pictured with Prof. Boccaccini in the Salmang Lecture Theatre at GHI). Prof. Boccaccini also visited the Chair for Ceramics and Refractory Materials at GHI (Head: Prof. R. Telle), where he met Dr. Karolina Schickle (picture), leader of the Bioceramics group at GHI. We are currently collaborating with Dr. Schickle's group in the field of bioactive glass-bioceramic composites for bone tissue engineering applications. 

January 2019

• We welcome our international guests, visiting researchers and students, in winter 2019

  
  Numerous international researchers and students have selected the Institute of Biomaterals to carry out their research projects during the first quarter of 2019. We welcome Camila A. Aranda, Martin Melucci, and Rocío Sabbatella, visiting students, National Univ. of Mar del Plata, Argentina, Dr. Miguel Fuentes Chandia, visiting researcher, Chile, Lucia Brunetti, visiting student, University of Bologna, Italy, Dr. Jozef Prachár, and Dr. Si Chen, visiting researchers, Alexander-Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia, Eugeni Canas, visiting researcher, ITC, Castellon, Spain, Elisa Piatti, visiting student, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, Camilla E. Mariotti, visiting researcher, University of Pavia, Italy, Antonela S. Stagnoli, National University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina, Dr. Eduin Ivan González Castillo, post-doctoral reseacher, Mexico, Dr. Özlem Ertekin, visiting reseacher, Turkey, and Prof. Go Kawamura, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan. They are working on topics as varied as bioactive glass scaffolds, 3D cancer models, electrophoretic deposition of bioactive coatings, mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles, electrospinning of biopolymers and composites, antibacterial materials, drug delivery hydrogels, biofabrication and 3D printing as well as cell biology characterisation of a variety of biomaterials. Welcome to Erlangen !  

• Dr. Liliana Liverani elected to the Young Scientists Forum (YSF) of the European Society for Biomaterials

  
  We congratulate Dr. Liliana Liverani, research associate at the Institute of Biomaterials, for her election to the Board of the Young Scientists Forum (YSF) of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB). YSF provides a forum for communication and scientific exchange for young scientists interested in biomaterials. Liliana was appointed as National Chapters Liaison Officer of YSF. We wish Liliana much success in her new international function in one of the most important biomaterials organization in the world.  

• Our paper in collaboration with RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) researchers published in Biomaterials

  
  The paper "Collagen scaffolds functionalised with copper-eluting bioactive glass reduce infection and enhance osteogenesis and angiogenesis both in vitro and in vivo" led by our collaboratos at the RCSI (Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland), first author: Dr. Emily Ryan, Principal Investigator: Prof Fergal O'Brien, RCSI Department of Anatomy, Head of the Tissue Engineering Research Group, has been published in Biomaterials,  the top journal in the field. The study presents the innovative application of copper-doped bioactive glass particles, synthesised in our Institute in Erlangen (Dr. Anahi Philipart, Ms Francesca Ciraldo, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini), in a collagen based composite technology developed at RCSI to achieve functional biomaterials with dual antibacterial and angiogenic effects. [1] E. J. Ryan, et al., Collagen scaffolds functionalised with copper-eluting bioactive glass reduce infection and enhance osteogenesis and angiogenesis both in vitro and in vivo, Biomaterials 197 (2019) 405-416. 

• Dr. Patcharakamon Nooeaid receives Dissertation Award in Thailand

  
  Asst. Prof. Dr. Patcharakamon Nooeaid, who earned her PhD (Dr.-Ing.) in our Institute in 2014 has received a national Dissertation Award for her doctoral thesis entitled: "Multilayered Scaffolds for Osteochondral Tissue Engineering Based on Bioactive Glass and Biodegradable Polymers", from the National Research Council of Thailand. The award was also extended to Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini as the supervisor of the doctoral thesis, from which several publications resulted (for example [1]). Patcharakamon (Look-Om) is currently Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Agricultural Product Innovation and Technology, Srinakharinwirot University(Ongkarak), Thailand. In the photo Prof. P. Nooeaid receiving the award from Air Chief Marshal Dr. Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister, during Thailand's Inventors Day 2018 and Prof. Boccaccini with his award. [1] Nooeaid, P., Li, W., Roether, J. A., Mouriño, V., Goudouri, O.-M., Schubert, D. W., Boccaccini, A. R., Development of bioactive glass based scaffolds for controlled antibiotic release in bone tissue engineering via biodegradable polymer layered coating, Biointerphases 9 (2014) 041001.

• Visit from Hannover

  
  Dr. Nina Ehlert, scientific researcher in the group led by Prof. Dr. Peter Behrens, Institute for Inorganic Chemistry, Leibniz University Hannover, visited the Institute of Biomaterials on 22-23 January 2019. Dr. Ehlert was invited speaker in the Scientific Colloquium of the FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering, hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The title of Dr. Ehlert's presentation was: “Multifunctional Nano- and Macroporous Bioactive Glass Composites for Bone Regeneration”. We are collaborating with Dr. Ehlert in the field of polymer coated bioactive glass scaffolds for bone regeneration.

• Engineering students from University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, visit the Institute of Biomaterials

  
  On 21-23 January 2019 Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini (Head, Institute of Biomaterials, and Chair, FAU Department of Materials Science and Engineering), https://www.ww.tf.fau.de/ hosted a delegation of students from the School of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina, with sponsorship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) https://www.daad.de/de/. Sixteen students of different engineering disciplines took part in this study trip, coordinated by Prof. Ing. Jorge N. Zanabria. The main theme of this study trip was "Biofabrication and 3D Printing in Medicine". The students attended presentations of members of the FAU Institute of Biomaterials and also carried out experiments in our cell culture and biofabrication laboratories. The program included also presentations of Ms Marina Rupprecht of the Bavarian University Centre for Latin America https://www.baylat.org/index.php?id=2 and by Ms Claudia Barnickel from the FAU course Medical Engineering https://www.medical-engineering.study.fau.eu/. The students benefited from academic presentations by Dr. R. Detsch, Mr Supachai Reakasame (PhD student), Dr. Aldo-Leal-Egana and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini and discussions and laboratory demonstration by PhD students Susanne Heid, Jonas Hazur, Emine Karakaya, and Vera Bednarzig. Further stations of the study trip includes visits to the University of Bayreuth and the University of Würzburg. The visit was also linked to our biofabricaton projects in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models".

• Visit of Prof. Barbara Nebe, University of Rostock

  
  Prof. Barbara Nebe, Head of Cell Biology Division, Medical Centre of the University of Rostock, visited the Institute of Biomaterials on 21st January 2019. We are currently collaborating with Prof. Nebe's research group in the field of cell-material interactions in the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre-SFB 1270 "Electrically Active Implants" (ELAINE), of which our Institute is a partner. Prof. Nebe delivered also a presentation in the framework of the seminar series of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB/TRR 225 "From the fundamentals of biofabrication towards functional tissue models" entitled: "Cell attractive design of material surfaces – effects of topography and chemistry".

• Our review paper on electrophoretic deposition of chitosan composite coatings published in Progress in Materials Science.

  
  Our review paper "Electrophoretic deposition of chitosan-based composite coatings for biomedical applications: A review" [1], co-authored by: Egemen Avcu, Fatih E. Baştan, Hasan Z. Abdullah, Muhammad A. Ur Rehman, Yasemin Yıldıran Avcu and Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in the high IF journal: Progress in Materials Science. The review covers comprehensively the growing research field of chitosan-based composite coatings developed by electrophoretic deposition (EPD), with emphasis in EPD parameters, chitosan based suspensions for EPD, properties and applications of the produced coatings. The review was written in collaboration with our academic visitors from Turkey (Prof. Egemen Avcu, Dr. Fatih E. Baştan and Dr. Yasemin Yıldıran Avcu) and Malaysia (Prof. Hasan Z. Abdullah) and former PhD student of our Institute Dr. Muhammad Atiq Ur Rehman. [1] Egemen Avcu, et al., Electrophoretic deposition of chitosan-based composite coatings for biomedical applications: A review, Prog. Mater. Sci. (2019) in press. 

• Meeting of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) Council in Ghent

  
  The first meeting in 2019 of the Council of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) was held on 14th-15th January 2019 in Ghent, Belgium, hosted by Prof. Peter Dubruel (Univ. of Ghent). In the photo the ESB Council Members: Prof. Marc Bohner (RMS Foundation, Switzerland), Prof. Silvia Fare (Polytechnic of Milan, Italy), Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany), Prof. Ana Paula Pêgo (INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Portugal), Prof. Pamela Habibovic (ESB president, Maastricht University, Netherlands), Prof. Carlos Rodríguez-Cabello (University of Valladolid, Spain), Prof. Abhay Pandit, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland), and Prof. Joelle Amedee-Vilamitjana (University of Bordeaux, France). The next ESB 2019 conference https://www.esb2019.org/ will take place in Dresden, Germany, chaired by Prof. M. Gelinsky. The online abstract submission is open until Friday, March 15, 2019.

• Visit from India

  
  On 8-10 January 2019 we received the visit of Dr. D. Durgalakshmi, DST-INSPIRE Faculty, Department of Medical Physics (HoD: Dr. P. Aruna),Anna University, Chennai, India. Dr. Durgalakshmi visited our laboratories, discussed current research in progress in our Institute and presented the seminar: "Nanostructured Bioglass 45S5 for Orthopedic and Dentin regeneration". We plan collaboration with Dr. Durgalakshmi in the field of nanostructured bioactive glasses for tissue engineering applications.

• Visit from Argentina

  
  On 10th January we received the visit of Lic. Rodrigo Herran, CONICET researcher at Polymeric (Nano)materials group, INIFTA (Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas) and PhD student at National University of La Plata, Argentina (supervisor Dr. Javier I. Amalvy). We are collaborating with Lic. Herran in the field of polymer-bioactive glass porous structures for biomedical applications.

• Special Issue: "Vitrification and Geopolymerization of Industrial Wastes", published in Materials Letters

  
  The Special Issue: "Vitrification and Geopolymerization of Industrial Wastes", which was guest edited by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini in collaboration with Prof. Jesus M. Rincon (Dept. of Geology, CSIC-MNCN, Madrid, Spain) and Prof. Manuel Jordan (Dept. of Environmental and Agrochemistry Sciences, UMH, Elche, Alicante, Spain), _has been published in Materials Letters. This special collection contains 35 refereed papers from the international community and is the response to a broad Open Call for papers published in 2017, which attracted contributions from more than 15 countries. The scope has been to include papers related to two key technologies for the development and characterisation of new materials from industrial waste, on one hand glasses/glass-ceramics (vitrification) and on the other hand geopolymers (alkali activation) from wastes, in both cases developing the fundamental science and technologies to achieve the inertization or safe encapsulation of wastes in inorganic matrices. A paper from our group, resulting from the PhD thesis of Dr Nicoletta Toniolo was published (Open Access more) in this special issue [1]. [1] Toniolo, N., et al., Novel geopolymers incorporating red mud and waste glass cullet, Mater. Letters 219 (2018) 152-154. 

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