Doctoral thesis success: Elena Boccardi
On 19th December 2016 Elena Boccardi successfully defended her doctoral thesis in the field of bioactive glass scaffolds for bone tissue engineering, which was carried out under the supervision of Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini at our Institute. In addition to Prof. Boccaccini, Prof. Enrica Verne (Department of Applied Science and Technology, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy), Prof. Wilhelm Schwieger (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, FAU), and Prof. Dirk Schubert (Chair for Polymer Materials, FAU), were the members of the doctoral defense committee.
Elena pioneered the development of bioactive glass (BG) scaffolds using marine sponges as templates, these novel scaffolds exhibit high pore interconnectivity and improved mechanical properties in comparison to conventional (PU sponge derived) scaffolds, as highlighted by Prof. Boccaccini. The incorporation of mesoporous BG particles as drug delivery carriers was also explored. During her research activities in our Institute, Elena was involved in three European research projects, namely GLACERCO, ReBioStent and MOZART. Several publications have resulted from Elena’s thesis (see for example refs. [1-3]). We congratulate Elena on achieving her doctoral degree and wish her all the best in her future career.
[1] Boccardi, E., Philippart, A., Bortuzzo, J., Beltran, A., Novarja, G., Vitale Brovarone, C., Spiecker, E., Boccaccini, A. R., Uniform surface modification of 3D Bioglass®-based scaffolds with mesoporous silica particles (MCM-41) for enhancing drug delivery capability, Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol. 3 (2015):177.
[2] Boccardi, E., Belova, I. V., Murch, G. E., Boccaccini, A. R., Fiedler, T., Oxygen diffusion in marine-derived tissue engineering scaffolds, J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med. 26 (2015) 200.
[3] Boccardi, E., Philippart, A., Melli, V., Altomare, L., De Nardo, L., Novajra, G., Vitale-Brovarone, C., Fey, T., Boccaccini, A. R., Bioactivity and mechanical stability of 45S5 bioactive glass scaffolds based on natural marine sponges, Ann. Biomed. Eng. 44 (2016) 1881–1893.
