Doctoral thesis success: Kai Zheng
On 22nd March 2017 Kai Zheng successfully defended his doctoral thesis in the field of bioactive glass nanoparticles for biomedical applications, which was carried out under the supervision of Professor Aldo R. Boccaccini at our Institute. In addition to Prof. Boccaccini, Prof. Antonio Salinas, Department of Inorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, Prof. Robin Klupp-Taylor (Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, FAU), and Prof. Stephan Wolf (Institute for Glass and Ceramics, FAU), were the members of the doctoral defense committee. Prof. Boccaccini praised Kai’s pioneering research focusing on the synthesis of bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGNP) with added functionalities by adapting the Stoever sol-gel method, which has led to several new ion doped BGNP of interest for a variety of biomedical applications, from bone tissue engineering to imaging and drug delivery. The attachment of biomolecules on the BGNP surfaces was also explored. Kai was recipient of a scholarship of the China Scholarship Council (CSC) and during the period of his doctoral studies he collaborated with research groups in other FAU Departments, TU Munich and AGH Krakow, Poland. Several publications have resulted from Kai’s results (see for example refs. [1-3]). We congratulate Kai on achieving his doctoral degree with great success and wish him all the best in his post-doctoral career.
[1] Zheng, K., et al., Bio-templated bioactive glass particles with hierarchical macro-nano porous structure and drug delivery capability, Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces 135 (2015) 825-832.
[2] Zheng, K., et al., ZnO quantum dots modified bioactive glass nanoparticles with pH-sensitive release of Zn ions, fluorescence, antibacterial and osteogenic properties, J. Mater. Chem. B, 4 (2016) 7936- 7949.
[3] Zheng, K., et al., Timing of calcium nitrate addition affects morphology, dispersity and composition of bioactive glass nanoparticles, RSC Adv., 6 (2016) 95101-95111.
