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.
