Doctoral thesis success: Muhammad Asim Akhtar
We congratulate Muhammad Asim Akhtar for successfully defending his doctoral thesis titled “ADVANCES IN EPD FOR COATINGS AND SELF-STANDING STRUCTURES BASED ON BIOPOLYMERS AND BIOACTIVE GLASSES FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS” on 14th June 2024. Asim carried out his doctoral project in our Institute supervised by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. The doctoral thesis examination board was composed by Prof. Boccaccini, Prof. Annabel Braem (Kath. University of Leuven, Belgium), Prof. Andreas Burkovsky (FAU Department of Biology), and Prof. Dominique de Ligny (Institute of Glass and Ceramics, FAU). After the successful defense of Asim’s doctoral thesis, Prof. Boccaccini highlighted the interesting results and innovative character of his research project, focusing on the development, by electrophoretic deposition (EPD), of ion doped chitosan based coatings and self-standing layers, containig bioactive glass nanoparticles and phytotherapeutic agents in different combinations. This project followed from previous research activities in the area of EPD in our Institute. In his project, Asim established an EPD platform to obtain coatings with potential synergistic effects, namely bioactive (osteconductive) and antibacterial effects, provided by the dual release of biologically active ions and organic biomolecules, demonstrating the versatility of EPD as a coating method for biomaterials. The thesis led to publications in well-known journals in the field (e.g. ref. [1-3]). Many congratulations to Asim for this achievement, we wish him all success in his future career.
[1] M. A. Akhtar, et al., Electrophoretic Deposition of Copper (II)–Chitosan Complexes for Antibacterial Coatings, Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21 (2020), 2637.
[2] M. A. Akhtar, et al., Electrophoretic deposition of ferulic acid loaded bioactive glass/chitosan as antibacterial and bioactive composite coatings, Surface and Coatings Technology 405 (2021) 126657.
[3] M. A. Akhtar et al., Facile Synthesis of Gallium (III)-Chitosan Complexes as Antibacterial Biomaterial, Pharmaceutics 13 (2021), 1702.
