Doctoral thesis success: Seray Schmitz
Ms Seray Schmitz (née Kaya), who carried out her doctoral thesis at our Institute, under academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, and in collaboration with industrial partner Lucideon Ltd UK, successfully defended her thesis on 25th August 2021.Her thesis entitled: “Ion doped mesoporous silica-based bioactive glasses for antibiotic-free antibacterial applications” 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. Mark Cresswell and Dr. Phil Jackson (Lucideon Ltd, UK). Prof. Dusan Galusek (Alexander Dubček University of Trenčín, Slovakia), Prof. Martin Hartmann (CBI Department, FAU, Germany), Prof. Dominique De Ligny (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 Seray, in particular considering the specific challenge of the HyMedPoly Engineering Doctorate program, involving spending half of the time (18 month) in the industrial partner (Lucideon Ltd). In this context, Prof. Boccaccini remarked the excellent collaboration with the industrial partner, Lucideon Ltd. (Stoke-on-Trent,UK) and with other patners in the HyMedPoly consortium in the framework of Seray’s doctoral project.
The work of Seray led to a new family of ion (Ag, Zn, Cu, Ce) doped ordered and non-ordered sol-gel derived bioactive glasses (BGs) exhibiting antibacterial capability and suitable to develop biopolymer-bioactive glass composites for wound healing applications. Some papers have been already published from Seray’ research project [1, 2].We congratulate Seray for her doctorate degree and wish her all the best in her future career.
[1] S. Kaya, M. Cresswell, A. R. Boccaccini, “Mesoporous silica-based bioactive glasses for antibiotic-free antibacterial applications”, Materials Science and Engineering: C, 83, 99-107, (2018).
[2] S. Schmitz, A. M. Beltrán, M. Cresswell, A. R. Boccaccini, “A Structural Comparison of Ordered and Non-Ordered Ion Doped Silicate Bioactive Glasses”, Materials, 13, 4, 992, (2020).
