Current members

Armin Shavandi

Group leader

Amin Shavandi studied chemical engineering at the University of Putra Malaysia. He accomplished his Ph.D. at the University of Otago, New Zealand in 2017 for research on the bone scaffolds generated from waste marine shells. He then joined the Centre for Material Science and Technology at the University of Otago as a postdoctoral fellow in collaboration with Lincoln University (NZ) and Deakin University Australia. In 2018, Amin moved to the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) as an Assistant professor, where he is heading the BioMatter unit dedicated to research on biomaterials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicines with a focus on the valorization of biomass materials toward biomedical applications.

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Fouad Damiri

ARES postdoctoral fellow

Dr. Fouad Damiri completed his Ph.D. in Organic and Polymer Chemistry at Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco, in 2021, following his earlier achievement of a Master’s Degree in Chemistry and Valorization from the same institution in 2016. His research is dedicated to the development of sophisticated nano biomaterials originating from polysaccharides, specifically tailored for advanced drug delivery systems. In 2024, he embarked on a new chapter in Brussels, joining the BioMatter Lab at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) as a Postdoctoral Fellow.

Lei Nie

Visiting Professor

Lei Nie completed his Ph.D. (2013) from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and after that received three years of postdoctoral training at Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (CAS, China) and Free University of Berlin (Germany). He began his research as an independent PI at Xinyang Normal University (China) in 2017. He started 3D bioprinting work at KU Leuven (Belgium) in 2019. His main research interests include biopolymers, drug delivery, nanoparticles, and tissue engineering and he is currently a visiting professor at BioMatter lab.

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Oseweuba Okoro

Research Associate

Oseweuba completed his Ph.D. at the University of Otago, New Zealand, in 2019, where his research focused on the design of systems that can facilitate the production of biomaterials, biochemicals, and bioenergy from renewable carbon resources. He is a Senior Researcher at the BioMatter research unit, at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Previously, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Process/Chemical Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa where he explored the modeling of biorefinery systems. He has also previously worked as a Research Fellow in the Energy Technology Unit at, the University of Otago, New Zealand. His main research interests include circular economy, biomaterial development, process design, chemical Engineering, and biorefinery design.

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Maryam Hajiabbas

Postdoctoral fellow

Maryam Hajiabbas studied all her education at sharif university of technology, Iran. She studied chemical engineering, and she accomplished her Ph.D. degree in biotechnology in 2020. Her research field mainly focuses on tissue engineering and drug delivery, and she did her master’s and Ph.D. projects in these fields. During her education, she had a collaboration with urology and heart research centers to preparing tissue scaffolds. She also worked as a business R&D in an accelerator for biotechnology projects. She has joined as a postdoctoral fellow to the Laboratory of Pathophysiological and Nutritional Biochemistry (team of Prof Delporte), Faculty of Medicine where she will be working on 3D bioprinting of salivary gland tissue in collaboration with the BioMatter Lab in 2021.

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Hafez Jafari

Postdoctoral fellow

Hafez received his bachelor’s in Polymer Engineering from Tehran University, Iran, and moved on to pursue a master’s in Bioengineering (Tissue Engineering) from Tehran University. During his master’s, he worked in the fields of bone tissue engineering. Hafez did his Ph.D. at BioMatter from 2019- 2023 on developing 3-dimensional anti-infectious hydrogels with adhesive properties for skin wound healing application. He was granted a BOF postdoctoral fellowship in 2023 to join Polymer Chemistry and Biomaterials Research Group at Ghent University. He continues his collaboration with BioMatter as part of the BOF project.

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Julia Simińska-Stanny

PhD Student

Julia studied at Wrocław University of Science and Technology, Poland, for her Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science degrees. She is interested in research that integrates aspects of medical and technical sciences, as she studied Biomedical Engineering, and obtained two master’s degrees in Management and Manufacturing Engineering and Chemistry and Materials Engineering with specialization in Advanced Functional Materials. Now, she moved to Brussels for PhD studies. Her work will be related to developing a 3D bioprinted angiogenesis model for salivary glands, beginning with materials synthesis, bioprinting and ending with functional evaluation. This project will be a part of the ongoing collaboration between the Faculty of Medicine (ULB, Erasme), BioMatter (ULB, Solbosch) and Dr Daria Podstawczyk from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Poland.

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Aysen Nazerian

PhD Student

She obtained her bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science degrees in chemical engineering in Iran. Then, she accomplished her joint master’s degree in chemical and materials engineering with a specialization in Materials science from VUB/ULB universities (BRUFACE program) in Belgium. She continued her studies as a Ph.D. student in the field of polymer science (biopolymers) Since biomaterials science is her interest. Her research field study is associated with biomaterial ink development using biobased polymer networks. This project will perform in collaboration between VUB-FYSC and ULB-BIOMATTER universities.

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Parinaz Hobbi

PhD Student

Parinaz joined the lab in 2020 to conduct her Ph.D. in Bioengineering (BioMatter Unit). She previously received her MSc in Food Biotechnology at the University of Tehran, Iran. During her masters, she worked in the field of production and characterization of lipase enzymes which were applicable for human consumption. Her Ph.D. research will be on developing and characterizing a 3D microenvironment containing probiotic bacteria and skin cells for potential healing of skin tissue and regeneration.

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Pejman Ghaffari

PhD student

I received my bachelor’s from Lorestan University and master’s from Tehran University in Polymer Engineering. My master thesis was about preparing polymeric scaffolds in bone tissue engineering applications. During my master, Meanwhile, I worked in the field of antibacterial wound dressing based on biocompatible and biodegradable polymers. My Ph.D. project will be on smart oxygen wound dressing that can optimize oxygen release profile in the local of the wound and facilitate the wound healing process.

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Man Li

PhD Student

Man Li received her bachelor’s in Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy and master’s in Traditional Chinese Medicine at Henan University of Chinese Medicine (China). Her master’s thesis was nanoparticle preparation and its application to treat rheumatoid arthritis. Her Ph.D. project will be on developing an intelligent responsive composite hydrogel containing nanozyme for the potential healing of wounds.

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Qianqian Wei

PhD Student

Qianqian studied for her bachelor’s and master’s at the College of Life Science of Xinyang Normal University, China. During her master’s, she was interested in multifunctional hydrogel biomaterials as dressings for wound healing. Then, she joined the BioMatter (ULB, Solbosch) lab to pursue her PhD study in the field of wound monitoring which benefits from providing correct diagnosis and treatment decisions for wound repair via timely and accurate assessment of wounds during the wound healing process, especially chronic wounds.

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Baptiste Marquet

Master student

Baptiste is a EEIGM (European School of Materials Engineering) student in Nancy, France. After a 5-month Erasmus in Barcelona, Spain in early 2024, another time he was lucky to travel abroad, joining the BioMatter unit at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) during 4 months and a half to complete a Master’s thesis, as part of his final year of his Master’s degree. The Master’s thesis focuses on the optimization of Biocrude Production via Hydrothermal Liquefaction from a quaternary mixture of local food waste

Agathe Thiry

Master student

Agathe is a student specializing in material engineering at EEIGM (European School of Materials Engineering) in Nancy, France. She had the opportunity to join the BioMatter lab at the ULB to complete her master’s thesis. Her master’s thesis is focused on volumetric printing.

IIargi lorenzo

Ilargi had the opportunity to complete the Bachelor thesis in the company Ceit’s Tissue engineering group, focusing on optimizing hydrogel mechanical evaluation methods for in vitro skeletal muscle models.

She then started her master’s in Biomedical engineering at the University of Barcelona and is currently doing her master’s thesis in the BioMatter group of the ULB.

 

Research Collaborators

Jérôme Duisit

Jérôme Duisit is a medical doctor (MD, UCLouvain 2010) and board-certified Plastic and Reconstructive surgeon. During his PhD (UClouvain, 2018), and after a fellowship at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (USA), he pioneered the field of “Vascularized Composite tissue Engineering” (VCE), a regenerative medicine approach to face and hand transplantation. For this, he was honored by the Transplantation Society, the French National Academy of Surgery, and the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine (Lucien Deloyers prize). He is an active member of the Cell Transplant and Regenerative Medicine Society (CTRMS) and the International Society for Composite Allotransplantation (ISVCA); a guest Editor for Tissue Engineering journal, and a Review Editor for Frontiers in in Bioengineering and Biotechnology journal. Jérôme contributes to BioMatter with his expertise as a clinician and scientist.

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Houman Alimoradi

Houman Alimoradi is an experienced researcher in pharmacology and toxicology and his research mainly focuses on the controlled modulation of nitric oxide (NO; an important signalling molecule in biology) level in pathophysiological conditions using advanced biomaterials. He Studied medical toxicology at the Tehran University of Medical Sciences and completed a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology (specializing in medicinal chemistry) at the University of Otago, New Zealand. Houman has extensive previous successful international mobility, interdisciplinary, intersectoral experience and working both in the industry and academia, including working as a lecturer, postdoctoral fellow and R&D Manager at pharmaceutical companies. He is working on the development of O2/NO-releasing biomaterials for wound dressing applications.

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Mahta Mirzaei

Mahta accomplished her Ph.D. at the Science and Research Branch of  Azad University in 2016 for research on bioactive peptides generated from yeast protein hydrolysate. She joined the Biomatter Unit as a Marie-Curie fellow in 2020, where she worked on the functionalization of biomaterial with bioactive peptides for wound healing applications. She has recently set up her own lab and is an assistant professor at the Ghent global campus in Incheon, South Korea.

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Previous members

Postdoctoral fellows

  1. Ahmad Allahbakhsh (Postdoctoral Fellowships, civis3i), 2022-2023.
  2. Aziz Ihmami (ARES Postdoc), 2023
  3. Alex Alavarse (visiting postdoc from USP, Brazil), 2022-2023
  4. Masoud Hamidi (Postdoctoral Fellowships – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, IF@ULB), 2020-2022
  5. Soufiane Akhramez (ARES Postdoc), 2022
  6. Mahta Mirzaei (Postdoctoral Fellowships – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, IF@ULB), 2020-2022
  7. Erika Zago (Postdoctoral Fellowships – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, IF@ULB), 2020-2022

PhD

  1. Hafez Jafari (2019-2023)- Innoviris funded project

Masters level students and internships

  1. Nadia Costa (MSc, Polytech Milan, Italy ), 2023
  2. Lucia Romani (MSc, Polytech Milan, Italy), 2023
  3. Quentin Spay (MSc, Chem & Mat Eng, ULB), 2023
  4. Clara Martini (MSc), 2023
  5. Lise Nicolas (MSc), 2022-2023
  6. Victor Preat (MSc, Bioeng, ULB), 2022
  7. Nelson De Laet – Technician- 2020-2021
  8. Daniel Sedilesu (Internship, Italy), 2022
  9. Nael El Hosseini (MSc, Bioeng, ULB), 2021
  10. Sadki Rihab (Internship-MSc), 2021
  11. Angélina Pezenas (Internship-MSc), 2021
  12. Ana Torrecillas (MSc), 2021
  13. Cécile Tillier (Internship-MSc), 2021
  14. Valentine Escoda (MSc), 2020
  15. Feza Hachemi (Internship-MSc), 2022
  16. Carla Ruiz (Internship), 2022
  17. Cecile Brigode (MSc), 2021
  18. Violette Tondeur (MSc, Chem&Mat eng, ULB), 2024
  19. Nathan Delafosse (Internship), 2024
  20. Liya Rosenstein (MSc, Biomedical eng, ULB), 2024
  21. Manel Tebache (Internship, France), 2024
  22. Felix Andres Santos Batilla (MSc, Chem&Mat eng), 2024
  23. Lea Azi (MSc, Chem&Mat eng), 2024
  24. Hippolyte De Caevel (MSc, Chem&Mat eng), 2024
  25. Elza Khaled (MSc, Bioengineering), 2024