Work is in progress in the following areas:

• The valorization of by-products such as polymers, bioactive molecules, and structures to obtain raw materials, improving the functional properties of biopolymers (e.g. alginate, hyaluronic acid, and collagen) through modification and consequently developing high-value processes and products for biomedical and tissue engineering applications.
• The relationships between structure and material properties of polysaccharides with a focus on the development of natural polymers e.g. polysaccharides into hierarchical structures such as scaffolds and hydrogels for tissue engineering applications, such as skin wound healing.
• The additive manufacturing of biomaterials with a focus on improving the functional properties of biopolymers such as keratin and developing new bioinks for bioprinting from biotransformation of biomass with tailored degradation kinetic properties.

The potential research themes of our lab are:

Biomaterials for tissue engineering applications:

• Wound healing and tissue adhesives.
• Bioinspired biomaterials based on algae and bacteria
• Metal-phenolic networks (MPNs) including Nanozyme  
• Enzymatic crosslinking of phenolic compounds for soft tissue engineering 
• Engineered living materials  

Biomaterial synthesis and characterisation:

• Polymeric/Biopolymeric biomaterials.
• Composites and nanocomposites.
• Fiber-based biomaterials including electrospinning.

Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing:

• Biomaterials for extrusion printing.
• Melt Electro Writing (MEW).

Videos