Muhammad Maqbool with Prof Boccaccini
Muhammad Maqbool is the third HyMedPoly Early Stage Reseracher to successfully defend his doctoral thesis. He carried out his Dr.-Ing. research under the academic supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini at the Institute of Biomaterials, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg ( Link: https://biomat.techfak.uni-erlangen.org/ ) in collaboration with industrial partner Lucideon Ltd, (LINK: https://www.lucideon.com/ ) (Stoke-on-Trent, UK). His project involved the synthesis, characterisation and applications of a novel group of ion substituted hydroxyapatites exhibiting antibiotic-free antibacterial properties. Maqbool’s research was completed with the support of the Horizon 2020 EU MSCA-ITN-2014-EID – Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network “Drug-Free Antibacterial Hybrid Biopolymers for Medical Applications – HyMedPoly”, (LINK: https://hymedpoly.eu/ ) in collaboration with Dr. Phil Jackson (Lucideon Ltd, UK) and Dr. Mark Cresswell (Lucideon Ltd, UK).
Prof. Uwe Gbureck (University of Würzburg), Prof. Wolfgang Goldmann (Biophysics Group, FAU), Prof. Dominique De Ligny (Chair for Glass and Ceramics, FAU) and Prof. Boccaccini were the members of the examination board. Prof. Boccaccini commented on the outstanding research work carried out by Maqbool, highlighting the fact that within the HyMedPoly Engineering Doctorate programme, PhD students spend half of the time (18 months) in the industrial partner (Lucideon Ltd). He also remarked the very positive collaboration with Lucideon Ltd. The work of Maqbool led to the development and characterization of a new familiy of ion substituted hydroxyapatite powders with antibacterial capability which can be applied for example as coatings on orthopaedic and dental implants. Secientifice papers from Maqbool’s thesis are being finalised for publication. We congratulate Maqbool for achieving his Dr.-Ing. degree and wish him all the best in his future career.