INEB student, Raquel Maia, just finished her PhD

Raquel Maia, a student at INEB, just finished her PhD in Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine from the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto on 21^st March 2014.

The PhD thesis title was “NANOSTRUCTURED 3D MATRICES TO DIRECT MESENCHYMAL STEM CELLS BEHAVIOUR” and the the main aim of this thesis was to better understand how mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) behave in three-dimensional (3D) hydrogel-based microenvironments, and translate that knowledge into the design of improved injectable carriers able to direct MSC differentiation down the osteoblastic lineage for bone regeneration applications.

Raquel’s work was supervisored by Cristina Barrias and Pedro Granja, both INEB researchers.

This PhD thesis resulted in the following publications:

Maia FR, Bidarra SJ, Granja PL, Barrias CC. Functionalization of biomaterials with small ostoinductive moieties (Review). Acta Biomaterialia 2013;9:8773–8789 (DOI: 10.1016/ j.actbio.2013.08.004).

Maia FR, Lourenço AH, Gonçalves RM, Granja PL, Barrias CC. Effect of cell density on mesenchymal stem cells aggregation in RGD-alginate 3D matrices under osteoinductive conditions. Macromolecular Bioscience 2014 (In Press. DOI: 10.1002/mabi.201300567).

Maia FR, Fonseca KB, Rodrigues G, Granja PL, Barrias CC. Matrix-driven formation of MSC-ECM microtissues on soft alginate hydrogels. Acta Biomaterialia 2014 (In Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2014.02.049).

Maia FR, Barbosa M, Gomes DB, Vale N, Gomes P, Granja PL, Barrias CC. Hydrogel depots for local co-delivery of osteoinductive peptides and mesenchymal stem cells. Journal of Controlled Release 2014 (under review).