Biomaterials Discovery

Academics/ PostDocs/ PhDs/ Alumni

 Alumni

The EPSRC Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery Programme Grant has been successfully running since November 2015, during which we have had the pleasure of working with top-quality scientists from around the world, with representatives from 5 continents.  We are proud of the diverse range of people we have been able to attract to this exciting field of research with 42% female scientists. One of the great benefits of an EPSRC programme grant has been its ability to fund post-doctoral positions linked across different disciplines.  These early career researchers have been able to use the programme grant as a stepping stone in their careers, allowing some to move into positions within academia and others to get the right job for them in industry.  Roughly half of our alumni have gone to work in Industry or other roles while the other half moved roles within academia.  Three of these took up independent academic fellowships. A more detailed breakdown of this career progression data is given in the pie-charts below.

 Gender_ratio

Career destinations

Time on PG

 

Alumni

PauliusMikulskis-web

Paulius Mikulskis

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Pharmacy working on Determining Biomaterial Design Rules in RC1.

 

We said farewell to Paulius in November 2018. He is now a Postdoc fellow at AstraZeneca, Sweden and working on a 2nd PhD.


Mahetab Amer

Mahetab Amer

Previously a Postdoctoral
Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy, Stem Cell Biology.

 

 

Mahetab left the grant in 2020, and now works as a University Academic Fellow in Predictive Disease Models at the University of Leeds.

 
Simon-Haas-web

Simon Haas

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Engineering, working on making polymer particles from microfluidics in RC1.

 

We said farewell to Simon in November 2017, and he now works as a Senior Research Scientist at  Promethean Particles Ltd.

Karl Kirth
Karl Firth                                         

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, working on cardiomyocyte maturation in RC3.

 

We said farewell to Karl in November 2017 and he has taken up a position with Clyde Biosciences.

 

BenoitCouturaud-web

Benoit Couturaud                       

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy, Molecular Therapeutics and Formulation Division working on polymers for drug delivery in RC2

 

We said farewell to Benoit in August 2016
and he has taken up a Marie Curie Fellowship at The University of Warwick with
Professor Rachel O’Reilly and Kristopher Thurecht (The University of Queensland).

BrittaKoch-web

Britta Koch

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Pharmacy, working on combinatorial screening of biomaterial surface chemistry and topography in RC1.

We said farewell to Britta at the end of January 2018. She is currently working as a Marketing Manager for _fbeta GmbH in Berlin, Germany.
 
BlessingMukonoweshuro
Blessing Mukonoweshuro                    

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in Immunology and Biomaterials, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, working on immunology in RC4.

We said farewell to Blessing in November 2017 and he has taken up a position as an Intellectual Property and Innovation Officer at the Quadram Institute in Norwich. 
MartaPainoAlvarez-web
Marta Alvarez Paino                     

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Pharmacy, working on polymer microparticles for regenerative medicine in RC3. 

We said farewell to Marta in July 2018, and she is working in a pharmaceutical
company in Spain.
 
Nishant Singh

Nishant Singh

Previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy, Molecular Therapeutics and Formulation Division working on polymers for drug delivery in RC2. 

 

We said farewell to Nishant in September 2018 and he has taken up a position at Laboratoire des Systèmes Complexes Hors Équilibre, University of Strasbourg, France.

ManuelRomero
Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow: School of Life Sciences working on microbiology in RC4. .  

 

 

We said farewell to Manuel in September 2018. He has taken up a Research Fellow position at the University of Nottingham. 

 
Thais

Thais Abelha

Previously Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Pharmacy. 

 

 

Thais left the grant in 2020 after working as part of RC2, researching drug treatments for triple negative breast cancer and now has a  CAPES/Print international fellowship at Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Brazil.

AmandaPearce

Amanda Pearce

Previously a PostDoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy, Molecular Therapeutics and Formulation Division 

 

 

Amanda left in March 2019 after working in RC2 and now works at the University of Birmingham as a Senior Research Fellow and PERCAT rep for the School of Chemistry.

 
HassanRotsam-web

Hassan Rotsam

Previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow 

 

 

 

Hassan's work Investigated the impact of some known M1 and M2 biased polymers on in vitro liver fibrosis model. He started a post-doctral fellow role in the School of Life Sciences in 2021.

LaurenceBurroughs

Laurence Burroughs

Previously Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Pharmacy.

 

 

 

Laurence left the project in 2020 after working as part of RC1 on combinatorial screening of biomaterial surface chemistry and topography. 

 

JordanThorpe

Jordan Thorpe

Previously a PhD Student, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences.

 

 

 

Jordan came to the end of his PhD in 2020 and now works in Australia at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute in Sydney.

mattvassey-web

Matthew Vassey

Previously a Postdoctoral Research Fellow: School of Life Sciences.

 

 

 

Matt joined the project in 2017 working on immunology in RC4 and left us in 2021 to work at Aston University as a Technology Transfer Manager.

 

Patricia_Monteiro120x150

Patricia Montiero

Postdoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy

 

 

 

Patricia  joined the grant in 2019 and worked as part of RC2, researching drug treatments for triple negative. She left to work in the same field at Astra Zeneca in 2021.

Scarlett Xue profile photo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy.

 

 

 

 
Joris Meurs

Joris Meurs

PhD student, School of Pharmacy

Main supervisor Hyun Kim

 

Joris joined the project in 2017 working on developing mass spectrometry strategies for examination of cellular responses in media and on complex surfaces, mainly associated with RC1.  He attainded his PhD in 2021 and took up a Post Doctral position at Radboud University, Netherlands.

Alessandra-Travanut-web

Alessandra Travanut

PhD Student, School of Pharmacy

Main supervisor Cameron Alexander

 

Alessandra joined the project in 2016 and worked on Multi-Component Polymerization (MCP) Reactions for Biomedical Materials, mainly associated with RC2. Alessandra gained her PhD in 2020 and started work as R&D associate at Reckitt Benckiser, Italy.

 

Dara O'Brien

Dara O'Brien

PhD Student, School of Chemistry

Main supervisor Steve Howdle

 

 

Dara joined the project in 2016 and worked on new and renewably sourced sustainable functional degradable polymers, mainly associated with RC2. Dara attainded her PhD in 2020 and is currently working as a Business Development and Operations Associate at Exactmer, London.

Rob Cavanagh

Postdoctoral Research Fellow: School of Pharmacy

 

 

 

Robert joined the grant in 2019 and worked as part of RC2, researching drug treatments for triple negative breast cancer. Robert took up a new role at the University of Nottingham in 2021 linked to the EPSRC IRC in Targeted Delivery for Hard-to-Treat Cancers.

 

Valentina Cuzzocoli Crucitti

PhD Student, Faculty of Engineering

Main supervisor Derek Irvine

 

Valentina joined the project in 2016 working on Continuous Sustainable Synthesis of Polymeric Resins for use in the Construction of 3D structures. Initially she was mainly associated with RC2 but increasingly linked to RC3. Valentina passed her PhD in 2021 and took up a post doctoral position in the Faculty of Engineering, here at the University of Nottingham.

Francesco Pappalardo

Francesco Pappalardo

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Pharmacy

 

 

 

Francesco joined the project in 2016 as a PhD student and as a Post Doc after completing his PhD, continuing to work on novel polymer microparticles and their influence on mesenchymal stem cell behaviour, associated with RC3.  Francesco returned to Italy in 2021.

 
 
 

Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery

Advanced Materials and Healthcare Technologies, School of Pharmacy, The University of Nottingham
University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD


telephone: +44 (0) 115 846 6246
email: BiomaterialsDiscovery@nottingham.ac.uk