The Programme Grant goes to Bradford

• Members of the  School of Pharmacy and the EPSRC Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery programme grant travelled to Bradford in January for the RSC Biomaterials Special Interest Meeting. 
• The University of Nottingham's diverse research in this area was showcased through six talks given by Mischa Zelzer, Jennifer Ashworth, Ana Leticia Braz de Sousa, Jing Yang and, from the Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery programme grant, Qin Hu and Paulius Mikulskis.
• In addition, five minute 'flash poster presentations' were given by the Next Generation Biomaterials Discovery programme grant PhD students Dara O'Brien, Valentina Cuzzucoli Crucitti and Alessandra Travanut. Jamie Thompson and Mechelle Bennet also presented posters.
• The two-day conference highlighted the diversity of work going on in the field of biomaterials, with talks from a variety of disciplines seeking to overcome a range of challenges.
• The University of Nottingham also brought back two prizes, with Mechelle Bennet being awarded first place in the poster prize and Dara O'Brien receiving runner up.

• The meeting had many inspiring and interesting talks and one of the most memorable talks was by Andrew Dove; they print 3D biomaterials with a very intricate structure. This required the use of a red dye which was soluble in fat, but most natural red dyes are soluble in water. How did they manage to find such a dye? Whilst eating an Indian dish, they noticed that the oil had a red colour. After some investigation, it was found that two compounds in paprika powder are such red dyes! They tested it in their experiments and it has worked.

   

Alessandra, Valentina and Dara in Bradford for the RSC Biomaterials Special Interest Meeting.