Institute of Biomaterials University of Erlangen - Nuremberg

Bavarian High-Tech Award (graduate category) to Dr. Zoya Hadzhieva

We are happy to report that Dr. Zoya Hadzhieva has been awarded the Bavarian High-Tech Award 2026 (►https://www.hightechpreise-bayern.de/en/ ) in the graduate category for her doctoral thesis. Zoya carried out her doctoral thesis project under supervision of Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini at the FAU Institute of Biomaterials in the frame of a DFG-funded project focusing on the development and characterisation of innovative multifunctional coatings exhibiting bioactivity and antibacterial effects, for applications in medical implants. Specifically, Zoya designed a coating method based on the electrophoretic deposition technique that enables the deposition of multimaterial coatings based on biopolymers, phytotherapeutics and bioactive glass nanoparticles at room temperature and with high precision. Such coatings are targeted to reduce the risk of bacterial infections and insufficient bonding between natural bone tissue and the implant. The Bavarian State Government, together with the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW), recognizes outstanding research and groundbreaking innovations with this Award. In particular, the graduate category of the Bavarian High-Tech Award recognizes excellent university degrees and doctoral theses in engineering at Bavarian universities and institutes of higher education. Congratulations Zoya!

More information and press releases:

https://www.fau.eu/2026/07/news/research/material-science/award-for-research-that-makes-implants-safer/

https://www.bio-m.org/mediathek/nachrichten/nachricht/dr-zoya-hadzhieva-erhaelt-den-absolventenauszeichnung-des-hightech-preises-bayern-fuer-sicherere-implantate

https://www.stmwk.bayern.de/pressemitteilung/13034/hightech-preise-bayern-fuenf-ingenieurinnen-und-ingenieure-erhalten-absolventen-preis-drei-wissenschaftler-auf-der-shortlist-fuer-den-nachwuchspreis.html

Summer Term 2026 concludes with the traditional Institute BBQ

We celebrated the end of the Summer Term 2026 with the traditional Summer BBQ of the FAU Institute of Biomaterials, held on 22nd July 2026 in our premises in western Erlangen. The event was well attended by most members of the Institute, including PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, permanent staff, as well as academic visitors and students. In his welcome speech, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini emphasized the highly international character of the Institute, we counted 19 nationalities present at the Summer BBQ. Prof. Boccaccini particularly highlighted the large number of Bachelor’s and Master’s students, along with many ERASMUS visiting students and visiting researchers, who join the Institute every year on a continuous basis. We thank everyone who joined the celebration and wish all a wonderful summer break!

Andrada-Ioana Damian-Buda wins the 1st Prize at the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) Master Thesis Award Final

Andrada-Ioana Damian-Buda, PhD student at our Institute, won the 1st Prize at the Federation of European Materials Societies (FEMS) (► https://fems.org/ ) Master Thesis Award Final, held last week as part of the FEMS Junior Euromat 2026 Conference in Trikala, Greece. Representing the German Society for Materials Science (DGM), (LINK: https://dgm.de/de/home) Andrada delivered an outstanding presentation entitled "Development and characterization of organic-inorganic hierarchical scaffolds integrating 3D printing and melt electrowriting for advanced wound healing applications", showcasing the results of her Master's thesis, which was carried out at our Institute under supervision of Dr. Irem Unalan and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. Congratulations, Andrada!

Prof. Eliandra de Sousa Trichês from Federal University of São Paulo visits the Institute of Biomaterials

Prof. Eliandra de Sousa Trichês, leader of the Bioceramics Laboratory, (LINK: https://bioceram.wixsite.com/bioceram) at Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), (►https://portal.unifesp.br/ ) Brazil, visited the Institute of Biomaterials on 11-17 July 2026. We had the opportunity to discuss the progress of our joint projects in the field of composite scaffolds for bone regeneration, being carried out in the frame of our current CAPES/DAAD - PROBRAL funded research project. Prof. Sousa Trichês visited our laboratories and she also presented an insightful talk focusing on the scaffold-related research activities in her research group at UNIFESP. We look forward to continuing and expanding our collaborations with Prof. Sousa Trichês in the frame of German–Brazilian joint projects.

DAAD–TÜBİTAK Joint Project Meeting at the Institute of Biomaterials

Last week, we hosted the visit of Associate Prof. Dr. Yasin Akgül and Associate Prof. Dr. Hamza Şimşir from Karabük University, (LINK: https://www.karabuk.edu.tr/en ) as well as Associate Prof. Dr. Cemhan Doğan and Associate Prof. Dr. Nurcan Doğan from Yozgat Bozok University, Turkey. Their visit was in the frame of our current DAAD (► https://www.daad.de/de/) – TÜBİTAK (►https://tubitak.gov.tr/en ) collaborative project. The visit was hosted by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini with participation of Dr. Irem Unalan and Ms Andrada Damian-Buda (PhD student), investigators in the project. The collaboration focuses on the project: "A Novel Sustainable Food Packaging Solution: Nanofibrous Mats with Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Nanoparticles", which aims to develop innovative and sustainable active food packaging materials by combining biodegradable nanofibrous mats with mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGNs). During the visit, the team successfully synthesized MBGNs and carried out electrospinning experiments, marking an experimental milestone of the project. The visit also provided an excellent opportunity for scientific exchange, knowledge transfer, and strengthening the collaboration between the German and Turkish research teams. We thank DAAD and TÜBİTAK for supporting this international partnership and look forward to the exciting research outcomes that will emerge from this collaboration.

Doctoral thesis success: Amanda Almeida Coco

Congratulations to Amanda Almeida Coco on successfully defending her doctoral thesis titled "Bioactive Composite Dressings Based on Melt Electrowritten PCL Coated with Chitosan/PVA/Bioactive Glass Containing Cobalt and Curcumin for Enhanced Skin Regeneration" on 10th July, 2026. Amanda carried out her doctoral research at the Postgraduate Program in Engineering Metallurgical, Materials, and Mining, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), (►https://www.ufmg.br/international/about-the-ufmg/ ) Brazil, and at our Institute of Biomaterials under the co-tutelle agreement between the two universities, with Prof. Eduardo Henrique Martins Nunes as the supervisor at UFMG. Some publications have resulted from her doctoral thesis, including a recent paper in Biomater. Advances [1]. Prof. Boccaccini said: "It was a pleasure to co-supervise Amanda's project and to witness her dedication, commitment, and perseverance throughout her doctoral journey". We wish Amanda every success in her future career!

[1] A. M. A. Coco, et al., Biological investigation of cobalt-containing and curcumin-loaded bioactive glass nanospheres for chronic wound healing applications, Biomater. Adv. 188 (2026) 215031. (►https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772950826003298 )

Assist. Prof. Dr. Mani Diba (Radboud University Medical Center, the Netherlands) delivers invited presentation at the Materials Science Colloquium

On 7th July 2026, former FAU graduate, Dr. Mani Diba, (►https://www.dibalab.org/mani-diba ) Assistant Professor at Radboud University Medical Center, (►https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/about-radboudumc ) Nijmegen, The Netherlands, visited the Institute of Biomaterials and delivered, as invited speaker, the Materials Science Colloquium (Summer 2026) of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (►https://www.ww.tf.fau.de/). His lecture, titled "Biomaterial Design Across Scales: From Molecular Interactions to Bioengineered Platforms”, was also part of the Seminar Series 2026 of the Collaborative Research Center CRC/TRR225. (►https://trr225biofab.de/de/ ) The lecture was well attended and led to a stimulating discussion, with many questions and interesting exchanges.

Prof. Boccaccini: invited speaker at the first Mini-symposium of the Erlangen Initiative 3R – Replace, Reduce, Refine – ERI3R

On 6th July, Prof. Boccaccini was an invited speaker at the first Mini-symposium of the Erlangen Initiative 3R – Replace, Reduce, Refine – ERI3R (► https://www.fpz.med.fau.de/franz-penzoldt-zentrum/eri3r ), organized by Dr. Elisabeth Zinser and Prof. Benjamin Frey, on behalf of the FAU working group ERI3R. Prof. Boccaccini presented the talk "Bioprinting models" introducing the potential of the biomaterials, tissue engineering and biofabrication fields to advance the principles of the Replace, Reduce, Refine (3Rs) approach. The working group ERI3R plans and coordinates the scientific and organizational development of the 3R principles and actively promotes networking within the biomedical research community at FAU and University Hospital Erlangen. It was an insightful and fruitful first symposium for this important initiative at FAU, attended by several members of our Institute, and of the TRR225 Collaborative Research Center (all pictured).

Visit from National University of San Martin (UNSAM), Argentina

We are currently hosting Ms Evelina Pacheco, PhD student from Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM), (►https://www.unsam.edu.ar/ ) Argentina. Evelina is visiting within the framework of our Argentine-German collaborative research project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (► https://www.dfg.de/ ) and CONICET (► https://www.conicet.gov.ar/?lan=en ) focused on a new family of biodegradable bone scaffolds based on 3D printed organic–inorganic composites. The principal investigators from the Argentinean side are Dr. Beatriz Aráoz and Prof. Élida Beatriz Hermida from the Lab3Bio (ITECA/UNSAM-CONICET), (LINK: https://iteca.conicet.gov.ar/laboratorio-de-biomateriales-biomecanica-y-bioinstrumenta%E2%80%90-cion-lab3bio/) at UNSAM. Prof. Boccaccini is the FAU principal investigator and Ms Marcela Arango Ospina is the doctoral student at FAU on this project.

Our Institute hosted a delegation of high-school students from Riga, Latvia

We were happy to host high-school students from Latvia on 30th June – 2nd July in the framework of our collaboration with the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence (BBCE). (► https://bbcentre.eu/ ) They were the winners of the BIO-GO-Higher competition which was organized for 10th and 11th grade high school students from Latvia with the intention to promote the interest of young students in science and engineering. The group traveled under the supervision of Karina Egle and Lāsma Mālniece, researchers at Riga Technical University. The pupils were welcomed to the FAU Institute of Biomaterials by Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini. Together with their mentor and visiting researchers of BBCE, the pupils visited our laboratories and performed experiments related to biomaterials. From our team, Dr. Zoya Hadzhieva and Marcela Arango-Ospina were in charge of the organization of the visit, and they were supported by Sofía Del Salto, Jahid Alakbarli, Andrada-Ioana Damian-Buda (PhD students) and Dr. Priscila Toninatto Alves de Toledo for the laboratory activities.