Maria Chatzinikolaidou is an Associate Professor of Biomaterials in Bioengineering and Head of the Laboratory for Biomaterials in Tissue Engineering at the Department of Materials Science and Technology at the University of Crete, and affiliated faculty member at Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas (FORTH). Her research interests focus on the development of biomaterials and scaffolds for tissue engineering applications including bone, cartilage, dental, cardiovascular, skin, and the validation of their in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility, functionality and biomechanical characteristics.She received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Essen, Germany and her doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the same university in 2004. Her PhD work focused on the immobilization and release kinetics of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2) from metal implant surfaces, under the supervision of Prof. H.P. Jennissen. From 2004 to 2006 she was a post-doctoral associate at the University Medical School of Essen working on the development of novel bioactive dental and bone implants in a collaborative program with the spin-off company Morphoplant GmbH. From 2006 to 2008 she was a post-doctoral fellow supported by the EU ENTER program at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, FORTH, performing research on biosensing protein and cell interactions with titanium surfaces by means of the quartz crystal microbalance technique. From 2007 to 2010 she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Technology of the University of Crete teaching courses on “Biological Materials and Composite Biomaterials” and “Tissue Engineering”. She was elected member of the Executive Board of the Hellenic Society for Biomaterials and served as vice president in the 2015-2018 term. She served as Chair of the 28th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) held in Athens (2017), and Program Chair of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) EU Conference held in Rhodes (2019).She is an associate editor in Tissue Engineering, in Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology and in BioNanoMaterials, editorial board member inRegenerative Biomaterials and guest editor of special issues in Polymers, Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, andJournal of Materials Science Materials in Medicine. Her current research activities focus on the development of functional biomaterials scaffolds and validation of their biocompatibility, and include:
– Tissue Engineering (bone, cartilage, dental, cardiovascular, skin)
– In vitro and in vivo biocompatibility evaluation of biomaterials, scaffolds and nanoparticles
– Development of osteoinductive and osteoconductive biomaterials and scaffolds
– Investigation of the osteogenic potential of implantable biomaterials and drugs
– Functionalization of biomaterials with growth factors
– Biomechanics
– 3D printing technologies
– Development of protein immobilization techniques on biomaterials surfaces
– Adsorption and desorption studies of proteins on biomaterials surfaces