Research visits of Beata Niemczyk-Soczyńska

During the last year, our colleague, Beata Niemczyk-Soczyńska, MSc participated in three scientific exchanges:

HORIZON 2020 IP-OSTEO PROJECT Maria Skłodowska Curie Actions COFUND grant no. 824007

The research visit was carried out in Ino cure s.r.o.Prague, Czech Republic on behalf of "Horizon 2020" H2020 IP-OSTEO PROJECT Maria Skłodowska Curie Actions COFUND and took place from 1 to 29 of February 2020. The project assumed cooperation between scientific centers and industries.

The aim of the project was to obtain short electrospun nanofibers using electrospinning with a subsequent ultrasonication process. Electrospun mats were made of poly(-l-lactide) (PLLA) and polycaprolactone (PCL). The project assumed further loading of short fibers into the hydrogel matrix. Such an approach allows obtaining the composite which will be injectable and, at the same time, will provide a fibrous structure mimicking native ECM.

NAWA-ITHACA (National Agency for Academic Exchange) grant no. PPI/APM/2018/1/00045/U/001

The research visit was carried out in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 1 to 31 of October 2019. Beata Niemczyk-Soczynska cooperated with Professor Alexander Yarin and his team in the Multiscale Mechanics and Nanotechnology Laboratory during the visit.

The research was aimed at obtaining electrospun and solution blown micro-and nanofibers from various polymers for biomedical application. The results obtained during this cooperation were analyzed and subsequently published in the following article:

Dias Y.J., Robles J.R., Sinha-Ray S., Abiade J., Pourdeyhimi B., Niemczyk-Soczyńska B., Kołbuk D., Sajkiewicz P., Yarin A.L., Solution-blown poly(hydroxybutyrate) and ε-poly-l-lysine submicro- and microfiber-based sustainable nonwovens with antimicrobial activity for single-use applications, ACS BIOMATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING, ISSN: 2373-9878, DOI: 10.1021/acsbiomaterials.1c00594, pp.1-13, 2021.

NAWA-ITHACA  grant no. PPI/APM/2018/1/00045/U/001

The research visit was carried out in the Institute of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Tartu (Estonia) from 1 to 30 of April 2019. During the visit, Beata Niemczyk-Soczynska cooperated with Professor Karin Kogermann and her team.

The aim of the research was to obtain electrospun nanofibers with living cells previously encapsulated in hydrogel microbeads. The bacterial encapsulation was applied to increase their viability during the electrospinning process. The studies mostly focused on microbeads formation, subsequent filtration, and optimization of these procedures.