Another achievement for the cooperative! 😉

Our colleague Mr. Jon Andrade del Olmo has received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award from UPV/EHU for the 2022/2023 academic year in the area of Sciences. His international thesis “Hyaluronic acid- and chitosan-based antibacterial coatings on TI6AL4V for biomedical implant applications”, supervised by Dr. José María Alonso Carnicero and Dr. Leyre Pérez Álvarez, has received both international and industrial mentions.

In this Doctoral Thesis, hyaluronic acid- and chitosan-based antibacterial coatings have been developed onto the surface of Ti6Al4V biomaterial for biomedical implant applications. The possible different antibacterial mechanisms that could be involved in a specific antibacterial coating have been here emphasized, resulting in a mono-, bi- or multi-functional antibacterial activity.

Moreover, attention has been focused on release-based antibacterial coatings to obtain Ti6Al4V surfaces with the ability to load and sustainedly release bioactive agents, such as hydrogel and multilayer coatings. Special attention has been focused on the evaluation of biocompatibility and other possible beneficial bioactive properties (wound healing, self-healing, anti-inflammatory, bone-tissue engineering and osseointegration) of different hyaluronic acid and chitosan hydrogels, as well as their corresponding coating. For this, typical surface pre-activation procedures followed by self-assembled monolayers are presented as ideal initial surface functionalization approaches to create effective, stable and well-organized long-term bioactive coatings onto Ti6Al4V implants.

Congratulations, Jon!