Maria obtained a Masters degree in Biotechnology with a focus on cell biology from the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU). She has a background in Regenerative Medicine, specifically in bone, cartilage and skin tissue engineering. Beginning of 2019, she started her PhD at MERLN’s Instructive Biomaterials Engineering (IBE) department and joined the “Bone Microfactory” project. This project aims to develop an innovative platform for high-throughput production of novel affordable synthetic biomaterials using combinatorial chemistry coupled with a high-throughput platform for screening their biological performance.

Maria took over the biological part of the project and works on setting up an in vitro cell-based multiplex screening system to test the biological response to the generated materials, in a high-throughput manner, with regards to their osteogenic, angiogenic and immunogenic potential. This platform will be the centrepiece of her thesis and will allow the testing of a significant number of new biomaterials and the prediction of their biological performance, which can majorly contribute to the advancement in the field of bone regeneration.