Yousra studied Inorganic materials, processing and production system engineering at Ecole Nationale Superieure de Céramique Industrielle (ENSCI) in Limoges, France. In May 2018, Yousra joined MERLN institute to start a PhD in the department of Instructive Biomaterials Engineering (IBE) on the topic of microfactories for high-throughput production of synthetic bone graft substitutes. In contrast to the conventional one-material-for-one-experiment methods for developing new biomaterials, bone microfactory project aim to develop a method for high-throughput synthesis and screening of ceramic biomaterials.

The development of a robust platform for combinatorial production and high-throughput screening of inorganic biomaterials will result in new bone graft substitutes with a bone-regenerative potential that is at least equal to that of autologous bone. Such a platform will also be applicable for production and screening of other biomaterials. Yousra’s main focus within this project is to develop a calcium-phosphate based materials library using Design of Experiments and designing/developping customized collectors in 384-well plate format allowing post-processing and performance screening using a cell-based assay.