Maria Pau Ginebra is full professor at the Dept. of Materials Science and Metallurgy of UPC, as well as Director of the Biomaterials Biomechanics and Tissue Engineering Group. Since 2015, she is an Associated Researcher at the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalunya (IBEC). She has published more than 190 articles and 16 book chapters, and has edited 3 books. She has been visiting professor in several foreign Universities, such as Dankook University (Korea) and University of Minnesota (USA). She is involved in translational research to the clinics and industry, being the inventor of 10 patents. In 2013 she co-founded the spin-off company Mimetis Biomaterials, and in 2018 she was a finalist of the EU Prize for Women Innovators. She received the Narcís Monturiol Medal from the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2012 and the Racquel LeGeros Award by the International Society for Ceramics in Medicine in 2013, for her contribution to the research in calcium phosphates.

Research interests

Her research is focused on the development of new biomaterials for tissue engineering and controlled drug release, with special emphasis in the musculoskeletal system. Her main goal is to exploit biomimetic strategies for the design of biomaterials for bone tissue engineering, inspired in the features of both the inorganic and the organic components of bone extracellular matrix. Specifically, her main challenges include understanding the role of the different material features in the cellular events leading to bone regeneration, with the aim of developing synthetic biomaterials able to integrate and trigger the physiological bone remodelling process. Furthermore, she explores new strategies of biofabrication, including injectable cements and foams, surface biofunctionalisation with multifunctional peptides and protein fragments and 3D printing of scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Keywords

Biomaterials for tissue engineering, biofunctional materials, drug delivery, bone regeneration, biomimetic materials, 3D printing of biomaterials, bioprinting, cell-material interactions, preclinical studies of biomaterials