Seminars
Wednesday 21st October 2009
Whitechapel
Programme:
- 5-5.20pm: "Modulating osteoinductivity in bone graft substitutes: chemistry vs structure" by Dr Karin A Hing.
- 5.20-5.30pm: Discussion
- 5.30-5.50pm: "Probing Local Structure of Materials with Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy" by Prof Robert Hill
- 5.50-6pm: Discussion
- 6-7pm: Refreshments
Speakers:
Dr Karin A Hing, Senior Lecturer in Biomaterials, School of Engineering and Material Science.
Karin Hing is a senior lecturer in Biomaterials within the Department of Materials at Queen Mary University of London, prior to this she was an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellow within the IRC in Biomedical Materials. She was awarded the Fellowship in 1999, having worked as a post doc after completing her PhD in 1996. The objective of her research fellowship was to develop a fully synthetic ceramic (apatite based) bone graft substitute material with a pore structure and chemistry optimised to facilitate good quality, rapid bone repair in applications such as spinal fusion, total hip revision and skeletal reconstruction following trauma or disease. She was able to do this using the novel processing route for the manufacture of porous ceramics with a hierarchical porous structure (reflecting the structure of natural trabecular bone) that she invented as a post-doc.
This work forms the underpinning science behind ApaTech Ltd. a QMUL spin-out company that she co-founded with colleagues from the IRC in 2001. Apatech is now a global leader in the provision of bone graft substitute materials, with their ApaPore and Actifuse based bone graft substitute technologies, both of which were specified during her fellowship.
Apatech, currently employs over 100 people in the UK, Europe, USA and Australasia, won the ‘Business Initiative of the Year’ award at the Times Higher Education Supplement awards in 2007 and has been recognised as Britain’s fastest growing private medical company in the Sundays Times Tech Track, Top 100 for two years running, placed at 13th in 2007 and 5th in 2008
Email: k.a.hing@qmul.ac.uk
Professor Robert Hill, Professor of Physical Sciences in relation to Dentistry, Institute of Dentistry SMD
My research interests include; Bioactive Glasses Glass (ionomer) Polyalkenoatecements, Glass-ceramics, Materials for Hard Tissue Restoration. Apatites Characterization of apatites, glasses and glass polyalkenoate cements using solid state NMR. I am currently working on new biodegradable cements for use as a degradable bone glue.
I established recently the Campus company Bioceramic Therapeutics that is based on strontium releasing bioactive glasses that stimulate osteoblasts and inhibit osteoclasts.
I am the UK representative of Technical Committee 4 of the International Congress of Glass that deals with glasses for Medical Applications and I am also the UK representive on Technical Committee 7 that deals with Nucleation and Crystallisation of Glass
Email: r.hill@qmul.ac.uk
