Marko Mihajlovic received his M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the University of Trieste, Italy (2013). During his graduation project, he worked on the synthesis and characterization of functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to be employed as novel scaffolds for the interaction with electrically active cells (neurons and cardiomyocytes).
In January 2014 he joined the group of professor Rint Sijbesma at the Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands), as an early stage researcher (ESR) in the Initial Training Network (ITN) SASSYPOL.
Research
Hydrogels are polymeric networks capable of absorbing large amounts of water, which in combination with their hydrophilicity make them biocompatible and suited materials for biomedical applications, such as scaffolds in tissue engineering. To this end, supramolecular polymers that form reversible intermolecular interactions are of strong interest, because of their dynamic and native-like behaviour. Also, the mechanical properties of hydrogels have long been considered as one of the most important features of this type of materials. Therefore, a novel development in biomedical hydrogel research is the preparation of hydrogels with improved mechanical properties.
The project is focused on the synthesis and preparation of self-assembled supramolecular structures able to form hydrogels. The aim is to produce biomimetic hydrogels, in terms of mechanical behaviour and function, that can be employed as scaffolds for tissue engineering purposes.
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