Polymer and Photonic Materials Towards Biomedical Breakthroughs

MSc. Jasper Van Hoorick (08/12/1989) holds an FWO grant (presented by the Research Foundation Flanders) as a joint PhD student at the faculty of Sciences of Ghent University in the Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Research group (PBM) and at the Faculty of Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in the Brussels Photonics group (B-PHOT). In his PhD research he focusses on the development of novel biodegradable polymer materials including aliphatic polyesters as well as hydrogels and their processing into membranes for ocular tissue regeneration. During this research a large focus lies into additive manufacturing. To this end, two-photon polymerization is one of the major processing techniques he applies during this research. In 2014 he graduated as a Master of Science: Chemistry at Ghent University. During his master thesis he focussed on developing scaffolds for spinal tissue engineering, for which he received the Agoria Award for Technological Master dissertations in 2014. He authored 6 Web of Science Core Collection cited papers. Furthermore, he authored 1 book chapter and was an invited speaker at the XXIV International Materials Research Congress in 2015. Prof. Dr. Ir. Heidi Ottevaere is a full professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) since October 1st 2009. She is responsible for the Instrumentation and Metrology platform at the Photonics Innovation Center and for the research unit 'biophotonics' of the Brussels Photonics Team B-PHOT. She is coordinating and working on multiple research and industrial projects focusing on the design, fabrication and characterization of different types of components and systems in the field of biophotonics, interferometry, holography and imaging. For this research she makes use of the B-PHOT polymer prototyping platform including a NanoScribe two-photon polymerization system, an ultraprecision Moore diamond tooling machine and a Jenoptik hot embossing machine. She graduated from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1997 as an electrotechnical engineer with majors in Photonics and received her PhD degree in Applied Sciences in 2003 from the same university. Heidi Ottevaere has made research efforts in fundamental, applied and industrial photonics. She authored more than 168 Web of Science cited papers; her WoS h-index is 17 and her Google scholar h-index 23. She was promotor of 10 PhDs, edited 2 conference proceedings or special journal issues, authored 7 chapters in books, was key-note/invited speaker at more than 25 international conferences, and is co-inventor of 2 patents. Heidi has been member of many technical and scientific program committees of photonics-related conferences organized by international societies like SPIE, IEEE, OSA and MOC Japan. Heidi served as reviewer for journals such as Applied Optics, Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, Journal of Micro/Nanolithography as well as evaluator for photonics-related projects submitted at "Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)" - France, the European Commission (EU) and the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT). Prof. Dr. Ir. Hugo Thienpont chairs the Applied Physics and Photonics Department at VUB and is director of its photonics research group B-PHOT, which he built over the years and which today counts more than 65 scientists, engineers, and administrative and technical staff. Hugo Thienpont also built up a track record as initiator, promoter or coordinator of many strategic research and networking projects, which are financially supported by regional, national and international bodies. He authored more than 850 Web of Science cited papers; his WoS h-index is 35 and his Google scholar h-index 42. He was promotor of 40 PhDs, edited 22 conference proceedings or special journal issues, authored 10 chapters in books, was key-note speaker at more than 50 inte

Part I. Material Development & Processing.- Chapter 1. Development and characterization of photoresponsive polymers.- Chapter 2. Polymer processing through multiphoton absorption.- Chapter 3.Two-photon polymerization in tissue engineering.- Part II.Applications.- Chapter 4. Photoactivatable materials for cell biomechanics and mechanobiology.- Chapter 5. Photonics in drug delivery.- Chapter 6. Gene therapy approaches towards biomedical breakthroughs.