September – December, 2022
Participation in scientific conferences:
From 04.09.2022 – 08.04.2022 iBone researcher E.Rieksta participated in the “32nd Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB 2022)” taking place in Bordeaux, France with a poster presentation – E.Rieksta, A.Vinciune, D. Loca “Strontium ranelate loaded ε-poly-l-lysine/hyaluronic acid hydrogels”.
On 21.10.2022, iBone project coordinator Prof. Dagnija Loca participated in the international “Materials Science and Applied Chemistry” conference, organized by RTU Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry. During the conference plenary session, Prof. Loca gave an invited presentation on “Biomaterials for bone engineering and local delivery of therapeutic agents” in which she informed also about the studies performed during the implementation of the iBone project.
Master’s thesis:
On 26.10.2022 iBone researcher Alise Svarca defended her Master thesis on “Calcium Phosphate/Hyaluronic Acid Composite Hydrogels for Local Antiosteoporotic Drug Delivery”.
Dissemination activities:
31.10.2022 – Dagnija Loča gave an interview to newspaper “Zinātnes Vēstnesis” about the scientists’ daily life and how to develop biomaterials in the field of bone tissue engineering.
On 30.09.2022, an annual event “European Researcher’s Night” took place, where iBone project participants from Riga Technical University – A.Svarca, E.Rieksta and E.Oselska took active participation. More than 600 visitors of the event could learn about the scientific activities that researchers perform at Riga Technical University and discover the fascinating world of science.
Participation in trainings and training schools:
From 29.08.2022 – 01.09.2022 iBone researchers E. Rieksta and E. Oselska had a possibility to participate in the training organized by RISEus2 consortium on “Introduction of Platelet rich fibrin (PRF) and its role in the biomaterials’ research with respect to ethical requirements”.
From 03.10.10. – 14.10.2022 iBone researchers E. Rieksta and E. Oselska joined a summer school in Erlangen, Germany organized by Prof. Aldo. R. Boccaccini on “Scientific Writing”.
May – August, 2022
On June 13-15th, 2022 Scandinavian Society for Biomaterials (ScSB) 2022 meeting was held in Jurmala, Latvia. The ScSB meeting was attended by around 100 researchers from 18 countries.
The theme of the meeting was “Advances in biomaterials engineering”. The presented topics were related to the development of different biomaterials for various biomedical applications, as well as in vitro and in vivo models and investigations, drug delivery systems, implant manufacturing processes, 3D printing etc.
Two of the iBone project participants – prof. Dagnija Loca and Kristine Aunina from Riga Technical University (RTU) participated in the conference. Prof. Dagnija Loca participated with oral presentation “Effect of Calcium Phosphate Particle Addition on the Properties of Hyaluronic Acid Hydrogels” and Kristine Aunina participated with poster presentation “Development of Antibacterial Hyaluronic acid-based Hydrogels”.
10.07.2022-13.07.2022 Dagnija Loca went to Toronto, Canada to participate in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society – Americas Chapter Annual Meeting (TERMIS AM) with a poster presentation: D. Loca, K. Aunina, A. Ramata-Stunda, V. Nikolajeva: “Antibacterial hyaluronic acid based hydrogels for drug delivery and local bone regeneration”.
Publications:
The scientific publication developed within the iBone project about calcium phosphate/hyaluronic acid composite hydrogels as antiosteoporotic drug delivery systems has been published. A. Svarca, A. Grava, A. Dubnika, A. Ramata-Stunda, R. Narnickis, K. Aunina, E. Rieksta, M. Boroduskis, I. Jurgelane, J. Locs and D. Loca “Calcium Phosphate/Hyaluronic Acid Composite Hydrogels for Local Antiosteoporotic Drug Delivery”, Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol., 2022, 10:917765. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.917765
iBone project partner meetings:
05.07.2022 iBone project meeting, with partners from the RTU (D. Loca, K. Aunina, B. Grinberga), was organised. During the meeting, the progress and future tasks of the project was discussed.
Dissemination activities:
05.07.2022 – Dagnija Loca gave an invited talk to RTU scientists and other interested parties on “How to write successful Fundamental and Applied Research Project” giving as an excellent example the iBone project.
25.07.2022 – Dagnija Loca gave an interview about biomaterial science and iBone topic to local newspaper “Zinātnes Vēstnesis”. Interwiev
Participation in trainings and training schools:
From 23.08.2022-25.08.2022 iBone researchers D.Loca, E.Oselska, E.Rieksta participated in winter school on Drug/ion/cell delivery systems organized by RISEus2 consortium. During the winter school they got extended knowledge on such topics as:
- Development of analytical methods for the determination of active substance release.
- Blood and Blood Concentrates: An autologous drug delivery system for tissue engineering.
- Concepts and examples of drug delivery systems in bone substitute applications: Particulates and matrix systems to deliver ions and molecules.
From 23.05.2022 – 03.06.2022 iBone researchers D.Loca, K.Aunina and E. Rieksta participated in 7-day training event on “Soft Biomaterials synthesis, characterization and properties” given by PhD Jacek Wychowaniec (AO Research institute Davos, Switzerland) where they got the knowledge on:
- “How rheology can help to determine different properties of hydrogels”.
- “How to choose right parameters to start the rheology experiments”.
- “Rheology for hydrogels, composites, bone cements, inorganic/organic biomaterials: tips & tricks before on-site measurements. An example of data modelling”.
January – April, 2022
Dissemination activities:
- 25.03.2022. Danija Svalba, from Riga State German Grammar School, was supervised by Alise Svarca and her scientific work (determination of Ca/P molar ratio in different biomaterials) won the first place award in Latvia (in the section of science) and was nominated for the International Science Competition EUREKA.
- 06.04.2022. scientists within the iBone project, from the RTU, participated in “Shadow days” organised by the RTU RBIDC. Eight Latvian school children (from Riga, Jelgava, Saldus and Dobele) had the opportunity to follow several scientists (D. Loca, A. Svarca, E. Rieksta and K. Aunina) and to gain insights on the hydrogel preparation methods and their application in bone regeneration.
- 20.04.2022. Dagnija Loca visited a kindergarden and presented the scientist profession, biomaterials science and iBone topic.
Participation in scientific conferences:
- 29.04.2022. Alise Svarca, a student involved in the iBone project (RTU), participated with an oral presentation in the 63rd Student Scientific and Technical Conference of RTU, within the section of “General Chemical Technology and Biomaterial Chemistry and Technology”, and won 2nd place. Alise Svarca, Dagnija Loca: “Calcium phosphate/hyaluronic acid composites for local antiosteoporotic drug delivery “.
Participation in the activities of the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence (BBCE):
- 31.03.2022. Kristine Aunina, a student involved in the iBone project (RTU), participated with an oral presentation in the BBCE meeting. K. Aunina, D. Loca “Development and characterization of injectable hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels”.
Publication:
- 01.04.2022. Scientific publication, within the iBone project, about the effects of crosslinking strategy on hyaluronic acid and ε-polylysine based hydrogels was published:K. Salma-Ancane, A. Sceglovs, E. Tracuma, J. K. Wychowaniec, K. Aunina, A. Ramata-Stunda, V. Nikolajeva, D. Loca “Effect of crosslinking strategy on the biological, antibacterial and physicochemical performance of hyaluronic acid and ɛ-polylysine based hydrogels”. Int J Biol Macromol, 2022, Vol. 208, pp. 995-1008.
iBone project partner meetings:
- 21.04.2022 & 28.04.2022. iBone project meeting was organised with partners from the RTU. Project progress and tasks (hydrogel synthesis and characterization) were discussed during the meeting.
September – December, 2021
Participation in international scientific conferences:
- 05.09.2021. Kristine Aunina participated in the “31st Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB)” with poster presentation: K. Aunina, D. Loca “Development of injectable hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels”.
- 22.10.2021. Eliza Tracuma participated in the RTU 62nd International and Scientific Conference “Materials Science and Applied Chemistry 2021” with the poster presentation: E. Tracuma, D. Loca “3D bioprinting of inorganic/organic composite systems for bone tissue regeneration: review”.
iBone project partner meetings:
- 03.09.2021. iBone project meeting with partners from LU and from RTU was held onsite at RTU RBIDC premises. Partners discussed the progress on preparation of scientific publications, iBone dissemination activities as well as the next tasks for the project implementation were set.
Dissemination activities:
- 21.09.2021. dissemination of iBone idea to the Master students from study program “Material science and nanotechnologies” within the study course “Biocompatibility of Biomaterials”, autumn semester of 2021/2022 academic year, given by iBone principal investigator Vizma Nikolajeva.
- 24.09.2021 scientists within the iBone project, from the RTU, participated in “European Researcher’s nights” organised by the RTU with demostration of hydrogel preparation and their application in bone regeneration. Moreover Alise Svarca were invited to give a live interview at LTV1 broadcast “Rīta Panorāma”. More can be found in the original interview.
- 01.10.2021. scientists within the iBone project – Eliza Tracuma and Kristine Aunina, demonstrated experiments for twelve primary school children from Daugavpils Centra Vidusskola. This team was the winners of “Noslēpumainā Zinātne” contest organized in the beginning of 2021.
- 05.10.2021. Dagnija Loca visited Mārupes Valsts ģimnāzija presenting the biomaterials science, scope of the iBone project and career possibilities to 11th grade school children (30 attendees).
Participation in the winter school organized by H2020 project “Rising competitiveness of early stage researchers and research management in Latvia (RISEus2, GA No. 952347)
27.09.2021.-29.09.2021 Alise Svarca, Kristine Aunina and Dagnija Loca participated in 3-day winter school on “Calcium Phosphates and Composites”. During these 3 days prominent scientists from France, Germany and Switzerland gave the lectures on biomaterial synthesis and characterization as well as led the hands-on trainings on different biomaterial characterization topics. More about school read here.
May – August, 2021
Dissemination activities:
- 14.05.2021. dissemination of iBone in BBCE Instagram account. Short summary of project and planned results.
- 20.05.2021. Dagnija Loca gave an interview to RadioNaba broadcast “Zinātnes vārdā” (In name of science) about the project objectives and outcomes. More can be found in the original interview.
Participation in international scientific conferences:
- 14.06.2021. students involved in the iBone project (RTU) participated in the “Scandinavian Society for Biomaterials ScSB” conference with poster presentations: K. Aunina, D. Loca, “Injectable hydrogels for bone tissue regeneration”; A. Svarca, D. Loca, “Hyaluronic acid containing hydrogels as strontium ranelate delivery systems”; E. Tracuma, D. Loca, “Hyaluronic acid based composites for local drug delivery”.
Master’s and bachelor’s thesis:
- 16.06.2021. student Kristine Belune involved in the iBone project (RTU) defended her bachelor’s thesis “Impact of composition on the properties of hyaluronic acid/ ɛ-polylysine hydrogels”.
- 17.06.2021. student Martins Nabels-Sneiders involved in the iBone project (RTU) defended his master’s thesis “Injectable calcium phosphate containing composites”.
January – April, 2021
iBone project partner meetings:
01.02.2021. iBone project meeting with partners from the LU and from the RTU took place. During the meeting partners were discussing about the project progress, RTU scientists reported about the progress of hydrogel synthesis and analitical method development (WP1), while LU scientists reported about the progress of hydrogel microbiological and cell tests (WP2). Partners also discussed about the progress on preparation of scientific publications, iBone dissemination activities and next tasks for the project.
Multidisciplinary research:
24.02.2021. Kristine Belune (RTU) visited LU, with the purpose of getting acquainted with the methodological nuances of hyaluronic acid and polylysine hydrogel antibacterial tests.
Dissemination activities:
- 22.02.2021. Dagnija Loca presented 20 minute long presentation (online) about the iBone project idea and biomaterial science for the bone tissue regeneration, using antibacterial hydrogels to the 12th class (24 pupils) of Grammar School of Nordic Languages.
- 01.03.2021. Kristine Belune participated in the creation of a video for the RTU “Bērnu un Jauniešu universitātes” (in cooperation with RTU Media center) to school children by providing them with the exercise for school competition (8th and 9th grade). Answers to the given task will be evaluated. 30 schools from all over Latvia participated in this exercise contest (16 schools with 9th grade and 14 schools with 8th grade).
- 01.03.2021. Dagnija Loca participated in RTU BJU event with lecture about “Womens in engineering science”. 106 school children participated in the lecture, more about lecture here.
- 18.03. 2021. dissemination of iBone idea to the 1st and 2nd year Master students (11 students of UL Master’s Study Program “Biology”) within the study course “Medical Biotechnology”, spring semester of 2020/2021 academic year, given by lecturer and iBone researcher Anna Ramata-Stunda.
- 23.03.2021. Eliza Tracuma presented 40 minute long presentation (online) discussing the studies in chemistry at the RTU and also biomaterial science for the bone tissue regeneration using antibacterial hydrogels to the 12th class (56 school children) of Riga State Third Gymnasium.
- 26.03.2021. Kristine Salma-Ancane participated in RTU BJU event with lecture about “Biomaterials for human body”, more about lecture here.
- 31.03.2021. Eliza Tracuma presented 40 minute long presentation (online) about the studies in chemistry at the RTU and also biomaterial science for the bone tissue regeneration using antibacterial hydrogels to the 11th and 12th class (20 school children) of Kraslava State Gymnasium.
- 01. 04.2021. Samantas Svetkovas scientific work led by Eliza Tracuma won the first degree award in the country (in the section of science) and was nominated for the special prize of RTU. Additionally, it received the invitation for the participation in the International Science and Engineering competition ISEF. More about the competition here.
- 22.04.2021. dissemination of biomaterial science and iBone topic in Latvian Ministry of Education and Science organized event “SCIENCE. ZOOMED.IN” for 11th and 12th grade school children – 56 school children from all Latvia connected to the event.
- 23.04.2021. dissemination of Biomaterials science and iBone idea to the 1st year RTU Bachelor students (36 students) within the study course “Materials Science”, was given by Professor and iBone coordinator Dagnija Loca.
Participation in scientific conferences:
- 27.04.2021. students involved in the iBone project (RTU) participated in the 62nd Student Scientific and Technical Conference of RTU within the section of “General Chemical Technology and Biomaterial Chemistry and Technology” presenting three oral presentations:
1. Kristine Belune, Dagnija Loca, “Impact of hyaluronic acid content on hyaluronic acid/ε-polylysine hydrogels properties” (awarded the first place);
2. Alise Svarca, Dagnija Loca, “Physically cross-linked hyaluronic acid containing hydrogels”;
3. Martins Nabels-Sneiders, Dagnija Loca, “Injectable CaP containing hydrogel composites”.
September – December, 2020
iBone project partner meetings:
21.09.2020. second iBone project meeting, with partners from the RTU, was organised. Project progress and tasks (hydrogel synthesis and characterization) were discussed during the meeting.
Participation in international scientific conferences:
23.10.2020. students involved in the iBone project (RTU) participated in the RTU 61st International and Scientific Conference “Materials Science and Applied Chemistry 2020” with the oral presentation (E. Tracuma, D. Loca “Hyaluronic acid based composites for local drug delivery”) and the poster presentation (K. Belune, D. Loca. “Impact of hyaluronic acid content on hyauronic acid/ε-polylysine hydrogel properties”).
Participation in B2B matchmaking event:
9.-17.09.2020. D. Loca participated in the Industry Space Days 2020 B2B event (online event – Paris, France).
Participation in COST activities:
Dagnija Loca participated in the preparation and submission of the new COST action proposal “Improving CAncer and SENescence treatments by BIOmaterials, advanced physical techniques and modeling”. Proposal Reference OC-2020-1-24961.
Cooperation with other projects and their industrial boards:
D.Loca disseminated iBone activities during the M-era.Net project “Bioactive injectable hydrogels for soft tissue regeneration after reconstructive surgeries” (INJECT-BIO) kick-off meeting on 22.10.2020.
Dissemination activities:
- 19.11.2020. Eliza Tracuma had an interview for the RTU Facebook page, regarding the influence on the future of Latvian science. More read here.
- 15.12.2020. Kristine Salma-Ancane participated in the TV show “Izziņas Impulss” (DELFI TV 15.12.2020.) discussing biomaterials for bone engineering.
May – August, 2020
Participation in scientific conferences:
22.05.2020. students involved in the iBone project (RTU) took part in the 61st Student Scientific and Technical Conference of RTU, with two oral presentations:
K.Belune, D.Loca, “Hyaluronic acid/ε-polylysine hydrogels for bone tissue regeneration”;
A.Sceglovs, A.Reinis, K.Salma-Ancane, “Evaluation of antibacterial properties of chemically cross-linked hydrogels based on ɛ-polylysine and hyaluronic acid”.
Publication in Scopus:
30.06.2020. the first scientific review of the iBone project about hyaluronic acid and polylysine application in biomedicine was published:
E.Tracuma, D.Loca, “Hyaluronic Acid / Polylysine Composites for Local Drug Delivery: A Review”. Key Engineering Materials, 2020, Vol. 850, pp. 213-218.
Participation in the activities of the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence (BBCE):
From the 18th until the 27th of August, A.Sceglovs, E. Tracuma, K. Belune and D.Loca participated in the following BBCE tranings (Online):
19.08. – Quality systems (Intro to ISO 9001 and ISO 13485).
18.-27.08. – Research metrics and ethics (Laboratory managment, cell culture, databases; Brief history of eCM Journal an conferences; conference organization for networing; Journal citation, impact factor, h-index, open archive; Histology laboratory management, histology databases, data management for industry projects; How to organize the content of a website; Managing Social Networks; Gender equality; Research ethics).
January – April, 2020
iBone project information on the RTU and LU websites:
Platforms for the iBone project activities, on the RTU and RTU VKTI website (both Latvian and English version), as well as on the LU website (Latvian version), were designed in the beginning of the project.
iBone project partner meetings:
The first iBone project meeting, with partners from the LU and from the RTU, was held on 18.02.2020. Project goals and tasks (hydrogel synthesis and characterization preformed by the RTU and microbiological and cell tests preformed by the LU) were discussed during the meeting.
Dissemination activities:
- 12.02.2020. scientists within the iBone project, from the RTU, participated in “Shadow days” organised by the RTU RC RBIDC. Seven Latvian school children had the opportunity to follow several scientists (D. Loca, E. Tracuma, A. Sceglovs and K. Salma-Ancane) and to gain insights on the hydrogel preparation methods and their application in bone regeneration.
- 27.06.2020. Kristine Salma-Ancane participated in LTV1 TV show “Zūmeri” (series 8 – Future) discussing biomaterials for bone engineering.
- 02.07.2020. Dagnija Loca participated in broadcast of Latvijas Radio1 sarunā “Zināmais Nezināmajā”. Impact: Average 70000+20000 listeners.
