Joint research projects with universities from Germany and Austria

The project: Biomimetic in situ co-precipitation of calcium phosphate coatings and drug-containing polymeric nano-spheres on zirconia ceramics for surface functionalization in terms of antimicrobial and osteoconductive properties

partner from Germany: RWTH Aachen University
project leader at the AGH UST: Małgorzata Krok-Borkowicz, DSc, Faculty of Materials Science and Ceramics
the funds for the AGH UST: PLN 24,600

The chief objective of the project is to develop biomaterials based on zirconia ceramics modified with multifunctional coatings that support osteointegration and the treatment of bone infections, specifically for elements of hip prostheses or dental implants. In the event of severe bone damage, as a result of accidents, extensive bone loss might occur, where self-regeneration is no longer possible. After such trauma, the neighbouring tissues may become infected, which further impedes the healing process and causes systemic aggravation of the patient’s condition. An ideal solution would be to create 3D scaffolding to support the regeneration of damaged tissue, simultaneously preventing the development of bacterial infections. Such materials could also be used in the treatment of periodontitis. The project work will focus primarily on creating the material to treat common bone tissue damage and the accompanying infections. However, it could also be used to treat slow-healing bone and bone marrow infections, septic arthritis, or osteoporosis. Moreover, such materials could also be used in DDS (Drug Delivery System).

 

The project: Aperiodic zero-dimensional systems

partner from Austria: University of Vienna
project leader at the AGH UST: Assoc. Professor Jab Boroński, PhD, Faculty of Applied Mathematics
the funds for the AGH UST: PLN 65,000

The project is a joint research initiative between an AGH UST group that deals with dynamic systems (3 people, incl. 1 doctoral student) and a University of Vienna group (3 people, including 1 doctoral student). The acquired funding will pay for two research visits to the foreign university of each member of the group in each year between 2022 and 2023. The project revolves around aperiodic dynamical systems from geometric constructions or such that can be described with the use of graphs and diagrams. Moreover, it will focus on the IET (Interval Exchange Transformation) dynamical system. The aforementioned transformations originate as a result of Poincaré models in flows on translational surfaces. They induce the symbolic dynamics and Bratelli–Vershik systems. IET and other isometric models play their part in combinatorial analysis, electronic signal processes (such as digital to analogue and vice-versa), in 2D (and 3D) colour print, as well as in generating homogeneous sequences (such as Halton sequence), which can be applied in Monte Carlo methods and random number generators.