Research Spotlights

Past IMI-NFG Research Exchange (RE) Participants

Ana Marques:
As a visiting researcher, I spent the first three months of 2006 and second Research Exchange February 1 to June 30, 2007 in Lehigh University collaborating with Prof. Himanshu Jain´s group. It was indeed a great experience which happened shortly after receiving my Ph.D. degree in new glassy materials for optical amplifiers in Portugal .

The work I carried out at Lehigh with the support of the International Materials Institute for New Functionality in Glass (IMI-NFG) consisted of the preparation of bioactive porous glasses, by sol-gel, for bone scaffolding applications. The goal was to create a hierarchical pore structure with dual porosity, at the nano and macroscale, optimized for bone regeneration performance. This was a challenge for me, because it ran opposite to my Ph.D. goals, where the formation of pores had to be prevented while preparing the optical materials.

Fortunately, I got some encouraging results, which are going to be published in the near future and the team is seeking a patent on the method developed for preparing the scaffold.

During my stay at Lehigh, I enriched my knowledge of the American culture as well as other, since some of my colleagues are from other countries. I also had the opportunity to experience the winter at Lehigh, which is quite different from the relatively mild winter we usually have at Lisbon, the city where I live.

Photo left:
Dr. Ana C. Marques working on the bone-scaffold project at a lab in Lehigh University.