BioTrib

A year on since the start of BioTrib we have now completed recruitment of all 15 Early Stage Reseachers and achieved a milestone 500 followers on LinkedIn!

Thanks to everyone in the BioTrib community!

Additive manufacturing also known as 3D printing has rapidly evolved since the 80’s and is now a major fabrication methodology for rapid prototyping of custom-made object [1]. Its benefits are applied in many fields such as medical, academic, aerospace, robotics and industrial machinery. 3D printing encompasses different technologies like stereolithography (SLA), fused deposition modeling (FDM) or selective laser melting (SLM) using metal powder. Those printers exhibiting different workflows and using different materials allow to access wide range of possibilities for the characteristics (structural complexity, color, resolution, etc) and properties of the final constructs [2] [3].

3D printing is making great strides every year and the business market is growing with them so as to respond to customers demand and to access a wider range of applications. In order to promote these new 3D printing related innovations, Formnext is taking place every November in Frankfurt since 2015. Formnext is a global exhibition on additive manufacturing and industrial 3D printing gathering hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors. This event is an opportunity for the actors of 3D printing to exchange with companies and discover novelties in terms of printers, materials, post processing solutions and software.

Formnext also represents a human experience as this convention brings together people working in a wide range of fields, from experts to beginners in 3D printing. Formnext 2021 allowed the additive manufacturing community to meet again after 2020’s edition which took place online because of COVID-19.

Now let’s see how these innovations will be put to good use!

[1] Matias, Elizabeth & Rao, Bharat. (2015). 3D printing: On its historical evolution and the implications for business. 551-558. 10.1109/PICMET.2015.7273052.
[2] Deshmukh, Kalim & Houkan, Mohammad & AlMa’adeed, Mariam & Sadasivuni, Kishor kumar. (2020). Introduction to 3D and 4D printing technology: State of the art and recent trends. 10.1016/B978-0-12-816805-9.00001-6.
[3] Wohlers Associates Inc. (2013). Wohlers report. Fort Collins, CO: Wohlers.

This article was written by Marie Moulin as part of an ongoing series of scientific communications written and curated by BioTrib’s Early Stage Researchers.

Marie is researching the Bioprinting of Bone and Cartilage at Uppsala University, Sweden.

Seasons greetings from BioTrib. We wish you a very pleasant winter break and a happy new year!

This concludes posting for 2021, we are looking forward to more novel and pioneering tribology and biomedical engineering research in the new year!

Should you like to make more contacts within your University? How can we maintain a social relationship during the Covid pandemic? What would happen if people from different departments and hierarchies would talk more often to each other?

These are some of the questions I asked myself before taking part in this initiative a few weeks ago. The Covid pandemic radically changed the opportunities for interaction with people. But whether a smile in passing, a quick “hello” or a lingering conversation, shared moments bring vibrancy to life. Human interaction is a necessity for everyone and the desire for connection is a core need essential to feeling satisfied with your life.

Since I started this new experience at ETH Zürich, I was eager to meet as many people as possible, from all over ETH and other institutions, to keep me socially fit and also to compare with people and deal with different perspectives and cultures and upgrade my training and skills, not only in scientific fields. So, when I saw this opportunity called ETH LunchLottery [1], which I had never heard about before, I decided immediately to sign up. Unfortunately, like me, just a few people know about this occasion to meet people and that’s why I’m interested in talking about and sharing it.

The idea here is basically to mix staff and doctoral students as much as possible, once a month, by assigning randomly every participating employee one or several lunch or coffee break partners to meet both online and in person. Then a smart matching algorithm optimizes for the perfect match. All participating employees automatically receive a customized e-mail about the upcoming LunchLottery initiative [2] and partners’ e-mail addresses. You’re ready! Employees connect with new colleagues from other departments and hierarchy levels [2]. You can decide with your lunch/coffee break partners when and where to meet them. This will help to make new connections and exchange ideas with all sorts of people. It will enrich everyday working life immensely by getting to know new people and hearing about the work they do across all units and functional levels, or just by having an exciting chat on various topics. It could also be a great idea for setting up small projects and collaborations with other departments.

And in this regard, after this experience, I asked myself: “Could we take a cue from this kind of event also to develop networks and to share our knowledge or to simply get to know better the other BioTrib’s members, also considering the different geographies and time zones? Could be an idea to get in touch and know even other ETNs’ members in the most relevant scientific fields?”. A short interruption to our daily routine could be a good idea to get to know other colleagues better and it would also help to open many doors and possibilities for all of us, as well as to gain additional knowledge and skills to help us to manage and do better our jobs. And even more, in light of the pandemic we are still immersed in, I believe it is a perfect opportunity to allow people to return to real life.

Networking and relationship building will lead to innovation!

[1] https://ethz.ch/services/en/news-and-events/events/eth-lunch-lottery.html
[2] https://lunch-lottery.com

This article was written by Alessio Amicone as part of an ongoing series of scientific communications written and curated by BioTrib’s Early Stage Researchers.

Alessio is investigating the Elucidation of Friction-Induced Failure Mechanisms in Fibrous Collagenous Tissues at ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

We all are the travellers of this wonderful world travelling through time and space till the end of our life. We have ups and down in life just like a sine curve. Every day we are growing up through learning new knowledge and skills. Although we have best set of skills, sometimes we get lost, we stuck, and we lose momentum of our life to pick up the best from numerous aspects. In such a situation a compassionate partner can play the life changing role either by pushing or pulling you to overcome the moment of inertia. My road to BioTrib program is standing on such a magnetic story.

I met my partner Afrina Khan Piya during my undergrad study. After completing my bachelor degree in mechanical engineering, I was desperately seeking for a position to pursue my MSc in a foreign country. Then one day Piya forwarded me one link regarding an MSc position on implant material in a Japanese lab. I applied and through a competitive selection process, I was finally awarded the position with Japanese Govt. scholarship. Later, Piya also joined the same lab with the same scholarship. We were thrilled while doing research on different aspect of implant materials. My research focused on the improvement of osteoconductivity of porous Ti in vitro while Piya analyzed Osteoblast cell adhesion behavior using AFM based measurement techniques. We relished the research that provided us the opportunity to contribute in the field of medical engineering. We participated several conferences in Japan and an international conference in Thailand where we had opportunity to talk with different researchers working on implant materials. I deeply comprehended the importance of this emerging field. Annually, 80,000 and 200,000 total hip replacement procedures are being performed in UK and USA respectively (Kurtz et. al., 2007). As a result, the demand for prosthetic implants is continuously increasing specially in the aging society because of the loss of bone strength caused by several biological and mechanical effects, such as osteolysis or wear debris (Zhang et al., 2009). Therefore, the development of artificial bones is in high demand that can directly enhance the quality of people lives. I strongly believe that a small contribution to this sector can improve the millions of lives. This thoughtfulness strongly motivated me to pursue my PhD research in the field of Bioengineering.

After the accomplishment of our MSc degree, Piya applied for GreenTRIBOS program under MSCA fellowship and finally she was accepted for the position at University of Leeds (UoL) in the year 2020. While doing a course of Professor Richard, she came to know about BioTrib program. She encouraged me to apply for the positions. Although I was a bit low thinking about the high competition for the positions, Piya was super optimistic. She motivated to me in such a way as such I am best suited for the position. She assisted me to build a strong SOP and other tasks as well. Again the golden moment came to my life in one morning when I found the email of my acceptance for the prestigious position. I believe it’s about the power of partnership that brought me here. I would like to recall the words, “Behind every successful man, there is a women” and she is none but my partner for me: heartiest gratitude to her!

We both feel extremely blessed to be a part of European Training Network. We would like to try our level best to have outstanding contributions throughout our project. Finally, I would like to quote,

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
– Robert Frost

This article was written by MM Raihan as part of an ongoing series of scientific communications written and curated by BioTrib’s Early Stage Researchers.

Raihan is researching In-situ Measurement of Nano-scale Wear Utilising Advanced Sensors at University of Leeds, UK.

Finding the right position for yourself, a future career or achieving your dreams can be a real challenge. You might scroll through different job or research adverts and not know what to choose. Having the best set of skills but not being sure where to apply them is a common obstacle that most of the people occur. There are high chances that there is a job just built for you, but you just did not get the occasion to face it. The chances on being at the right place in the right time are always higher if people around you are aware of what you are looking for. Small talks with friends or colleagues can bring up great deals.

The story of Edona and Yasmin, who met through Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Program in Tribology funded by the European Union is a great example on how powerful Networking can be!

During their master’s degree they were two house mates studying together having coffee talks after lectures while sharing their dreams and interests. While attending a conference in Coimbra, Portugal, where the main objective was about different methods of Microscopy utilized in different areas of science and engineering especially in Bioengineering, it took a walking back home for Yasmin to see Edona’s high interest in the field. Edona was showing her notes and articles she found related to bioengineering and the related Linked in pages that she follows with a lot of passion. Yasmin remembered her saying “There would be only one case I would be motivated enough to pursue a PhD, and that is only if it would relate to bioengineering”.

After accomplishing their master’s degree, Edona decided to join the industry working for the European Union Office in Kosovo and Yasmin perused her education through academia starting her PhD at University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Although far in distance and in different fields they kept their contact through social media. One afternoon, Yasmin encountered on LinkedIn an exciting research opportunity in bio tribology at University of Leeds. She knew the research group and the supervision team by working in the same lab but in a different section. Having Edona’s interests in mind, right away she shared the link to her. The one and only condition that Edona would joined a PhD was just there a click away. As Edona got the link in time she could go through the job advert, research about it and write a powerful SOP. After different tasks and an interview for the extremely competitive role Edona got the position and is now part of the BioTrib Research Group.

Moral of the story is that:

Everything you want in life is a relationship away

Idowu Koyenikan

Building ties can save your time, bear you stress and if you know how to use it, it will be a powerful tool for your personal and professional development. Therefore, we suggest: Do not be afraid of sharing your ambitions and interests with people and always stay connected.

Featured Image: Edona Hyla with Yasmin Hayatgheib

This article was written by Edona Hyla, one of BioTrib’s newest Early Stage Researchers at the University of Leeds as part of a series of articles curated by BioTrib ESRs.