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.