PhD project title and outline, including interdisciplinary dimension:
Extraction of biomolecules from renewable sources for the manufacturing of biomedical materials

The present project proposal will be focused on the use of compounds from renewable sources for the development of biomedical materials. We believe that this project is highly interesting as it will be pursuing the development of sustainable biomaterials and includes three different research areas, namely chemical/agricultural engineering, pharmaceutical sciences and microbiology.

The global consumption of fossil fuels continues to increase. Consequently, extensive efforts have been made to find green and sustainable alternatives for material production. Ligno-cellulose materials have attracted significant attention due to their potential to reduce energy consumption and associated pollution by replacing conventional synthetic materials.

The present project will be focused on extraction and characterization of renewable polymers for use in preparation of biomedical materials. The two main biomolecules selected are lignin and nanocellulose. Nanocellulose, a unique and promising natural material extracted from native cellulose. This material is being increasingly use as a biomedical material, because of its remarkable physical properties. Lignin is a highly available molecule commonly treated as waste. However, due to its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties and low price it has potential for biomedical applications.

The chemical/agricultural engineering part of the project will be supervised by Dr. Rodríguez and it will be focused on extraction of lignin and cellulose from different sources such as wheat/rice straw or banana tree residues. The extracted molecules will be fractioned and characterized. The pharmaceutical part of the project, supervised by Dr. Eneko Larrañeta, will be focused on the use of the extracted materials to prepare drug eluting implants, oral drug delivery systems or to develop coatings for medical materials. Finally, the antimicrobial properties of the medical materials will be evaluated under the supervision of Prof. Brendan Gilmore.

Primary supervisor: Dr Eneko Larrañeta (Pharmacy)
Secondary supervisor: Professor Brendan Gilmore Professor (Pharmacy)
Third Supervisor: Alejandro Rodríguez Pascual (Chemical Engineering Department, Science Faculty, Universidad de Córdoba, Spain
External Partner/Organisation: INNOUP FARMA