Award for young scientist Antoine Eyram Kwame from Hochschule Bremen (HSB) - City University of Applied Sciences: At the conference of the International Fibrinogen Research Society (IFRS) on Corfu, the doctoral student received an award for his conference contribution. The award is endowed with 500 US dollars. Using the protein fibrinogen, Antoine Eyram Kwame develops nanofibers, that closely mimic the structure and composition of natural blood clots and could open up new applications for regenerative medicine. The award honours his significant contribution to the field of biomaterials research.
In his conference presentation, Antoine Eyram Kwame demonstrated the conditions under which nanofibers can be produced from fibrinogen outside the human body. By understanding the molecular interaction of fibrinogen with various salts, he succeeded in establishing a reproducible method to prepare nanofibers from fibrinogen, which can be used to produce macroscopic fibre scaffolds. In doing so, he discovered new ways of predicting fiber formation, which will lead to better control of the manufacturing process in the future.
The PhD project of Antoine Eyram Kwame is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out in cooperation with Dr. Susan Köppen-Hannemann from the University of Bremen. This collaboration links Antoine Eyram Kwame's experimental work with simulations for the first time, enabling new approaches to the development of biomaterials. The young scientist is supervised at HSB by Prof. Dr. Dorothea Brüggemann, head of the interdisciplinary ‘Research Group for nanoBiomaterials’ at Faculty 4 – Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Antoine Eyram Kwame: ‘I am deeply grateful to Prof. Dr. Dorothea Brüggemann, HSB, my cooperation partners and colleagues for their invaluable support and guidance, and to the International Fibrinogen Research Society for the travel grant.’
‘I am delighted about this special recognition of Antoine Eyram Kwame's research at the International Fibrinogen Congress,’ says Prof. Dr. Dorothea Brüggemann. ‘It shows that his work makes a significant contribution to current biomaterial research.’
Prof. Dr. Dorothea Brüggemann's interdisciplinary research group develops new, bio-inspired materials from proteins that are designed to mimic the structure and function of natural tissue. The focus is on both the fabrication and characterization of these materials and the analysis of their interaction with cells and bacteria – always with a view to future applications in regenerative medicine.
On the photo: Antoine Eyram Kwame from HSB (centre) with Professor Helene Philippou (left) and Professor Martin Guthold (right), who presented him with the award at the IFRS conference on Corfu.
© D. Brüggemann
