Project Description
I am Margarida and joined the BIOMEND Marie Skłodowska-Curie Industrial Doctorate Network in September 2025 and is pursuing a PhD focused on the preclinical validation of bioabsorbable endovascular medical device (EMD) prototypes. My research centres on the development and application of histological and pathological methods to evaluate the biological response and functional performance of small-scale bioabsorbable devices, with a particular focus on coronary stents.
The project combines academic and industrial expertise and is carried out at Maastricht University (MERLN Institute for Technology-Inspired Regenerative Medicine), with a secondment at Implantatpathologie. I am supervised by Martijn van Griensven, Prof. Dr. med. Benita Hermanns-Sachweh, and Jurica Bauer.
My main objectives of the PhD project:
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Assess in vivo biocompatibility of bioabsorbable EMDs in small animal models in accordance with ISO 10993-1
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Evaluate the acute functional performance of selected devices that have passed in vitro verification
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Develop and apply histological and pathological methods to assess bioabsorbable alloy-based EMDs
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Support the preclinical validation pipeline within the BIOMEND network
Recruiting partner
MERLN, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
PhD enrollment
MERLN, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
Secondment host
Implant Pathology, Aachen, Germany
Lead Supervisors
Prof. Dr. Martijn van Griensven (Maastricht)
Prof. Benita Hermanns-Sachweh (Implant Pathology)
