Sandra Van Vlierberghe

Prof Dr Sandra Van Vlierberghe

Afilliation

Polymer Chemistry & Biomaterials Group
Centre of Macromolecular Chemistry
Department of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry
Faculty of Sciences

Research focus

Sandra Van Vlierberghe (10-07-1981) is professor at Ghent University (100% BOF-ZAP, hoofddocent) since October 1st, 2017. Her research targets to establish a polymer-based platform to address a wide range of tissue engineering (TE) challenges by exploiting 3D-printing and light. Indeed, her research focusses on the development of crosslinkable (bio)polymers (i.e. gelatin, polysaccharides, synthetic polyethers, polyesters, etc.) and their processing capabilities (in the presence of cells) using 3D printing techniques to develop scaffolds for tissue engineering. In addition, she also holds a 20% research professorship at the Faculty of Engineering of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium). She has acquired expertise related to the synthesis, the modification and the processing (through 3D printing, electrospinning and two-photon polymerization (2PP)) of a variety of (bio)polymers including thermoplasts and hydrogels in the field of regenerative medicine during the last 15 years.

Research team

http://www.pbm.ugent.be/?page_id=10

Biography

Sandra Van Vlierberghe graduated as a Master in Chemistry with high distinction with majors in Polymer Chemistry in 2003 and received her PhD in Sciences in 2008, both at Ghent University (UGent). She authored 127 Web of Science Core Collection cited papers of which 120 high impact journal papers (one with an impact factor of 34.09). In addition, she also authored more than 80 conference abstracts. She has a h-index of 25 (WoS) and is (co-)promoter of 20 PhD’s (in addition to 7 defended PhD’s) and (co-)supervises 3 post-doctoral researchers. She edited two books (one was praised by Nature Photonics in ‘On our bookshelf’ 29/5/2018), authored 7 chapters in books of which 5 invited and was invited speaker at 10 international conferences and keynote as well as plenary speaker at 5 international conferences (of which 3 in 2018). She is co-inventor of two granted (WO2017/005613 A1, WO2017/162823) and two submitted patents. She is treasurer of the Belgian Polymer Group (BPG) and spokesperson of the YSF which is affiliated to the ESB. Sandra is also editorial board member of the Biomaterials Network, associate editor of Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine, academic guest editor of Materials, editorial advisory board member of Hydrogels and editorial board member of Journal of Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology and Journal of Applied Biomaterials and Functional Materials.
In 2017, she received the Jean Leray Award from the European Society for Biomaterials. This award is established to recognize outstanding research in the field of biomaterials by scientists not older than 40 years.

Key publications:

Roose, P.; Van den Bergen, H.; Houben, A.; Bontinck, D.; Van Vlierberghe, S., A Semiempirical Scaling Model for the Solid- and Liquid-State Photopolymerization Kinetics of Semicrystalline Acrylated Oligomers. Macromolecules 2018, 51 (14), 5027-5038. IF = 5.914.
Tytgat, L.; Vagenende, M.; Declercq, H.; Martins, J. C.; Thienpont, H.; Ottevaere, H.; Dubruel, P.; Van Vlierberghe, S., Synergistic effect of kappa-carrageenan and gelatin blends towards adipose tissue engineering. Carbohydrate Polymers 2018, 189, 1-9. IF = 5.158.
Van Hoorick, J.; Gruber, P.; Markovic, M.; Rollot, M.; Graulus, G. J.; Vagenende, M.; Tromayer, M.; Van Erps, J.; Thienpont, H.; Martins, J. C.; Baudis, S.; Ovsianikov, A.; Dubruel, P.; Van Vlierberghe, S., Highly Reactive Thiol-Norbornene Photo-Click Hydrogels: Toward Improved Processability. Macromolecular Rapid Communications 2018, 39 (14). IF = 4.441.
van Hoorick, J.; Gruber, P.; Markovic, M.; Tromayer, M.; Van Erps, J.; Thienpont, H.; Liska, R.; Ovsianikov, A.; Dubruel, P.; Van Vlierberghe, S., Cross-Linkable Gelatins with Superior Mechanical Properties Through Carboxylic Acid Modification: Increasing the Two-Photon Polymerization Potential. Biomacromolecules 2017, 18 (10), 3260-3272. IF = 5.738.
Van Nieuwenhove, I.; Tytgat, L.; Ryx, M.; Blondeel, P.; Stillaert, F.; Thienpont, H.; Ottevaere, H.; Dubruel, P.; Van Vlierberghe, S., Soft tissue fillers for adipose tissue regeneration: From hydrogel development toward clinical applications. Acta Biomaterialia 2017, 63, 37-49. IF = 6.383.

Contact & links:

GATE