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RMS Foundation, Bettlach, Switzerland
Dr. Marc Bohner holds a MSc and PhD degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Lausanne (1990, 1993). His career included positions as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology of Zurich. In 1998, he joined RMS Foundation, a private research and testing lab located in Bettlach, Switzerland. Currently, he serves as a research director and leads the “Bioceramic & Biocompatibility Group”. His interests include the synthesis, production, and use of calcium phosphates for bone repair.
He holds over fifteen distinct patents, is the inventor of 4 commercial products, and has published and presented widely in his field (≈130 articles; h = 50-60). He has given 140 invited lectures in English, French, and German. His teaching positions have included adjunct and affiliated appointments at the University of Sherbrooke (2004 – 2019), the University of Berne (2011 – present), and ETH Zurich (2009 – present).
His services to the scientific community include: Editor of Acta Biomaterialia (2008 à; IF = 10.6); Co-chair of the annual congress of the European Society for Biomaterials (2009); Secretary, vice-president and president of the Swiss Society for Biomaterials (2004 – 2012); Secretary and president of “GRIBOI” (2007 – 2016); Secretary and then treasurer of the European Society for Biomaterials (2013 – 2021); Member of the Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2016 – present). In 2013, he received a “honorary life membership” from the Swiss Society for Biomaterials. In 2014, he was awarded the “Racquel LeGeros Award” of the “International Society for Ceramics in Medicine” for his contribution to calcium phosphate research. In 2016, he became “honorary president” of GRIBOI.
University Clinics of Dental Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Professor Susanne Scherrer received her D.D.S (1984), her doctorate (1986) and her Privat Docent (2003) from the University Clinics of Dental Medicine, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
She is Full Professor in the Division of Fixed Prosthodontics-Biomaterials, Head of Biomaterials and Head of Continuing Education. Prof. Scherrer is the current President of the University Clinics of Dental Medicine (2022-2025). She is a Fellow of the Academy of Dental Materials and Academy of Prosthodontics. She has served as President of the Academy of Dental Materials (2002-2004), and President of the Dental Materials Group of the IADR (2001-2002). In 2014 she was awarded the IADR-Distinguished Scientist Wilmer Souder Award from the Dental Materials Group.
Her primary area of research and publishing involves dental ceramics, mechanical properties, clinical longitudinal trials and failure analysis using fractography. She has worked as a general practitioner from 1984 until 2015 in extramural family private practices half of her time. She currently serves on the Editorial Boards of the JADA Foundation Science, and the Swiss Dental Journal.
RMS Foundation, Bettlach, Switzerland
Nicola Döbelin studied Earth Sciences at the University of Bern, Switzerland, from 1998 to 2002. In 2000 he spent three months in South Africa for a field work project before receiving his Master’s degree in 2002 for a thesis on the thermal stability of ion-exchanged natural zeolites studied by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. From 2002 to 2006 he worked on his PhD thesis on ion exchange in synthetic titanosilicate phases under supervision of Prof. Thomas Armbruster at the University of Bern. During this time, he became an expert on X-ray powder diffraction and Rietveld refinement. After receiving his PhD in 2006, Nicola started working as a senior scientist at RMS Foundation in Bettlach, Switzerland, with a focus on research, development, and characterization of bioceramics, specifically of calcium phosphate bone-graft substitutes. In 2010 he became deputy quality manager at RMS and specialized on validation of analytical methods. From 2015 to 2019 he took a part-time position as a senior lecturer at the Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern. Since 2016, Nicola leads the bioceramics team at RMS. Thanks to his many years of research on synthetic bone graft substitutes, he is now a recognized expert for the synthesis and characterization of calcium phosphate bioceramics.
Empa, Dübendorf, Switzerland
Prof. Dr. Thomas Graule is Head of the Laboratory for High Performance Ceramics at Empa. He studied Inorganic, Analytical and Organic Chemistry, following he completed his PhD at Max Planck Institute for Materials Research, Stuttgart. After working as a scientist at Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, as an assistant professor in advanced shaping techniques at ETH Zürich and in ceramics industry as Head of R+D in a Swiss SME he joined Empa in 1999. Thomas is appointed Professor for Nanoparticle Synthesis and Nanocomposite Technology at the University of Freiberg, Germany, visiting professor at the University of Science and Technology, AGH, in Krakow, PL, and lecturer at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Main competence are in (nano) powder synthesis, surface modification of powders, water filtration technologies and advanced shaping techniques.
Thomas developed within the last 20 years a general concept for the understanding of inorganic/ceramic particle interactions with organic molecules, relevant for the evaluation of new surfactants and dispersants for ceramic dispersions. He applied these concepts for the advanced shaping of ceramic materials, e.g. by direct coagulation casting DCC, gel casting, casting of reactive slurries by tape casting and applying stereolithography
Thomas is active in dissemination of ceramic science and technology within lectures at ETH, Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg and Technical University of Krakow, AGH, and within seminars and talks at different conferences.
Senior researcher at RMS Foundation, Bettlach, Switzerland
Dr. Yassine Maazouz holds an MSc from the European School of Material Science and Engineering (EEIGM, Université de Lorraine, France) and a PhD degree in Materials Science from the UPC (Technical University of Catalonia, Spain). His PhD dealt with low temperature 3D printed calcium phosphate scaffold by robocasting. He is an expert on calcium phosphate based bone graft substitutes and is trained and experienced in both academic and industrial R&D. His experience ranges from material science to preclinical and clinical research on biomaterials. He is co-author of more than 19 articles and participated in many international conferences as speaker. Yassine Maazouz is co-founder of Mimetis Biomaterials a spin-off company of the UPC that was recently sold to the Swiss based dental implant multinational Nobel Biocare AG; he has acted as CTO and member of the board of directors of the company for 5 years and has extensive experience in bone graft substitutes development and certification (2 products placed on the European market). He is now a senior researcher at RMS Foundation involved in product development in collaboration with medical device manufacturers.
RMS Foundation, Bettlach, Switzerland
Christoph Stähli obtained a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Materials Science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and a Ph.D. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where his research focussed on the angiogenic potential of copper-doped bioactive glasses in tissue engineering applications. He also holds a CAS in Management of Biotech, Medtech & Pharma Ventures from EPFL. At RMS Foundation since 2015, he provides materials testing and consulting services to customers from the MedTech industry and develops new analytical methods tailored to meet regulatory requirements of medical devices. In parallel, he conducts research on the physicochemical properties of synthetic calcium phosphate bone substitute materials, with a focus on crystalline structures and their transformations during sintering. He is (co-)author of more than 15 peer-reviewed publications.
Senior Scientist Chemical Processes and Materials, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen PSI,
Switzerland
Dr. Andrea Testino received his master’s degree in Industrial Chemistry (2000) and PhD in Material Science (2004) from the University of Genoa (Italy). He did post-doctoral studies at EPFL (CH), University College London (UK), and then staff Research at University of Milan (Italy) working on ceramic nanoparticles synthesis and characterization. In 2007 he joined the company TDK-EPC in Austria as Senior Development Engineer working in the Ceramic Components Division on Innovative Themes. In 2011 he joined the Paul Scherrer Institut as Senior Scientist, establishing the Advanced Nanopowders Synthesis group. The scientific focus of the group is on fundamental aspects of nanoparticles formation and characterization. The applied synthetic approaches are selected among those that allow the collecting of time-resolved experimental data and might be scaled to larger quantities. The investigation method has been applied for the preparation of nanomaterials, as metals (Ni, Ag, Au, Pt), simple and complex metal oxides (CexZr(1-x)O2, perovskites, spinels), doped oxide (noble metal doped CexZr(1-x)O2), and sparingly soluble salts such as calcium carbonate, silicate, phosphate, and aluminum sulfate hydrate, studying the influence of polymers on formation kinetics. The study of the formation mechanism is based on the accurate collection of experimental data combined with the population balance modeling, and synchrotron-based in-situ investigation. The produced materials are used in several applied fields, from catalysis to cementitious material to biomedical devices. Ceramic synthesis, processing, and characterization is carried in other two laboratories, mainly dedicated to industrial collaborations in the field of catalysis and biomaterials. He is teaching on “Ceramics and Colloids” at EPFL and PhD thesis director. The scientific activity is summarized in about 70 contributions and 12 patents, some of them worldwide granted.
University Zurich, Zurich Switzerland
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Franz Weber graduated from the University Konstanz (Germany) with a PhD in Biology/Muscle Biochemistry. He completed a 3-year postdoctoral training on muscle cell biology at Cornell University Medical College in New York City and served as a lecturer in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy. He spent the following two years at Biochemistry of the ETH Zurich working on the lipid uptake from the small intestine. In 1995, he joined the Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery at the University Hospital Zurich. Beside his obligations at the University of Zurich, he became Director of the European Technical Center of Inion Ltd in Cambridge (UK) in 2005 and occupied this position until 2009. His research encompasses additive manufacturing, bone substitutes, osteoconduction, bone morphogenetic proteins, delivery systems, epigenetics, bone and pulp tissue engineering. Franz E. Weber has authored 134 peer-reviewed research articles published in international journals amounting to more than 7050 citations, 16 patents, several review articles, book chapters, and an h-index of 39. He is member of TERMIS (Tissue Engineering international & Regenerative Medicine Society), IADR (International Association for Dental Research), DKG (German Ceramic Society), ACerS (The American Ceramic Society), and SSB+RM (Swiss Society for Biomaterials and Regenerative Medicine).
He is currently appointed as Professor of Craniofacial and Oral Biotechnology at the Center of Dental Medicine, member of the Medical and the Science Faculty of the University of Zurich, and as visiting Professor in the Dental School at the University of Hong Kong.
01 February 2023
26 April 2023
6 July 2023
6 July 2023
