Speaker: Dr Louise Smith, Research Fellow, Future Industries Research Institute, University of South Australia
Title: Materials to direct cell behaviour
Biography: Dr Louise Smith graduated from Queen Mary University of London in 2003 with a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng, Biomedical Materials Science and Engineering). In 2008 she graduated from the University of Sheffield with a PhD in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. Her PhD research, under the supervision of Professor Sheila MacNeil and Dr Stephen Rimmer, was to develop a hydrogel wound dressing to prevent skin graft contracture in burns patients. Louise stayed with Sheila MacNeil’s group until 2011 where she worked on a project to non-invasively image melanoma. Finally, she worked on an EU framework 7 project (funding for research and innovation from the European Commission) on the delivery of mesenchymal stem cells to wounds.
Dr Smith moved to UniSA as a research fellow in 2011 to work on Wound Management Innovation CRC projects based at the Mawson Institute. She was appointed lecturer in 2013 in the School of Engineering. Earlier this year she was reappointed as a research fellow and moved into the Future Industries Institute. Her research interests are in biomaterials for wound healing applications and cell-material interactions.
Chair: Dr Amy Holmes, Therapeutics Research Centre, UniSA, Level 2, Basil Hetzel Institute
