In this series, the WTUN has invited colleagues who successfully applied for funding to reflect on their experience of collaboration via the World Technology Universities Network, the impact of this partnership and plans for future research/inter-network collaboration. Speakers will also deliver a short presentation on their current research focus.

Exchange: University of Bradford to Universiti Technologi Malaysia (6-22 September 2022)

The main aim of this research exchange was to start a joint collaboration between UK-Malaysia to fabricate a synthetic blood vessel that mimics the natural arteries. Researchers at the UoB already selected/fabricated a suitable biomaterial (Poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) and poly (lactide-co-glycolic-acid) (PLGA) for this purpose. There is a need of collaboration between two WTUN institutes to develop this medical device and carry out various characterisation experiments.

During his visit to UTM, Dr Sefat delivered a lecture 'How to make artificial organs and treat diseases using tissue engineering and regenerative medicine', toured a number of laboratories at UTM and also had the opportunity to visit Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Join us to learn more about Dr Sefat's experience of the WTUN funded exchange opportunity and the impact and ongoing collaboration and research that this supported and helped to facilitate.

About Dr Sefat:

Dr Farshid Sefat is Associate Professor and programme leader in Biomedical and Electronic Engineering Department at the University of Bradford (UK) and previously was head of Biomedical Engineering Department at King Faisal University (Saudi Arabia) and also a Visiting Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology (New Jersey, USA). He completed his post doctorate research assistant at University of Sheffield (UK) in the area of cornea tissue engineering. He received his Ph.D. (2013) and BEng. (2005) degrees from University of Bradford (UK) both in Biomedical Engineering mainly focus on bone cell engineering. He also obtained his MSc. (2006) in Cell and Tissue Engineering from Keele University (UK).

His research is based on developing biomaterials to control cellular behaviour with particular emphasis in developing engineered materials for various tissue engineering applications. He is an author on >100 peer-reviewed journal articles, editorials, and review papers, >50 book chapters and 8 edited books. He is on the editorial boards and reviewer of >30 numerous journals including Materials Today, Acta Biomaterialia, IEEE, Bone, MDPI, Journal of Orthopaedics & Rheumatology, Materials Science and Engineering C, Journal of Biomechanics and many more.

Research Interest:

His research interest is mainly tissue engineering of soft and hard tissue including cornea, skin, breast, ligament/tendon, bone as well as investigating early diagnosis and treatment of glioblastoma, breast cancer, prostate, and ovarian cancers. For the past 11 years, Dr Sefat is focusing his research on Cornea Tissue Engineering with special attention to full cornea fabrication and replacement. For the past 5 years, he is working on fabrication and characterization of vascular graft using electrospinning technique. Management of the vaginal biofilm is another interesting research conducted in his lab. Currently he is supervising 20 Undergraduate and postgraduate research students in his lab.

WTUN Exchange Programme Series - ‘University of Bradford visits UTM'