Many North Americans rely on orthopedic implants to lead comfortable lives, with increasing implant needs seen every year with aging populations. Patient-specific health conditions prevalent in elderly populations, such as osteoporosis, can further impact implant needs and overall peri-implant repair. Further, the biomineralization processes behind tissue repair at inorganic-organic interfaces are complex and far from being understood, though eliciting biomineralization mechanisms will help us better control them, leading to improvements in osseointegration.
Dr. Liza-Anastasia DiCecco,
Pennsylvania State University
In this research seminar, Dr. Liza-Anastasia DiCecco will overview her research addressing North America’s growing implant needs by shedding light on fundamental biomineralization processes key to hard tissue repair. Her two-faceted research program focuses on: 1) the design and evaluation of customizable patient-specific implants for musculoskeletal applications using additive manufacturing methodologies, and 2) advanced multiscale characterization, specifically involving novel liquid electron microscopy techniques to explore biomineralization dynamics in real-time at the nanoscale.
Dr. Liza-Anastasia DiCecco is a postdoctoral scholar in biomedical engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. Her postdoctoral training is supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Banting Fellowship, the most prestigious Canadian postdoctoral fellowship. She holds a Ph.D. in materials engineering from McMaster University and was supported by the NSERC Vanier Scholarship, the highest-valued Canadian doctoral fellowship.
Her research interests focus on two facets that include the design and evaluation of customizable patient-specific implants for musculoskeletal applications as well as advanced multiscale characterization, specifically involving novel liquid electron microscopy techniques.
She also holds a Master of Applied Science in Materials Engineering and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, both from the University of Windsor, where she first researched additive manufacturing processes and their influence on material properties, a foundation for the design of novel orthopedic biomaterials.