Group 2 – Drug/ion/cell delivery

Research directions: 

• Development of local drug delivery systems in the bone tissue regeneration field using bone cements, hydrogels, organic/inorganic composites, and bioceramic scaffolds as matrices
• Development of microencapsulated drug delivery systems
• Development of controlled-release ion delivery systems
• Development of cell delivery systems

Fields of expertise: controlled release drug delivery systems, bioceramics, hydrogels and composites for local drug delivery, microencapsulation of pharmaceutically active substances.

Scientific direction leader- Prof., Dr.sc.ing. Dagnija Loca		Prof., Dr.sc.ing. Kristine Salma-Ancane
ORCID-ID: 0000-0001-8056-791X		ORCID-ID: 0000-0001-9215-0097
Prof., Dr.sc.ing. Dagnija Loca is the director of Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre and the direction leader of the group 2 (Drug/Ion/Cell delivery) within the BBCE project. She has a broad international cooperation experience with academy and industry, being the coordinator of Baltic Research Programme project No. EEA-RESEARCH-85 (EGGSHELL, 2021-2024), LSC project (iBone, 2020-2022), partner of EURONANOMED II ERA-NET project (POSTURE, 2015-2018), as well as being the WP/task leader in several H2020 projects. Her expertise encompass materials science, the development of drug delivery systems and analytical chemistry, as well as the management of human resources. She has supervised 5 postdoctoral researchers as well as 5 doctoral, 13 master's and 17 bachelor's theses.		Prof., Dr.sc.ing Kristine Salma-Ancane defended her PhD Thesis in Materials Science (subfield Biomaterials) in 2012. Since 2013, she has been elected Leading Researcher of RTU RBIDC. Since 2018, she has been elected Head of the Study Department of General Chemical Engineering at RTU. She has over 10 years of experience in bone biomaterials R&D and the development of calcium phosphate-based composites and injectable hydrogels. Dr Salma-Ancane has national and international cooperation experience; currently, she is a work package leader in H2020 Project No. 952347 “RISEus2”, task leader in H2020 Project No. 857287 “BBCE”, and a coordinator for Fundamental and Applied Research in a programme project “inBioBone”. Since 2021, she has been elected as the Corresponding Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and, since 2023 - the President of the Latvian Materials Research Society. In 2016, she was awarded by the L`ORÉAL Latvia "For Women in Science" with support from UNESCO Latvian National Commission and Latvian Academy of Science for the work “Development of Nanostructured Biocomposites with Antiosteoporotic Properties”, and in 2016 she was awarded with the honorary title “Young Scientist 2016 of Riga Technical University”.

Dr.sc.ing. Liga Stipniece

ORCID: 0000-0001-5472-7684
Leading researcher at Riga Technical University.
Assistant Professor at Riga Technical University.
Liga Stipniece obtained a Ph.D. in 2017 by defending a Thesis in Materials science.
She has more than ten years of scientific experience developing biomaterials for bone tissue engineering, including antimicrobial biomaterials and inorganic-organic biocomposites.
In the BBCE project, L. Stipniece studies the feasibility of hydroxyapatite particles - alone or as biocomposite fillers - for local delivery of antibacterial ions and bacteriophages to prevent biomaterials-associated infections.


Dr.sc.ing. Inga Jurgelane

ORCID ID:0000-0001-6862-1311
Dr.sc.ing. Inga Jurgelane received her PhD in Chemical Engineering in 2015.
She has participated as a performer/researcher in 10 national projects. In 2023 she finished her postdoctoral research about activated carbon and hydroxyapatite containing adsorbents for heavy metal removal from water. Now, Dr. Jurgelane works in M.ERA.NET project “Bioactive injectable hydrogels for soft tissue regeneration after reconstructive maxillofacial surgeries (INJECT-BIO)”.
Dr. Jurgelane has supervised 5 Bachelor's and 5 Master thesis.


Postdoctoral researcher, Dr.sc.ing Öznur Demir

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1783-7582
Dr.sc.ing Demir, with a background in biomedical engineering, successfully defended her PhD thesis on the development of injectable bone cements at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 2020. Since 2021, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher at RTU RBIDC, specializing in the development of calcium phosphate cements, synthesis of bioactive glass, and their structural and in vitro characterization. Within the scope of the BBCE project, Dr. Demir's research focuses on the development of calcium phosphate and bioactive glass-based bone cements for drug/ion delivery in the treatment of bone cancer and bone regeneration.


PostDoc Fellow Ashish Pandit


ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0374-3291
Graduated from the Institute of Chemical Technology (Mumbai, India) in 2021 with a PhD degree in Pharmaceutics.
Previously was associated with Johnson and Johnson India as a Scientist.
Research experience is related to development and life cycle management of pharmaceutical dosage forms, polymer processing and drug delivery.
Currently, as a PostDoc researcher at BBCE, the main role would be contributing towards biomaterial research including ceramics and associated drug delivery aspects in the healthcare sphere.



PhD student: Ilijana Kovrlija


ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4796-0469
4^th year PhD student in Chemistry, materials science and technology program at Riga Technical University (RTU). 
In 2018 Ilijana received a Master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, University of Belgrade.
Following a two-year industry experience, Ilijana received a Marie Curie PhD Fellowship within the PREMUROSA project and started working in Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre of RTU as a researcher, under the supervision of Professor Dagnija Loca and Professor Janis Locs.
Within the BBCE project, her areas of expertise are in biomaterial synthesis and processing, physico-chemical characterization, and drug delivery.



PhD student: Athanasia Pylostomou


ORCID ID: 0000-0003-1916-2774
Athanasia Pylostomou holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master's degree in Materials Science and Technology from University of Crete in Greece.
Currently, she is a PhD candidate at Riga Technical University, Faculty of Chemistry, Material Science and Engineering under the doctoral program of “Chemical Engineering”.
Athanasia’s primary research focus relies on bone tissue regeneration and bone cancer treatment and her work involves the fabrication of injectable calcium phosphate bone cements loaded with anticancer drugs for local drug delivery. As of recently, she is working on the application of 3D bioprinting technology in the development of new biomaterials in the field of bone tissue regeneration.



PhD student: Artemijs Sceglovs


ORCID-ID: 0000-0001-6758-4336
3^rd year PhD student in the Materials Science program at Riga Technical University (RTU).
In 2021 received a Master’s degree in Biomedicine (MMSc) from Riga Stradins University (RSU).
Currently working in Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre of RTU as a researcher in project “inBioBone” and additionally working as a lecturer in RTU.
Within the BBCE project, Artemijs’ expertise lay in biomaterial development, rheological investigation, and microbiology. More specifically, working on the development of chemically cross-linked polypeptide hydrogels.


Master's student: Kristine Aunina


2021. Bachelor's degree in Chemical Technology at Riga Technical University.
From 2021. Master’s student at an inter-university (Riga Stradins University, University of Latvia and Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies) study programme “Nutrition Science”.
Kristine works at RTU Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre and within the BBCE works in the tissue regeneration research field, synthisizing hyaluronic acid and calcium phosphate based biomaterials.




Master's student: Estere Oselska


ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4564-135X
Riga Technical University 2^nd year Master’s student in the study program “Chemistry and Chemical Technology”. 
In 2022 Estere got a Bachelor's degree in “Chemical Technology” from the Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry.
Within her bachelor's thesis, she worked on bone cements based on α-tricalcium phosphates for anticancer drug delivery.
Her expertise within the BBCE project are biomaterials and the development of drug delivery systems for the bone cancer treatment.




Master's student: Anna Rubina


ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5596-4232
Master’s student at Riga Technical University, studying in the faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry within the program "Chemistry and Chemical Technology." 
Working as a Research Assistant at the RTU Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry, General Chemical Technology Institute.
Currently involved in the research project “Injectible bioactive biocomposites for osteoporotic bone tissue regeneration (InBioBone)”.



Master's student: Anastasija Tumilovica



ORCID ID: 0009-0009-4348-8521
2^nd year Master’s student at Riga Technical University in the study program “Chemistry and Chemical Technology” of the Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry.
Currently working within the BBCE project in the biomaterial research field, more specifically on the development of injectable composite hydrogels containing hydroxyapatite nanoparticles and hyaluronic acid for osteoporotic bone tissue regeneration.




Bachelor's student: Marta Laizane




ORCID ID: 0009-0007-6408-3377
4th-year Bachelor student at Riga Technical University, in the study program “Chemistry and Chemical Technology”.
Works at Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre in the field of calcium phosphate-based materials for hard tissue bone regeneration.
In the BBCE project her scientific research is based on creating a controlled release drug delivery systems for local drug delivery of pharmaceutically active substances.





Bachelor's student: Betija Grinberga


ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3719-9394
4-th year bachelor student in the study programme “Chemistry and Chemical Technology” at the Faculty Materials Science and Applied Chemistry of Riga Technical University. 
Identified future fields of activity – materials science and chemistry technologies. 
Betija’s expertise are preparation and characterization of physically cross-linked hydrogels.
Within the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence, she works on researching how the physically cross-linked hydrogels are combined with different calcium phosphates into multifunctional composites for bone tissue engineering.