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 direction leader of Group 2 (Drug/Ion/Cell Delivery) within the BBCE project. She has extensive international cooperation experience with academia and industry, serving as the coordinator of the Baltic Research Programme project No. EEA-RESEARCH-85 (EGGSHELL, 2021–2024) and the LSC project (iBone, 2020–2022), as well as a partner in the EURONANOMED II ERA-NET project (POSTURE, 2015–2018). Additionally, she has been a WP/task leader in several H2020 projects. Her expertise encompasses materials science, the development of drug delivery systems, and analytical chemistry, as well as human resource management. Previously, she held the position of director at the Rudolfs Cimdins Riga Biomaterials Innovations and Development Centre. Furthermore, she has supervised six postdoctoral researchers, as well as five doctoral, 15 master's, and 19 bachelor's theses.		Prof., Dr.sc.ing. Kristīne Salma-Ancāne is the lead researcher of Group 2 (Drug/Ion/Cell Delivery) within the BBCE project. She has extensive experience in the research and development of bone biomaterials, as well as in international cooperation in the fields of bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. She has been actively involved in the implementation of various national and international projects. In recent years, she has been the coordinator of the Fundamental and Applied Research Program project inBioBone (2021–2023), the leader of the work package of the H2020 project No. 952347 RISEus2 (2021–2023) and currently the task leader in the H2020 project No. 85722 BBCE. Since November 2024, she has been the Director of the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering. In 2023, she was elected as a Full Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences and became the President of the Latvian Materials Research Society.

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.

Postdoctoral researcher: Ilijana Kovrlija, PhD

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4796-0469
Ilijana Kovrlija obtained her PhD in Engineering and Technology from Riga Technical University in 2024 and her Master’s degree in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the University of Belgrade in 2018. She has been a member of the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering (IBB) since 2020, initially as a PhD candidate within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN programme – PREMUROSA, conducting her doctoral research under the supervision of Professors Dagnija Loča and Jānis Ločs. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher within the IBB. Ilijana has completed four scientific secondments at CAAD – University of Eastern Piedmont (Novara, Italy), CIRIMAT – University of Toulouse (Toulouse, France), and AALTO University (Helsinki, Finland). Her research interests include biomaterial synthesis, processing, and characterization, as well as the development of drug delivery systems.

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.

Scientific assistant: Estere Oselska, Mg.Sc.Ing.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-4564-135X
In 2024, Estere Oselska obtained a Master’s degree in “Chemistry and Chemical Technology” from Riga Technical University. She is currently working as a Scientific Assistant at the RTU Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering. Her work within the BBCE project focuses on biomaterials and the development of drug delivery systems for bone cancer treatment. Specifically, her research involves bone cements based on α-tricalcium phosphates for anticancer drug delivery.

PhD student: Anna Rubina, Mg.Sc.Ing.

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5596-4232
Anna Rubina is a PhD student at Riga Technical University, studying in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology within the program "Chemistry, Material Science and Technology."
In 2024 Anna received a master degree of Engineering Science in Chemical Technology and works as a research assistant at the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering under the supervision of Prof. Kristine Salma-Ancane.
Within the BBCE project, her areas of expertise are bone biomaterial synthesis, processing, and characterization. Anna mainly works on injectable composite hydrogels for bone regeneration.

Masters student: Marta Laizane, Bc.Sc.Ing.

ORCID ID: 0009-0007-6408-3377
Marta Laizane is a first-year Master’s student in the study program “Material Science and Nanotechnologies” at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology at Riga Technical University. Currently she works at the Institute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, in the field of calcium phosphate-based materials for hard tissue bone regeneration.
In the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence project, her scientific research is based on creating a controlled release drug delivery systems for local drug delivery of pharmaceutically active substances.

Masters student: Betija Grinberga, Bc.Sc.Ing.

ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3719-9394
Betija Grīnberga is a first-year Master’s student in the “Material Science and Nanotechnologies” study programme at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology, Riga Technical University. Her primary areas of interest lie in materials science and chemical technologies. Her expertise includes the preparation and characterization of physically cross-linked hydrogels. Within the Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence, she is researching the integration of physically cross-linked hydrogels with various calcium phosphates to develop multifunctional composites for bone tissue engineering.