Education

Dr. Camarero-Espinosa was educated at the University of the Basque Country (Spain) where she obtained her BSc. degree as Chemical Engineer and M.Sc. in Engineering of Advanced Materials.

After a 2 years stay at the CICBiomaGune institute (San Sebastian, Spain) she moved to develop her doctoral studies at the Adolphe Merkle Institute (Fribourg, Switzerland). She obtained her PhD degree in 2015 in Polymer Chemistry and Bioengineering and was recognized with an award for an outstanding PhD thesis by the Swiss Chemical Society.

After gaining an early post-doctoral  fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation, in 2015 she moved to Brisbane (Australia) to work at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology where she continued her research in instructive biomaterials scaffolds and their interaction with stem cells. She then joined in 2017 the MERLN institute at Maastricht University (The Netherlands) where she focused her studies on the fabrication of additive manufactured/3D printed scaffolds for the regeneration of complex tissues.

In 2020 Sandra joined the BERC POLYMAT as an EMAKIKER and Marie Sklowdoska-Curie fellow to develop her research in stimuli-responsive scaffolds for the regeneration of the osteochondral interface.

Honors and awards

2019. Marie Sklowdoska-Curie Individual Fellowship (845488)

2018. Future Faculty Scholar by the PMSE division of the American Chemical Society

2018. EMAKIKER fellowship POLYMAT

2015. Early postdoc mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2FRP2_158734)

2015. Award to an outstanding PhD thesis by the Swiss Chemical Society

Research

Sandra's research interests revolve around the regeneration of complex tissues. The design of novel hierarchical polymeric bio(nano)materials whose physicochemical properties can be tuned mimicking nature from the molecular to the macro scale and, the effect of these ones on cell phenotype and matrix deposition are the focus of her research. In particular, the spatial control of chemical and structural properties at the nanoscale and the use of stimuli responsive materials for tissue regeneration.

Smart Materials for Tissue Regeneration

Publications