Dr. Stefania Cometa graduated in chemistry (2003) and received a Ph.D. (2007) in chemistry of innovative materials (University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy). She carried out postdoctoral research (2007–2010) in the
group of Professor Emo Chiellini (University of Pisa, Italy). Currently (2012–today), she works as a researcher in a private company, Jaber Innovation srl. Her research interests lie in the interdisciplinary area of polymers and composite materials for biomedical and hygienic-sanitary applications. Her main expertise is focused on innovative materials formulation and modification in the field of green chemistry, as well as their characterization by means of spectroscopic (in particular, XPS and FTIR) and thermal analyses (in particular, DSC and TGA). She is a coinventor of the patented technology to produce a new
biodegradable superabsorbent polymer, SPONGEL®, winner of the INDEX™ 17 Award in Genève (Switzerland) in 2017. Finally, she is a coauthor of 68 articles published in international journals and 5 book chapters.
Prof. Dr. Elvira De Giglio is a Member of the Italian Biomaterials Society Executive Board. Her research group has long experience in the development, functionalization, and analytical characterization of
polymers for biomedical applications. Prof. De Giglio’s research activity focuses on biomaterials sciences, which require multidisciplinary skills, ranging from analytical to biomedical education. During her career, Prof. De Giglio has coordinated the research and development of innovative materials and nanotechnologies for biomedical and other applications. All these research fields include the essential role played by materials' surfaces. For this reason, Prof. De Giglio is devoted to the investigation of materials' surfaces, mainly by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Her expertise is reported in several international papers, mainly addressed to the development and surface characterization of innovative polymeric, composite, and multifunctional biomaterials. With this aim, surface analysis techniques are exploited to design and characterize biomaterials (e.g., biopolymer-based coatings, biomimetic scaffolds, antibacterial hydrogels) as advanced tools to face the unmet needs of bone and cartilage pathologies. Two main research topics are the focus, i.e., the study of composite hydrogels for tissue engineering and the preparation of electrosynthesized polymers for biomedical applications.
