Eggshell for Biomedical Applications

Dr. Mahesh K. Sah is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biotechnology, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, Punjab, India. Dr. Mahesh received his PhD from Department of Biotechnology and Medical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, Odisha, India in 2013. After gaining post-doctoral training from Department of Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, he joined at Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh, and since January 2018 he is serving Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology Jalandhar, Punjab. He has been awarded Bharat Vikas Award-2016 and Green Thinkerz Award-2019 for his contribution in the area of biotechnology. He is working on development of natural based biomaterials for tissue regeneration equipped with advanced tools and techniques in the field aiming for green materials and techniques for tissue engineering. Dr. Maxwell Hincke is a senior scientist and tenured Full Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Hincke received his Ph.D. (Biochemistry) from the University of Alberta, Canada, followed by post-doctoral training at the Centre de Recherche en Biochimie Macromoleculaire (CNRS), Montpellier, France. His main research program is passionately focused on understanding molecular control of calcitic biomineralization, which includes innate immunity of the avian egg. Integrated defence strategies that operate at biomineralized barriers are a hallmark of sophisticated biological structures. The eggshell provides a barrier function and acts in concert with antimicrobial proteins to maintain the pathogen-free status of the egg. These two coupled features are essential for food safety of the unfertilized egg and reveal the egg / eggshell contents as a bio-inspiration for identification of novel antimicrobials. Hincke investigates how molecular control of calcitic biomineralization is exerted during eggshell calcification in parallel with multi-tasking antimicrobial strategies. His main research program is focused on biomedical applications of eggshell, eggshell membranes, and biomaterial-based antimicrobials. He is an international expert on proteins associated with the eggshell matrix and membranes, and on their functional implications in eggshell mineralization and innate immune protection of the egg. His vision is that these insights can be reverse-engineered for application to human health and therapeutics.

Dr. Tamer A. E. Ahmed is a Part-time Professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences and a Research Associate and Lab Manager at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Ahmed received his Ph.D. (Cellular and Molecular Medicine, 2010) from the University of Ottawa under the supervision of Dr. Maxwell T. Hincke after being awarded a full doctoral scholarship from the mission affairs of the Egyptian government. His Post-doctoral training was completed at the University of Ottawa Research Institute (OHRI) in Dr. Griffith's Laboratory. In 2011, Dr. Ahmed became Assistant Professor at the Medical Biotechnology Department, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technology Applications (SRTA-City), Alexandria, Egypt. In 2014, he joined Dr. Hincke's laboratory as a Research Associate and Visiting Scientist and then became a part-time professor at the Faculty of Health Sciences in 2023. Dr. Ahmed is an expert in exploiting biomaterial composition using proteomics and bioinformatics and their utilization for tissue engineering/regenerative medicine and health promotion through in vitro and in vivo models.