Professor Ipsita Roy

PhD, MSc, BSc

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Professor of Biomaterials

Professor Ipsita Roy
Profile picture of Professor Ipsita Roy
i.roy@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 5962

Full contact details

Professor Ipsita Roy
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
Profile

Previously to joining the Department of Material Science and Engineering as Professor of Biomaterials, she was Professor at the School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London. She is also Visiting Professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London.

Professor Roy was awarded the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship and the Overseas Research Students Award to study for her PhD at the University of Cambridge. During her time at Cambridge, she was awarded the Churchill College Scholarship, the Lundgren Scholarship, Leche Trust Scholarship and the Cambridge University Philosophical Society Fellowship Award.

Her PhD at the Department of Biochemistry was on a B12-dependent enzyme, methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. Her postdoctoral work was at the University of Minnesota, USA, at the Bioprocess Technology Institute, where she worked on fatty acid biosynthesis.

Subsequently, Professor Roy taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, India, for four years as an Assistant Professor. During this time she worked actively on the production of biodegradable polymers from Streptomyces.

Professor Roy was at the University of Westminster from 2000 until August 2019, where she was the Research Director of the School of Life Sciences and lead the Applied Biotechnology Research Group.

She has published over 100 papers in high ‘Impact Factor’ journals such as Biomaterials, Biomacromolecules, Journal of Royal Society Interface, Acta Biomaterialia and ACS Applied Materials Interfaces, and has presented her work at numerous international conferences.

Research interests

Natural Polymers of bacterial origin and their use in medical and environmentally friendly applications.

Her group is currently focussed on the production of novel Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), a group of FDA-approved natural polymers and their characterisation. She has pioneered the production of PHAs from Gram positive bacteria which lack immunogenic properties and hence are excellent materials for medical applications. Her group is involved in the application of PHAs in the area of hard tissue engineering, soft tissue engineering, wound healing, drug delivery and medical device development. She has also initiated work with bacterial cellulose and γ-polyglutamic acid, as natural polymers for biomedical applications. PHAs are also environmentally friendly polymers that are biodegradable both in the soil and in the sea. She has recently initiated work related to this aspect of PHAs.

Her work has been funded by the EPSRC, BHF, EU, DuPont, 3D BIONET (MRC), CYCLOPS (EPSRC) and WESTFOCUS, London. Professor Roy has been the scientific coordinator of two large EU projects REBIOSTENT, worth 4.9 million Euros with 14 consortium members and HYMEDPOLY, worth 3.5 million Euros with 12 consortium members. She was also the work package leader of another large EU FP7 project, NEURIMP, worth 4.4 million Euros with 8 consortium members.

Currently, she is work package leader in the H2020: BBI/JU project POLYBIOSKIN worth 3 million Euros with 12 consortium members. All four projects involve the use of PHAs for medical applications, drug eluting biodegradable stents, nerve guidance conduits, antibacterial polymers and wound healing. She is co-PI in the BHF funded Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Centre led by Imperial College London. She has received EPSRC funding for the development of smart wound healing patches (CYCLOPS) and drug eluting biodegradable stents.

She was awarded the ICURe, Innovation to Commercialisation, grant worth £34,905 from Innovate UK for exploring the commercial potential of Biobased Plastics for Medical Applications. She has an ongoing UKERI project on the development of a 3D disease model for cancer. She has been awarded a H2020: BBI/JU grant, ECOAT, where for the first time she will be exploring the green and environmentally friendly aspect of the PHAs and bacterial cellulose for the development of eco-sustainable multifunctional bio-based coatings with enhanced performance and end of life options. This project is worth 4.6 million and includes 16 partners.

Finally, her most recent grant is from the 3D BIONET and involves the development of 3D cardiac tissue model and includes mathematical modelling in collaboration with the University of Oxford and Imperial College London.

Publications

Books

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

  • Gregory DA, Fricke A, Hanson R, Crawford A & Roy I (2023) Tissue repair with multimaterial biomedical devices fabricated from sustainable biopolymers. TISSUE ENGINEERING PART A, Vol. 29(13-14) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Basnett P, Nigmatullin R, Lukasiewicz B, Rodríguez FJ, Pacharra S, Mendibil X, Ortiz R, Quintana I, Merino S, Salber J , Onganer PU et al (2019) Polyhydroxyalkanoates: A family of natural polymers, for medical implant development and disease modelling. Transactions of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials and the Annual International Biomaterials Symposium, Vol. 40 (pp 760) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Dubey P, Humphrey E, Majid Q, Grigsby C, Stevens MM, Terracciano C, Harding SE & Roy I (2019) Polyhydroxyalkanoates, ideal materials for cardiac regeneration. Transactions of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials and the Annual International Biomaterials Symposium, Vol. 40 (pp 442) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Valderrama LRL, Nigmatullin R, Taylor C, Haycock JW, Claeyssens F & Roy I (2015) Nerve Tissue Engineering using Blends of Polyhydroxyalkanoates for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration. TISSUE ENGINEERING PART A, Vol. 21 (pp S325-S325) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Lizarraga-Valderrama LR, Nigmatullin R, Taylor C, Haycock JW, Claeyssens F & Roy I (2015) PERIPHERAL NERVE REGENERATION USING BLENDS OF POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES. JOURNAL OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, Vol. 20(2) (pp 185-185) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Dubey P, Boccaccini AR & Roy I (2014) Novel Cardiac Patch Development Using Natural Biopolymers (pp 159-175) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Amache R, Sukan A, Safari M, Roy I & Keshavarz T (2013) Advances in PHAs production. Chemical Engineering Transactions, Vol. 32 (pp 931-936) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rai R, Boccaccini AR, Knowles JC, Mordon N, Salih V, Locke IC, Moshrefi-Torbati M, Keshavarz T & Roy I (2011) The homopolymer poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) as a matrix material for soft tissue engineering. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 122(6) (pp 3606-3617) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bagdadi A, Boccaccini A & Roy I (2011) Production of medium chain length polyhydroxyalkanoates in recombinant Bacillus subtilis. 24th European Conference on Biomaterials - Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials RIS download Bibtex download
  • Panchal B, Knowles J, Priestley J & Roy I (2011) Production of polyhydroxyalkanoates by pseudomonas mendocina using vegetable oils as the sole carbon source. 24th European Conference on Biomaterials - Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials RIS download Bibtex download
  • Basnett P, Smith C, Boccaccini A, Knowles J, Keshavarz T & Roy I (2011) Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA)/Bacterial Cellulose composites for biomedical applications. 24th European Conference on Biomaterials - Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials RIS download Bibtex download
  • Rai R, Boccaccini AR, Knowles JC, Locke IC, Gordge MP, McCormick A, Salih V, Mordon N, Keshavarz T, Roy I , D’Amore A et al (2010) Fabrication of a novel poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate) ∕ nanoscale bioactive glass composite film with potential as a multifunctional wound dressing. V INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TIMES OF POLYMERS (TOP) AND COMPOSITES RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bretcanu O, Misra SK, Roy I, Salih V, Hellmich C & Boccaccini AR (2008) Optimisation of bioglass®-derived scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. 8th World Biomaterials Congress 2008, Vol. 3 (pp 1262) RIS download Bibtex download
  • Misra SK, Mohn D, Brunner TJ, Stark WJ, Philip SE, Roy I, Salih V, Knowles JC & Boccaccini AR (2008) Nano- versus micron-sized bioactive glass reinforcement of P(3HB) - Are nano-fillers the way forward?. 8th World Biomaterials Congress 2008, Vol. 2 (pp 863) RIS download Bibtex download

Preprints

  • Milazzo M, Gallone G, Marcello E, Mariniello MD, Bruschini L, Roy I & Danti S (2020) Biodegradable Polymeric Micro/Nano-Structures with Intrinsic Antifouling/Antimicrobial Properties:Relevance in Damaged Skin and Other Biomedical Applications, arXiv. RIS download Bibtex download
Research group

Research Associates:

PhD students:

  • Isabel Orlando (submitted) Novel hydrogel-based hybrid antibacterial polymers for wound healing applications (University of Westminster)
  • Sheila Piarali (submitted) Novel Antibacterial Agents for Innovative Antibacterial Polymers (University of Westminster)
  • Alexandra Paxinou (in progress) Novel Antibacterial Polymers of Natural Origin (University of Westminster)
  • Elena Marcello (in progress) PHA based Antibacterial Polymers for Tissue Engineering (University of Westminster)
  • Qasim Majid (in progress) PHA based regeneration of cardiac tissue (Second Supervisor, in collaboration with Professor Sian Harding, Imperial College London)
  • Maria Leite (in progress) The Biology of the surface of Mars (Second Supervisor, in collaboration with Professor Lewis Dartnell, University of Westminster)
  • Rebecca Barthenilla Garcia (in progress) Production of PHAs using sustainable biomass (Second Supervisor, in collaboration with Professor Lewis Dartnell, University of Westminster)
  • Anabelle Fricker (University of Sheffield)
  • Emmanuel Asare (University of Sheffield)
Teaching interests
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Biochemistry
  • Molecular Biology
  • Biomaterials
  • Bioengineering
  • Tissue Engineering
  • Regenerative Medicine
  • Biotechnology
  • Drug Delivery
Professional activities and memberships
  • Editor of the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (JCTB)
  • Previously special editor of two In Focus Issues of JCTB on Biodegradable polymers and Controlled Drug Delivery
  • Grant reviewing panels for:
    • Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
    • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
    • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
    • Austrian Science Fund (Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, FWF), Austria
    • National Natural Science Foundation of China
    • European Social Fund
    • MUIR
  • Best Chemistry Undergraduate Student Award, St. Stephen's College, 1984, 1985, 1986
  • Professor Seshadri Prize for being the best candidate in the BSc (Hons) Chemistry, University of Delhi, 1986
  • Best Biotechnology Masters Student Award, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 1988
  • Overseas Research Studentship from the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, UK, 1989-1991
  • The Inlaks Scholarship, India, for doctoral studies at Cambridge, 1989-1990
  • Churchill College Scholarship, University of Cambridge, UK, 1991
  • Lundgren Scholarship, University of Cambridge, UK, 1992
  • Leche Trust Scholarship, London, UK, 1992
  • Cambridge University Philosophical Society Fellowship Award, Cambridge, UK, 1992
  • Nominated member of the New York Academy of Sciences in recognition of research activities, 1997