Current research activities focus on the development of functional biomaterials scaffolds and validation of their biocompatibility, and include:
Maria Chatzinikolaidou received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Essen, Germany and her doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the same university in 2004. Her PhD work focused on the immobilization and release kinetics of recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein 2 (rhBMP-2) from metal implant surfaces, under the supervision of Prof. H.P. Jennissen. From 2004 to 2006 she was a post-doctoral associate at the University Medical School of Essen working on the development of novel bioactive dental and bone implants. From 2006 to 2008 she was a post-doctoral fellow supported by the EU ENTER program at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, FORTH, performing research on biosensing protein and cell interactions with titanium surfaces. From 2007 to 2010 she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Technology of the University of Crete teaching courses on Biological Materials and Composite Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. In 2010 she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Department of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete (tenured 2014; promoted to Associate Professor 2019). She served as Chair of the 28th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) held in Athens (2017), and Program Chair of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) EU Conference held in Rhodes (2019). She is a Fellow in Biomaterials Science and Engineering (FBSE, elected 2020) of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUS-BSE) and International Fellow of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (FTERM, elected 2023).