Function-Oriented Bioengineered Skin Equivalents

The latest research related to development of in vitro disease models that combine cells and polysaccharide-based matrices/scaffolds.- The materials used in the field of in vitro model development.- Examples of existing polysaccharide-based solutions for Preparation of novel in vitro disease models.- Outlook - future development of this field.

Tanja Zidaric is a PhD researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor (IBS MFUM), where she has acquired extensive knowledge in the field of tissue engineering, overlapping with materials science, biofabrication, cell biology, chemistry and microbiology. In addition, her research focuses on the development of electrochemical sensors designed for the detection of clinically relevant biomolecules. She is the project leader of her postdoctoral project in which a part was dedicated to the development of an in vitro skin model. Her bibliography consists of 27 units, including 11 scientific papers, 8 conference contributions, one elaborated and one patent.

Karin Stana Kleinschek  is a Professor at Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Chemical and Process Engineering, Biotechnology and a Head of Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Biobased Systems at Graz University of Technology(TU Graz), where she teaches various courses on polymers, surface properties of polymeric materials, biopolymers, biopolymers in medical application. From 2011 to 2015, she was a Vice Rector for Research and Development of the University of Maribor. From 2004 to 2016, she was the Head of the Institute of Engineering Materials and Design, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor and is Head of the Laboratory for Characterization and Processing of Polymers (LCPP), which is a part of the institute. She is a member of various scientific organizations (as Member of the scientific committee of International Conferences of Polymer Characterization POLYCHAR, Member of the Electrokinetic Society scientific board, Member of the EPNOE-ACS Conference...). She is Vice President for Research of the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE)-BIC Association. Since 2013 she is a Member of the European Academy for Science and Art and from 2014 Associate Member of Slovenian Academy of