Our Team

Principal investigator

Salwa Suliman

Biography

Trained as a dentist from University of Khartoum in Sudan, Salwa established herself as an interdisciplinary researcher specialised in translational and basic experimental research focused on bone tissue engineering. Salwa completed her PhD in the Tissue Engineering Group, University of Bergen, where she was awarded Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry’s best PhD prize in 2015. Her research focused on efficacy and biocompatibility of bioactive scaffolds delivering growth factors for bone regeneration.

She continued as a researcher and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bergen with a research stay at Department of Applied Oral Sciences at The Forsyth Institute and Harvard School of Dental Medicine, USA (2019-2020).

Salwa is now a Principal Investigator leading a research node on ‘immune-driven regeneration’ within the Tissue Engineering Group. Her research focuses on understanding and harnessing the role of the immune system in improving bone regeneration. Salwa was awarded the Meltzer Prize for Outstanding Young Researchers (2020) and she is a member of the Young Academy of Norway (2021-2025)

Project

Trond Mohn Foundation Starting Grant (Immune-Driven Tissue Regeneration) (2021-2025)

FRIPRO Young Researcher Talent (Harnessing Regulatory T cells to Enhance the Efficacy of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Bone Regeneration) (2021-2025)

Publications

CRISTIN link

Team members

Eylem Baysal

Natalia Fiesco Arango

Senior Resercher

Tarig Al-Hadi Osman

Biography

Born in Sudan, Tarig has a background as a dental surgeon from the University of Khartoum, and in 2014 he completed his PhD focusing on cancer stem cell related markers in normal and neoplastic oral mucosa at UiB. He spent his post-doc period in CCBIO at UiB performing experimental studies of breast cancer subtypes. Since 2016, he has worked as senior Bioengineer in the Nephrology research group at UiB within preclinical drug testing in renal cancer and renal fibrosis models. He joined the tissue engineering group since May 2019 and has been functioning as a research coordinator.

Projects

Publications

CRISTIN link

Postdoctoral fellow

Cecilie Gjerde

Biography

Cecilie Gjerde graduated as cand. odont at University of Bergen in 1999, and she finished her specialty in Oral and Maxillofacial surgery at UiB in 2006. She worked at Haukeland University Hospital from 2002-2008. She was head of the clinical education for students and residents at the Section of Oral Surgery and Oral Medicine at UiB since 2008. From 2012 she has a research position focusing on stem cells and tissue engineering. She has a part time referral clinic for oral surgery.

She has published several scientific papers and given more than 150 invited lectures at national and international conferences. In 2020 she completed her PhD focusing on mesenchymal stem cell in bone regeneration in clinical trials at UiB. She won the Norwegian Grand Prix 2015 for Scientific Presentations and in 2016 she was awarded both the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry`s price for scientific communication and the dental students award for best lecturer. In 2017 she was given best educator price from the final year dental students.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Postdoctoral Fellow

Mariann Haavik Lysfjord Bentsen

Position

50% postdoc fellow + senior consultant in neonatology at Haukeland University Hospital

Projects

The title of her project is “Wharton’s jelly stem cell therapy for complications of extremely preterm birth”.

She works to investigate the properties of perinatal stem cells found in the umbilical cord tissue (Wharton’s jelly), and to test the effect of these cells in vitro on various types of tissue damage, including a lung organoid model.

She compares Wharton’s jelly stem cells from prematurely born versus healthy term born babies, to clarify whether autologous cell therapy with the prematures’ own stem cells is feasible. The long-term goal is to use these cells as treatment for neonatal complications, especially lung- and brain damage caused by preterm birth.

Postdoctoral fellow

Mohammed Ahmed Yassin

Biography

Mohammed is a Dentist with specialization in Periodontology holds Ph.D in Bone Tissue Engineering. His Ph.D research was the interaction between Stem Cell and 3D polymeric scaffolds to regenerate bone. Recently, he is focusing in developing biomaterials (natural and synthetic) and applying 3D printing technology to develop in vitro models and tissues regeneration. In addition, he is working in developing and understanding the effect of dynamic culture conditions on Stem Cells. He is responsible for Micro-computed topography (Micro-CT) core facility at Department of Clinical Dentistry, UiB.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Postdoctoral fellow

Samih Mohamed Ahmed

Biography

Born 1986 in Sudan and graduated as a dentist from University of Gezira, Sudan. In 2019, he completed his PhD at UiB focusing on stem cell-based bone regeneration. He is now a post-doc in the Tissue Engineering group working with mesenchymal stem cells from multiple sources and different biomaterials for bone regeneration, in addition to other applications.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Postdoctoral fellow

Niyaz Abdulbaqi Al-sharabi

Biography

Born in Yemen, has a background as a dental surgeon from the University of Science and Technology and in 2016 completed his PhD focusing on mesenchymal stem cell paracrine factors in tooth tissues healing and regeneration after injury, department of dentistry, UiB. He is now a post-doc in the Tissue Engineering group working on multidisciplinary projects, including application of stem cells in maxillofacial and orthopedic regions: Clinical Trail phase III.

Publications

CRISTIN link

POSTDOCTRAL FELLOW

Siddharth Shanbhag

Biography

Siddharth is a dentist from Mumbai, India, with a special interest in Periodontology and Implant Dentistry. His PhD thesis (University of Bergen, 2020) explored progenitor cells in dental tissues, in addition to bone marrow, and the use of platelet-derivatives and 3D spheroid culture to promote their capacity for bone regeneration.

Siddharth is currently a postdoctoral researcher and dentist in the Tissue Engineering group and Institute for Clinical Dentistry. His research is focused on the use of cellular secretory factors and cell-conditioned media for bone and peri-implant tissue regeneration in preclinical studies.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PhD Candidate

Øyvind Goksøyr

Biography

Norwegian dentist since 2012. Currently a research fellow and has been working in the tissue engineering group since 2017. Fields of interest are bone tissue engineering and oral surgery.

Projects

In his project he is using modified synthetic polymer scaffolds as a carrier for bone marrow stem cells to promote mineraliser tissue repair.

RESEARCHER

Mohamad Nageeb Hassan

Biography

Graduated as a dentist 2006, Alexandria University – Egypt, has interdisciplinary experience on dental biomaterials, in vivo and clinical bone tissue engineering research. He participated in several relevant international projects, published 10 journal papers, worked as a visiting researcher at KIT (Germany).

Projects

He is currently working on 3D printing of composite templates, as a research fellow at Tissue Engineering Group, UiB.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PostDoc

Azzurra Margiotta

Biography

Azzurra is a Post-doc in the Tissue Engineering group (Immune-driven tissue regeneration node). She graduated in 2009 in Biotechnology at University of Salento. She completed her MSc. in Human Biology in 2011 at University of Salento where she obtained an award for her thesis. She has been a PhD student in Genetics and cell biology (University of Tuscia) and contributed to several publications, collaborations and attended courses abroad. She obtained two awards for her research activity. She defended her PhD thesis in 2016 and obtained the mark excellent and the title of Doctor Europaeus (EUA). Afterwards, she has been a researcher at University of Oslo and a post-doc at University of Masaryk/FNUSA in Czech Republic.  

Projects

Her project is part of the STEMreg (Immune-driven tissue regeneration) project funded by the Trond Mohn Starting Grant 2020. Her research is focused on understanding the mechanism through which mesenchymal stem cells and regulatory T cells regulate bone regeneration. 

Publications

ResearchGate

CRIStin

CRISTIN link

PhD Candidate

Hassan Mohamed Abdel-Raouf Ali

Biography

Born in 1990, in Bergen, Norway. Awarded a BDS from the University of Science and Technology in Sudan in 2012, and an M.Phil in Oral Sciences from UiB in 2017. He is currently a PhD candidate at UiB, in Prof. Kamal Mustafa’s group at the department of Clinical Dentistry. His current PhD work is focused on the analysis of induced pluripotent stem cells and their potential to differentiate into mesenchymal stem cells.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Resercher

Neha Rana

Biography

Born and raised in India, Neha is a researcher in Tissue -engineering group. She is a biochemist (M.Sc. Biochemistry, Ph.D Tissue Engineering) and has worked in oral cancer and tuberculosis groups in India before moving to Norway.

Projects

Her project deals with studying mechanistic interactions between immune cells and MSCs in context of bone regeneration.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PhD Candidate

Shuntaro Yamada

Biography

Shuntaro is a Japanese qualified dentist and Ph.D candidate in the Tissue engineering group in the University of Bergen. After working as a clinical fellow in Kanagawa Dental University and Tokyo Dental College in Japan, he completed his M.Sc in Regenerative Dentistry at the Centre for Craniofacial and Regenerative Biology, King’s College London, UK, in 2018, woking on tooth morphogenesis and epithelial tissue invagination.

Projects

His current research interest focuses on developing bioreactor systems for bone tissue engineering, mechano-transduction, and cytoskeltal regulation under fluid flow stimuli.

Field of Competence

Cell signalling research, Advanced microscopy, Cell/tissue culture

Publications

CRISTIN link
Research Gate

PhD Candidate

Jannika Korkeamäki

Biography

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Projects

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Publications

CRISTIN link

PHD CANDIDATE

Francesco Torelli

Biography

Francesco is an Italian licensed Special Needs Dentist and Craniofacial Biologist. In 2020, he graduated from the Centre for Regenerative and Craniofacial Biology at King’s College London, with an M.Sc. In Regenerative Dentistry working on salivary glands progenitor/stem cells in murine models and organoids. He started his Ph.D. Fellowship with the Tissue Engineering Group in June 2021 and is currently associated with the Bonefix Consortium, collaborating with partners in Sweden, Denmark, France, and Switzerland. 

His main areas of interest and research focus on developing segmental & critical size bone defects regenerative solutions and non-titanium-based osteosynthesis fixation patches alternatives for complex fractures management for maxillofacial and orthopedic surgical applications.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PHD CANDIDATE

Natalia Fiesco Arango

Biography

Born in Colombia in 1992, Natalia is a Biologist graduated from the University of Valle, Colombia in 2012. She completed her M.Sc at the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 2016, focusing on the biological and immunological interactions between host cells and parasites. Natalia is now a Ph.D. candidate in the Immune-Driven Regeneration research node in the Tissue Engineering group. Her Ph.D. research is part of the RCN funded Young Talent project ‘Harnessing regulatory T cells to enhance the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-based bone regeneration’. Natalia researches the role played by the adaptive immune system, particularly Tregs, in controlling the stem-cell based bone regeneration.

PHD CANDIDATE

Eylem Baysal

Biography

Eylem is a PhD candidate in the Immune-Driven Regeneration research node at the Tissue Engineering group. She graduated with a B.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences from Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey and received a MSc. in Stem Cell Sciences from Hacettepe University, Turkey. During her masters, Eylem examined the effect of melatonin on the Hippo signalling pathway in dental pulp stem cells. During her master program, she contributed to several interdisciplinary projects and did an internship in Bramham Lab at The Department of Biomedicine, UiB.  

Projects

Her PhD project is part of the STEMreg (Immune-driven tissue regeneration) project funded by the Trond Mohn Starting Grant 2020. Her research is focused on deciphering the molecular mechanisms involved in the crosstalk between regulatory T cells and bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the context of bone regeneration.

CRIStin

CRISTIN link

PHD CANDIDATE

Masoumeh Jahani Kadousaraei

Biography

Masoumeh completed her both B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering in the University of Guilan, Iran. She started her Ph.D. in the Tissue Engineering Group of UiB in 2021. Before coming to UiB, she did an internship in the Biomedical Engineering group of Eindhoven University of Technology (Tue) to learn about tissue engineering. 

Projects

Her Ph.D project aims to develop multicomponent bioinks for bone tissue engineering applications.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PHD CANDIDATE

Theo Luciani

Biography

Projects

His PhD project is focused on the development of a hybrid 3D (bio)printed substitute for large bone defects.

Publications

CRISTIN link

PHD CANDIDATE

Nora Marek

Biography

Nora attended the Maastricht Science Programme for her Bachelors at Maastricht University, the Netherlands and continued her education at Lund University, Sweden. She graduated in 2021 from Lund University with a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology. Nora has joined the Tissue Engineering group as a PhD candidate in the Immune-driven tissue regeneration node. 

Projects

Nora will be working in the RCN funded Young Talent project ‘Harnessing regulatory T cells to enhance the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-based bone regeneration’. Her research focus will be on designing and optimising next-generation immune-instructive scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.  

Publications

Complete Pubmed list

CRIStin

CRISTIN link

Ph.D Candidate

Mehmet Serhat Aydin

Biography

Serhat is a Kurdish PhD candidate who received his Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in chemical engineering and materials science, sequentially.

His PhD project is part of larger projects titled “3D Printed Engineering Nano-Composite Templates for Bone Regeneration (3DPRENT)ˮ and “Let’s Make Bone” funded by the Norwegian Research Council (RCN) and Olav Thon Foundation, respectively.

The aim of the current PhD project is to design 3D-printed building blocks that can be combined in a multi-site scaffold system that mimics the anatomical and biological properties of the mandibular condyle.

Linkedin

Linkedin

CRIStin

CRISTIN link

Research programme student

Jonar Hagenes

Biography

Medical student in the preclinical years. Accepted to the medical student research programme at the faculty of medicine with the tissue engineering group at the department of clinical dentistry.

PhD Candidate

Elisabeth Carlström

Biography
From Sweden, obtained degree in dental surgery at The Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University 2005. Completed the postgraduate program in periodontology at Department of Clinical Dentistry, University of Bergen 2019.

Projects

Currently a doctoral candidate within the field of regenerative research, with focus on stem cell-free bone regeneration in inflammatory microenvironment.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Head Engineer

Siren Hammer Østvold

Biography

Siren as Chief Engineer/Laboratory Coordinator for the Research Laboratory at IKO, her administrative tasks are responsible for the operation and maintenance of the Research Laboratory. Meanwhile she is also coordinating of resources both human and equipment. Professional tasks are Cell biology, Histology, Immunohistochemistry and purchasing manager.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Senior Engineer

Ying Xue

Biography

Born in China, has a background as a dental surgeon from the Xi’an Jiaotong University and in 2011 completed her PhD focusing on the Interactions between endothelial and bone marrow stromal cells of relevance to bone tissue engineering at UiB. She is now a senior engineer in Kamal’ group

Projects

Her work involves experimental studies of bone regeneration, biomaterial characterization and cellular responses of nanomaterials.

Publications

CRISTIN link

Senior Engineer

Kaia Lindstrøm Berstad

Biography

Kaia Berstad, engineer of the biological laboratory, has her education in genetics from University College Dublin and has previously worked in quality assurance in the pharmaceutical industry. Her main areas are the Bioplotter 3D-printer and cell laboratory along with training new users, general maintenance work, rules and routines and more.

HEAD ENGINEER

Hisham Saghayroon Abdalla

Biography

Hisham Saghayroon Abdalla has a background as a medical laboratory technologist, with long experience in clinical chemistry & Quality control, graduated from Sudan University of Science and Technology. After completed his master’s degree on Medical Cell Biology at UiB, he has been in charge with cell culture and various experimental and administrative research methods in the lab.

Publications

CRIStin link

Head of the Financial Section

Liv Rebecca Arnedatter Aae

Biography

 Originally from Sweden, Liv Rebecca has been resident in Norway since 1998. She holds a bachelor’s in economics and Administration and a Master of Management, both from the Norwegian Business School BI in Bergen. She is the Head of the Financial section at Department of Clinical Dentistry.  Liv Rebecca has since 2009 long experience in finance and management at departments of the University of Bergen and has previous been working as accountant and as an auditor in private sector businesses.

Liv Rebecca is a certified ski instructor, doing voluntary work teaching kids to ski in her spare time. She also loves to take long walks in the mountains.

Hun er også utdannet kokk – og har arbeidet som kokk i nesten 15 år. Jeg har veldig variert bakgrunn fra hotell og restaurant bransjen.

Senior advisor

Øystein Thorsheim

Biography

Øystein completed his M.Sc. in financial economics at NTNU in 2017. Has since then worked in the private sector, mainly in the offshore shipping industry. Joined the team in September 2020.

Projects

Financial and administrative tasks for Tissue engineering group.