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The Faculty of Dentistry has recently welcomed two new postdoctoral fellows.

Dr. Esther Valliant comes to HÂþ»­ after completing her PhD at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom.  Her research there focused on creating new hybrid materials for bone tissue engineering.  These materials combine the bioactive properties of a glass with the toughness of a polymer through interactions at the molecular level.  Esther completed her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Queen's University, with an internship at Cameco's (the world's largest uranium producer).

Esther is currently working with Dr. Mark Filiaggi carrying out animal trials using a liquid embolic agent and optimizing a new bone cement for vertebroplasty.

Dr. Muhammad Sami Hasan (Sami) completed his Master's and a PhD in Bioengineering at the University of Nottingham, UK, and acquired his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at Sir Syad University of Engineering and Technology in Karachi, Pakistan. Most recently Sami has worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Nottingham. His PhD research focused on phosphate glass fibre reinforced composites for bone repair applications.

Sami has now joined Dr. Daniel Boyd's research team where he will be working on several projects involving glass microspheres for drug delivery and embolization applications and glass fibres for bone repair applications.