Aditya Kale (ESR 8) of the Bio2Brain consortium had the opportunity to conduct a 2-month long, (from 14th August 2022 to 14th October 2022) secondment at Contipro with the guidance of ESR 13, Seth Asamoah and under the supervision of Dr. Martin Pravda. This secondment was planned to conduct experiments, focused on crosslinking kinetic experiments and rheological studies of Hyaluronic acid. The secondment was very well planned as Aditya received helpful training in experimental research. They were able to complete this training in 3 weeks. Experiments carried out include loss modulus and gain modulus measurement of 2 different derivatives of Hyaluronic acid namely, native hyaluronic acid and Tyramine derivative of hyaluronic acid at 2 different concentrations for each derivative. Photo crosslinking experiments were also carried out to perform drug release experiments in a similar fashion, 2 derivatives of hyaluronic acid at 2 different concentrations. These experiments were helpful in gaining valuable experience in using different experimental apparatus.
After 3 weeks, Aditya and Seth started with muco-adhesion experiments for 3 different derivatives of hyaluronic acid. These experiments will be helpful in validating the computational molecular models developed for mucoadhesive simulations. These experiments are still ongoing, and the results so far have been promising and hint towards a deeper collaboration between two ESRs.
A special thanks and appreciation of efficient collaboration is given to everybody who was involved in the success of this secondment, more specifically in the Hydrogel group at Contipro.
During Aditya’s stay in Dolni Dobrouc (Czech Republic), the surrounding nature and friendly attitude of the people improved it. The wilderness around the company adds to the beauty of this small town.
Overall, it was a very positive experience to work at Contipro, collaborate with different people, get an opportunity to visit beauty of Czech Republic and I have gained more ideas on how to further work on my PhD project.
