The Department had a strong presence at the EAO Congress 2026 in Lisbon, where researchers from our group presented work ranging from implant decontamination and wound healing to advanced 3D imaging and regenerative biomaterials.
The meeting produced a particularly memorable result for Satar Yousefiasl, who received the prize for Best Basic Research.
Satar joined the department earlier this year as a PhD candidate in the SHIELD Doctoral Network, where he is working on new non-antibiotic strategies for debridement and decontamination of implant-associated infections.
His award-winning presentation on novel hydrogels for peri-implant decontamination and regeneration is a collective collaboration among everyone involved in the MISFAITH project; therefore, this award should not be seen as an individual achievement, but as a reflection of our collective effort to find new biomaterials to treat peri-implantitis. The scientific foundation was developed together with colleagues including Qiang Wang, Reem Jamous, Qianli Ma, Maryam Rahmati, Ståle Petter Lyngstadaas, Maria Permuy, Augustine Saiz, Thaqif El Khassawna, Fernando Muñoz Guzón, Antonio González Cantalapiedra, Kent Leach, Florian Wieland, and many others across the collaborating teams worldwide.
He recognised this early in his PhD, and it reflects research built through a much broader collaborative programme in biomaterials, inflammation and tissue repair.
From implant decontamination to regenerative biomaterials
The department contributed several oral presentations across the congress.
Ingvild Nysæther presented “Multi-scale assessment of scaffold-guided regeneration in human extraction sockets using an ultra-porous TiO₂ biomaterial.” Her work focused on evaluating an ultra-porous titanium dioxide scaffold can be evaluated across different length scales in human extraction sockets, linking biomaterial design to clinical regeneration.
Marco Santacroce presented “Peptide-enriched hyaluronic acid gels modulate inflammatory and tissue repair markers in a porcine skin wound model: Comparison with enamel matrix derivative.” The study examined how peptide-enriched hydrogels influence early wound responses and tissue repair.
Håvard J. Haugen presented “Peptide-enriched HA hydrogel enhances bone repair under polytrauma-induced inflammation,” extending the group’s hydrogel research into bone healing under systemic inflammatory conditions.
Together, the presentations reflected a recurring theme in the department’s research: biomaterials are not simply passive scaffolds, but can be designed to influence the local biological environment and early healing response.
Poster studies across healing and regeneration
The congress also included several poster contributions from the group.
Satar presented “Systemic versus local delivery of mesenchymal stem cells for fracture healing in a polytrauma model.” The study compared intravenous administration with local delivery of cells in a hyaluronic acid hydrogel and explored how the route of delivery affects cell retention and early repair responses.
Marco presented “Dual Synthetic Proline-Rich Peptides in Cross-Linked Hyaluronic Acid Gel Modulate Early Healing Responses in Porcine Wound Model.” The work investigated how two synthetic peptides used together in a hyaluronic acid gel influence inflammatory and tissue-remodelling pathways during early healing.
Håvard presented “Can Synthetic Amelogenin-Inspired P6 Support Cartilage Regeneration? A Sheep Osteochondral Pilot Study.” The pilot study tested whether adding the P6 peptide to a hyaluronic acid hydrogel could support cartilage and underlying bone repair.
The range of studies illustrates how similar biomaterial platforms can be explored in very different biological settings — from skin and bone to cartilage and implant-associated infections.
Torben Hildebrand presents advanced 3D imaging
The department’s contribution was not limited to regenerative materials.
Torben Hildebrand was lead author of a featured digital presentation in the ePoster programme, “Enabling 3D assessment of oral tissue interfaces and vascular networks with correlative contrast-enhanced micro-CT.”
Together with Mario Romandini, Gianluca Plotino, Yolanda Humphris, Håvard Jostein Haugen and Liebert Parreiras Nogueira, Hildebrand presented work using contrast-enhanced micro-CT to visualise complex oral tissues in three dimensions.
The method is designed to provide high-resolution information about soft- and hard-tissue interfaces, blood vessels and biomaterials while preserving their spatial organisation.
This adds an important imaging dimension to the department’s research: while new biomaterials are being developed to influence tissue responses, advanced 3D methods are also needed to understand precisely how those responses unfold around materials and within tissues.
Research built through collaboration
The work presented in Lisbon reflects a broad international research effort involving colleagues at the University of Oslo, UC Davis Health Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, IBONELAB SL, Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and Corticalis AS, among others.
The research has been supported by the Research Council of Norway supported this research through MISFAITH and DEBRIGEL, together with the EU Horizon Europe/MSCA SHIELD Doctoral Network. Complementary support across the collaborative studies has come from NIH, AO North America Trauma, the Orthopaedic Trauma Association, the China Scholarship Council and Innovation Norway.
For the Department of Biomaterials, the congress highlighted the breadth of the group’s work — from developing new treatments and regenerative materials to understanding tissue responses and visualising them in three dimensions.
Congratulations to Satar on the Best Basic Research award, and to the whole team for representing BIOMAT at EAO 2026.
