Dr. María Godoy-Gallardo

Short Bio

Maria Godoy Gallardo is currently a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow (2024-2029) at the Biomaterials, Biomechanics, and Tissue Engineering Research Group (BBT).

Maria graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona (UB) in 2008 and in Material Engineering from UB/UPC in 2009 before completing a Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering at UPC in 2011. She then pursued her PhD at UPC from 2010 to 2015, where she worked on the development of various antibacterial coatings for dental implants to prevent peri-implantitis, and completed three external stays, including two at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Following her PhD, Maria moved to the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) just outside Copenhagen (2015-2019) with a DFF Mobilex COFUND Fellowship, where her research focused on the co-delivery of growth factors to enhance the bone-tissue response of implemented scaffolds, and developed advanced micro-reactors and artificial organelles for performing multiple enzymatic reactions within living cells. Maria was then granted a Beatriu de Pinós COFUND Fellowship, which brought her back to Spain. At the International University of Catalonia (UIC), she then concentrated on the development of 3D printable and cell-functionalized guanosine-based hydrogels for improved soft-tissue engineering, wound healing, and cartilage regeneration.

In addition to this, María Godoy received the L'Oréal-UNESCO 'For women in science' award in the Spanish 2023-2024 edition, thanks to her project to investigate and develop intelligent biomaterials to enhance the integration of tissues and their antibacterial properties.

Dr. Godoy-Gallardo has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed and indexed scientific publications and has made numerous conference contributions. Her current primary research interests revolve around developing contact-based antimicrobial properties for bone crafts and designing "smart" biomaterials and surfaces capable of responding to both physiological and external stimuli, which will allow situation-dependent "on-off" switches for a wide range of biomedical applications.