Biomaterials

Biography

Ipsita Roy is a microbial biotechnologist with special expertise in bacterial-derived biodegradable polymers. She is currently a Reader at the School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK. She was awarded the prestigious Inlaks Scholarship and the Overseas Research Students Award to study for her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. During her time at Cambridge she was awarded the Churchill College Scholarship, the Lundgren Scholarship, Leche Trust Scholarship and the Cambridge University Philosophical Society Fellowship Award. Her postdoctoral work was at the University of Minnesota, USA, at the Bioprocess Technology Institute, where she worked on fatty acid biosynthesis. She taught at the Indian Institute of Technology, India, for four years as an Assistant Professor. During this time she worked actively on the production of biodegradable polymers from Streptomyces. She has been at the University of Westminster since 2000 and leads the Applied Biotechnology Research Group.

Ipsita Roy’s group is currently focused on the production of novel Polyhydroxyalkanoates, PHAs, a family of biodegradable and biocompatible polymers produced by bacteria under nutrient limiting conditions. Her group has pioneered the production of PHAs from Gram positive bacteria such as Bacillus sp., which lack immunogenic properties and hence are highly suitable for medical applications. These include applications in the area of hard tissue engineering, soft tissue engineering, wound healing and drug delivery. She has published over 100 research papers in her area, chaired and organized sessions and presented her work at numerous international conferences. She is an editor of the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology (JCTB) and has edited an ‘In Focus’ Journal on Biodegradable Polymers, a special issue of the JCTB.

Currently she is editing another In Focus issue on ‘Drug Delivery’. She regularly reviews manuscripts for many journals including Biomaterials, Bio-macromolecules, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Journal of Applied Physics, Material Science and Engineering, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Tissue Engineering, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Biotechnology Journal and Reactive and Functional Polymers. She is on the BBSRC, NSERC, Canada, FWF, Austria and NSFC, China, grant-reviewing panels and is the Vice Chair, Biotechnology section, SCI, London, UK. She has been appointed expert in the field of Materials Science and Engineering by the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research (ANVUR).She has also been appointed by the European Research Council Executive Agency, "ERCEA" to the panel involved in the peer review evaluation of proposals.

Research Interest

Tissue engineering, Drug delivery, Molecular Enzymology, Quorum sensing, Elicitation, Bacterial metabolism, Fungal interactions, Carbohydrate biochemistry and Nanobiotechnology