Uroš Maver

Uroš Maver is currently in the process of obtaining the title of an Associate Professor (his active title is assist. prof.) in pharmacology and toxicology from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Maribor, where he lectures various subjects on graduate (Pharmacology with toxicology, Evidence based medicine) and postgraduate (Pharmaceutic biotechnology, Interdisciplinary biomedical analytics, Toxicology, Clinical pharmacokinetics, etc.) levels. His research opus started in 2005, two years prior to his graduation at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana, focused on advanced drug delivery systems for controlled delivery of drugs in desired (stable) polymorphic forms. He immediately continued his studies in an interdisciplinary PhD programme, Biomedicine, focusing on advanced surface functionalization for targeting desired cells/tissues and molecular resolution techniques (e.g. atomic force microscopy) in development of novel and more efficient drug delivery systems for targeting specific sites in the body and in vitro models in their preclinical evaluation. He finished his PhD studies in 2011 summa cum laude.

Uroš Maver is a member of the Slovenian pharmaceutical society, and is also part of the consortium “European Innovation Partnership for Active and Healthy Ageing”, as well as participates (and participated) in several national and EU projects related to biomedicine, drug delivery, wound healing and tissue engineering (AEROWOOD, BIOSHAPES, WoundSens, NanoBioPharmaceutics, Nanofuntampions, etc.). His bibliography consists of more than 270 units (among other 69 scientific papers, 9 invited lectures, over 120 contributions in conference proceedings, many final reports on national and international projects, 13 elaborates/innovations, 1 patent and 3 patent applications. Only recently he also obtained a grant from the Slovenian Research Agency on a project devoted to the use of biomedical engineering techniques to prepare novel diapers with incorporated probiotic bacteria for the treatment diaper rash in babies. He is currently also the head of the Research programme “Bio-psycho-social model of quality of life”, which is funded by the Slovenian Research Agency as part of the so-called “stable financing” scheme, providing continuous research funding for five years (see details here). The latest count of his citations according to google scholar is 1097 in the last 11 years and his h- and i10 indexes are 20 and 32, respectively. He is also supervising several students on different levels (master and PhD). Two of his students also finished their respective PhD studies (one in the field of medicine on the topic of treatment of chronic venous ulcers; and the other in the field of materials on the topic of using plant derived flavonoids for the treatment of chronic wounds). 3 more are enrolled in the PhD study programme Biomedical technology (all three work on topics related to regenerative medicine).

Assist. prof. Uroš Maver has been working on topics related to biomedicine for several years now. His main focus is lately regenerative medicine, where his knowledge, which overlaps material science and cell biology, with chemistry, medicine, pharmacy and biophysics, can be used to its maximum potential. Research topics, in which he is active with his research team (currently comprising 10 fully employed people – 2 senior researchers, 4 postdocs, 2 PhD students and 2 technicians, as well as several unemployed master and PhD students, which work in the lab infrequently), are: in vitro preclinical models (model materials, cell cultures, functional (2D and 3D) cell models, tissue fillers, implants, etc.), surface functionalization for achievement of bioactivity (e.g. coatings on medical grade stainless steel, TiAlV alloys, etc.), drug delivery systems (for various applications, but mostly focused on skin pharmacology), tissue engineering and wound healing (we have our own biobank of isolated human cells from various tissues, ranging from bone, to the brain), as well as molecular resolution microscopy, especially atomic force microscopy in life sciences. As part of his research, he is also leading (or co-leading) several joint projects with the University Medical Centre Maribor (with several different departments ranging from plastics, dermatology, orthopedics to ophthalmology).