Xiayi Liu, Doctor of Philosophy by the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol

Xiayi Liu successfully defended her PhD Thesis  on the 23rd of August, 2022, at hte Dorothy Hodgkin Building of the University of Brisol (UK).

The thesis, directed by Prof. Bo Su and Dr. Angela Nobbs, studied "Antimicrobial titanium implants with 2D nanostructured surfaces". More specifically, the aim of her work during the doctorate was to fabricate 2D nanoflakes on Ti or Ti alloy substrata using a cost-effective and scalable technique, and to conduct a detailed assessment of the antibacterial properties of such surfaces, including at the mechanistic level. This was to be achieved via the following specific objectives: a) Fabricate and characterise nanoflake surfaces on Ti or Ti-6Al-4V substrata using hydrothermal or alkaline etching techniques, respectively; b) Determine bacterial responses to these nanoflake surfaces using a range of biological assays; and c) Explore the influence of bacterial cell surface properties on bacteria-nanoflake interactions.

Dr. Liu was an ESR of the BioTUNE project and carried on a 3-month secondment at INS-UNSAM (Argentina), under the supervision of Dr. Diego Pallarola.