Tom Gheysens

Tom obtained his MSc in Biology (option Zoology) in the Department of Biology at Ghent University in Belgium. His master thesis was focussing on the cocoon construction of Zygiella x-notata.

In the following two years he was involved in a project exploring the use of silk and spider silk in biomedical applications, focussing on soft tissue engineering (cartilage). When the project finished he became a visiting student at Oxford University and started working partly in the University and partly at OxfordBiomaterials, a spin-off company of the Oxford Silk Group, on different projects including SilkBone, Neurotex, Suturox and Orthox. In all of those projects, silk is used as a biomaterial for tissue engineering and regeneration of the desired tissue.

In October 2007, Tom got an EPSRC/BBSRC-CASE doctoral studentship for three years in which he will focus on investigating the structure, function and modifications of silks in tissue engineering. This will partly be a joint project with another DPhil student Salma Chaudhury and Prof. Andy Carr of the Nuffield Orthopeadic Centre in Oxford, in which the aim is to create a silk device for rotary cuff repair.