Departmental homepageProfessor Best is a materials scientist whose specialist area is 'biomaterials' and she was awarded a PhD from Queen Mary University of London in 1990. She continued her research there, in the IRC in biomedical materials, where she led bioceramics research for around ten years. She then moved to the University of Cambridge to take up a Lectureship in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy and joined St John's College as a Fellow in 2000.
Professor Best teaches biomaterials and ceramic courses in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy. She is also a Supervisor for Part IA students taking Materials Science in the Natural Sciences (Physical) Tripos.
Professor Best is co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials (CCMM), a major research group within the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, along with Professor Ruth Cameron. CCMM comprises a research group of approximately 20-25 students and postdoctoral researchers, including materials scientists, mathematicians, biologists, biochemists, physicists and surgeons. The main focus of Professor Best's research is the development of 'scaffolds' for hard- and soft-tissue repair and regeneration. Her work aims to optimise the physical, chemical and biological environment presented by the scaffolds to enhance cell response. By choosing materials that are closely based on those that occur naturally in the human body, it is possible to create implantable three dimensional environments into which tissue can grow. In addition to scaffolds intended for implantation, she is also interested in creating tissue models that offer improved insights and understanding in the progression and treatment of disease.
Cyr, J. A., Husmann, A., Best, S. M., Cameron R. E., Complex architectural control of ice-templated collagen scaffolds using a predictive model, Acta Biomaterialia.
Ellermann, E., Meyer, N., Cameron, R. E., Best, S. M., In vitro angiogenesis in response to biomaterial properties for bone tissue engineering: a review of the state of the art, Regenerative Biomaterials 10, rbad027.
Nair, M., Johal, R. K., Hamaia, S. W., Best, S. M., Cameron R. E., Tunable bioactivity and mechanics of collagen-based tissue engineering constructs: A comparison of EDC-NHS, genipin and TG2 crosslinkers, Biomaterials 254, 120109.
Abbas, Y., Brunel, L.G., Hollinshead, M.S., Fernando, R.C., Gardner, L., Duncan, I.,Moffet, A., Best, S. M., Turco, M. Y., Burton, G. J., Cameron, R. E., Generation of a three-dimensional collagen scaffold-based model of the human endometrium, Royal Society Journal Interface Focus 2020 10 (2), 20190079.
