Carla V. Fuenteslópez BEng MSc (Oxon)

Carla is a qualified engineer with extensive international research experience in biomedical applications and wet lab techniques. She is undertaking her PhD in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford with the Tissue Engineering and the Mechanobiology groups, specialising in microvascular trauma and vascularised bioartificial muscle. Carla also collaborates as an Expert Partner with BIOMATDB, an EU-funded project for the development of an Advanced Database and Marketplace for Biomaterials.

She has a MSc in Nanotechnology for Medicine and Healthcare (University of Oxford, 2019) and a 1st class BEng (Universidad Iberoamericana, 2016), as well as Diplomas in Global Surgery (in progress), Design & Development of Medical Devices (College of Biomedical Engineers, 2021), and Epidemiology (U.N.A.M., 2016).

She has carried out research projects in several institutions, including the Polymer Biotechnology Group at the Biological Research Centre of the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid, as well as the Tissue Engineering, Cell Therapy & Regenerative Medicine Unit of the Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación in Mexico City.

For her DPhil (PhD), Carla is developing a microvasculature construct for traumatic injury research with the aim of us. She conducts her research with the Tissue Engineering and the Mechanobiology groups, under the supervision of Prof Hua Ye and Prof Mark Thompson, respectively.

Her interests also include biomaterials, data & text mining, nanomedicine, image analysis, and global healthcare.

1. BIOMATDB – an Advanced Database and Marketplace for Biomaterials. Carla collaborates as an Expert Partner, developing and validating an open access tool which will enable a more efficient and evidence-based selection of materials for medical applications.
2. The Database of Experimental Biomaterials and their Biological Effect (DEBBIE) – an open access database of biomaterials, implants, and scientific literature designed to facilitate a more efficient access to the large literature in the biomaterials field and enable evidence-based material selection for medical application 
3. OxVent – a rapidly deployable and scalable low-cost mechanical ventilator for COVID-19 patients and low-resource settings https://oxvent.org/
4. Príncipe Past & Present – led by Carla, this project researches Príncipe’s environmental history and contemporary human-environment interactions on the island through baseline data and understanding of terrestrial ecosystems sensitive to environmental change; researching the deep-time history of terrestrial environmental change and the legacy of human impact; and better understanding local human-nature interactions. 

Publications as a First Author:

1. Mateu-Sanz, M.*, Fuenteslópez, C.V.*, Uribe-Gomez, J., Haugen, H.J., Pandit, A., Ginebra, M.-P., Hakimi, O., Krallinger, M. and Samara, A. (2023). Redefining biomaterial biocompatibility: challenges for artificial intelligence and text mining. Trends in Biotechnology. DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.09.015. *The two authors contributed equally to this paper. 
2. Fuenteslópez, C.V., McKitrick, A., Corvi, J., Ginebra, M.-P., and Hakimi, O. (2023). Biomaterials text mining: A hands-on comparative study of methods on polydioxanone biocompatibility. New Biotechnology 77:161-175. DOI: 10.1016/j.nbt.2023.09.001.  
3. Fuenteslópez, C.V., Thompson, M.S., and Ye, H. (2023). Development and Optimisation of Hydrogel Scaffolds for Microvascular Network Formation. Bioengineering 10(8):964. DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering10080964  
4. Fuenteslópez, C.V. and Ye, H. (2020). Electrospun Fibres with Hyaluronic Acid-Chitosan Nanoparticles Produced by a Portable Device. Nanomaterials, 10(10), p.2016. DOI: 10.3390/nano10102016 

Other Publications:

1. Corvi, J., McKitrick, A., Fernández, J., Fuenteslópez, C.V., Gelpí, J., Ginebra, M.-P., Capella-Guitierrez, S. and Hakimi, O. (2023). DEBBIE: The Open Access Database of Experimental Scaffolds and Biomaterials built using an Automated Text Mining Pipeline. Adv Healthc Mater. 2300150. DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202300150  
2. Beale, R., Rosendo, J.B., Bergeles, C., Beverly, A., Camporota, L., Castrejón-Pita, A.A., Crockett, D.C., Cronin, J.N., Denison, T., East, S., Edwardes, C., Farmery, A.D., Fele, F., Fisk, J., Fuenteslópez, C.V., Garstka, M., Goulart, P., Heaysman, C., Hussain, A. and Jha, P. (2022). OxVent: Design and evaluation of a rapidly-manufactured Covid-19 ventilator. eBioMedicine, 76, p.103868. DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.103868 *authors are listed in alphabetical order 
3. Corvi, J., Fuenteslópez, C., Fernández, J., Gelpi, J., Ginebra, M.-P., Capella-Guitierrez, S. and Hakimi, O. (2021). The Biomaterials Annotator: a system for ontology-based concept annotation of biomaterials text. Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Scholarly Document Processing. DOI: 10.18653/v1/2021.sdp-1.5

Awards (2019-2023):

• Next Great Impossible (2023) – Stories of Scientific Advancement by Merck Life Sciences.
• Premio Carlos Fuentes: STEM Category (2022) – Awarded to outstanding Mexican students in the United Kingdom (1 per category: STEM, Arts & Culture, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences & Humanities).
• Oxford Trust COVID Innovation Heroes Award for Medical Engineering (2021) – In recognition of the outstanding collaboration between the University of Oxford and King’s College London to design, develop and manufacture a low-cost ventilator, this award was given to the OxVent team for Outstanding Technical Leadership: Medical Engineering.
• Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Award (2021) – In recognition of the work done leading to a social change. The projects that were recognised for their positive social impact were: OxVent – a rapidly manufacturable low-cost ventilator; health care provision for refugees; mentorship programme development for underprivileged youths in Uganda; development of a Teacher’s Empowerment Platform in Uganda; and research on Palliative Care in Humanitarian Settings as a baseline for policy development for humanitarian interventions. 
• Engineer’s Collaborate to Innovate Awards, Healthcare & Medical: COVID response (2021) –  Awarded to the OxVent team for the development of a ventilator for COVID patients.
• E&T Innovation Awards – Small idea, Big impact: Global Challenge (2020) – Awarded to the OxVent team. 

Scholarships & Prizes (2019-2023):

• Funds for Women Graduates (2023)
• Mexican Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública; SEP) Prize (2021)
• Santander Academic Travel Award (2021-22)
• St Hugh’s College Travel Award (2021)
• Barbinder Watson Award (2021)
• Global Challenges Research Fund (2021)
• Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología; CONACYT) Scholarship (2019-23)
• Bank of Mexico (2019-2022)

Carla has co-supervised 4th year undergraduates from Engineering Science and Materials in their final year projects, affiliated with either the Tissue Engineering or Mechanobiology groups.. She has also helped supervise undergraduate students during summer internships with the Mechanobiology group.

Conferences & Symposia:

• 2022 – Tissue Engineering International & Regenerative Medicine International Society – Asia-Pacific Chapter (TERMIS-AP) Conference. Oral presentation – “Development of an in vitro microvasculature model for non-penetrating trauma research” & poster presentation – “Biomaterials Text Mining: A Hands-on Comparative Research on the Biocompatible Polymer Polydioxanone”.
• 2022 – 18th European Mechanics of Materials Conference. Oral presentation – “Development of an in vitro microvasculature model for trauma research”.
• 2021 – Tissue Engineering International & Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) World Congress. Poster presentation – “Electrospun fibres with hyaluronic acid-chitosan nanoparticles produced by a Portable Device” & poster presentation – “Biomaterial Data Mining: a Comparative Study of Methods on Polydioxanone Literature”.
• 2021 – 31st Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials. Poster presentation – “Data extraction using text mining methods on polydioxanone literature”.
• 2021 – XXIX International Materials Research Congress. Oral presentation – “Electrospun fibres with hyaluronic acid-chitosan nanoparticles produced by a Portable Device”.

Guest Speaker Talks:

• 2022 – ​​III Encuentro Estatal de Jóvenes Investigadores, Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Estado de Puebla (State Meeting of Young Researchers, Council of Science and Technology of the State of Puebla) – “Biomaterials Text Mining”.
• 2022 – International Women in Engineering, University of Oxford – “OxVent”.
• 2021 – IX Science and Culture Fair UAQ-CA – “Electrospun fibres with hyaluronic acid-chitosan nanoparticles produced by a Portable Device”. 
• 2021 – II Encuentro Estatal de Jóvenes Investigadores, Consejo de Ciencia y Tecnología del Estado de Puebla (State Meeting of Young Researchers, Council of Science and Technology of the State of Puebla) – “Electrospun fibres with nanoparticles”.
• 2021 – International Women in Engineering, University of Oxford – “Development of a vascularised bioartificial muscle model for trauma research”. 

Within the University of Oxford, Carla currently serves as:

• Vice-president of the Women in Engineering Network
• Treasurer of the Oxford University Exploration Club
• Treasurer of the Oxford University Lifesaving Club
• Secretary of the Oxford First Aid Society