Dr Sophie C Cox was appointed as a Lecturer in the School of Chemical Engineering and the Healthcare Technologies Institute (HTI) at the University of Birmingham (UoB) in September 2016. Her research is dedicated to innovating a new generation of medical devices that are multi-functional and improve patient outcomes. To achieve this, she brings together multidisciplinary expertise in advanced manufacturing and biomaterials, which is underpinned by mechanistic understanding gained from a variety of physicochemical and biological characterisation methods.

In 2018 Dr Cox established the HTI’s Centre for Custom Medical Devices (CMD) ), a facility that is dedicated to the application of AM technologies in healthcare. CMD was co-founded with world leading industrial partner Renishaw PLC whom are the only UK manufacturer of metal 3D printers. Since creation, Dr Cox has led CMD to develop further fruitful connections with UK businesses, including a number of SMEs.

Dr Cox has published over 30 peer reviewed articles (h-index 11), industrial white papers, and filed several patent applications. Her research has also been featured on the BBC and in leading professional magazines, including The Chemical Engineer (IChemE).

Sophie's key current areas of research include:

• Additive manufacture of mechanically and therapeutically customised metallic implants

• Modification of medical devices to reduce infection risks

• Structuring biomaterials to controllably deliver novel therapeutics

• Manufacture, characterisation and use of cell-derived nanoparticles for musculoskeletal regeneration

• Multi-modality analysis of the bone – cartilage interface, including dynamic mechanical analysis and micro-computed tomography