A wonderful win in UCL’s Three Minute Thesis competition

Alexandra delivered a compelling talk on the use of regenerative medicine in restoring and conserving paintings on canvas.

In her PhD thesis, Alexandra is exploring how nanocellulose can potentially be used to restore the canvas of easel paintings, using approaches and techniques already used in medicine and tissue engineering.

Alexandra’s subjects (or patients) are usually hanging on walls of galleries or private collections and are often over 100 years old.

Like many of us, they also require the attention of a specialist who can prolong their leases of live.

Dr Laurent Bozec, Director of Research at UCL Eastman, said: "Alexandra delivered an exceptional talk, engaging the audience and judging panel with what is a very novel piece of research.

"Her research is not typical of projects carried out in our Dental Institute, but it is the perfect translation of research skills across very diverse research areas”.

“We wish her the best of luck as she moves forward, representing both the Institute and EDI, at the national levels of the competition.”

Alexandra is undertaking a PhD at the UCL Eastman Dental Institute, co-sponsored by the H2020 Project “NanoRestart” and EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Science and Engineering in Arts, Heritage and Archaeology (SEAHA)

Three Minute Thesis (3MT) was first established at the University of Queensland in 2008 and has rapidly spread all over the world.