Welcoming Yomna Badran to the NOMAD team!

Yomna works at the Chemistry and Structure of novel Materials (CSnM) group, University of Siegen, Germany. Together with Manuela Killian and Swathi Naidu Vakamulla Raghu they are researching how we engineer implant surfaces at the nanoscale to help them work better with the human body.

Their recent paper, “Surface-Activated Zirconia Nanotubes with UV-Assisted Mg Deposition: Novel Bioinstructive Implants” (Journal of Functional Biomaterials, 2026), tackles a question at the heart of NOMAD’s mission: how do you get an implant surface to actively encourage healthy bone to form around it?

Working with zirconia nanotubes – tiny tube-like structures grown on the implant surface – Yomna and colleagues decorated them with magnesium using a light-assisted (UV) electrochemical process. The result: surfaces that promoted more mineral (apatite) formation, the same mineral that makes up natural bone, while also resisting corrosion better than untreated surfaces. In short — a surface that doesn’t just sit passively in the body, but actively invites the bone to bond with it.

It’s exactly the kind of “bioinstructive” thinking behind NOMAD’s approach to smart dental solutions — implants that do more than fill a gap.

Welcome aboard, Yomna — looking forward to seeing where this research goes next!

🔗 Read the paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4983/17/3/158

🔗 Connect with Yomna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yomna-badran-629903167/