User:PatchUpEditsUniversal/Pia Winberg marine ecologist Australia

(Dr Pia Winberg, marine ecologist, seaweed expert) is from the NSW South Coast in the Shoalhaven region of the East coast of Australia. She studies the benefits of seaweed to both the environment and to human health. Pia became interested in studying the properties of seaweed many years ago after visiting a prawn farm in Sri Lanka.

Originally from Sweden, her family moved to Australia when she was four years old. Pia always loved the ocean and the sea so this was a factor in her choosing to learn about seaweed later on in life given it interested her. After studying and working in Wollongong as a marine ecologist (years????), for the University of Wollongong, she repurposed an old factory into a research lab and seaweed farm in Nowra, in the Shoalhaven region of the NSW coast (year?).

Pia suffered a traumatic accident on February 7th 2019 when her hair got caught in a shaft in her sea weed factory. It subsequently ripped off a section of her scalp yet she was able to save herself by holding her wound and walking to get help 200m away where the factory site office assisted her and called an ambulance. She was airlifted to St George hospital in Sydney and operated on for 5 hours. In the weeks that followed, Pia made a good recovery and in the process gained insight into her own wound recovery and how this would help with her own research about the potential benefits and use of seaweed. So her accident directly helped with her research into the product that she is so passionate about, specifically in the area of printing scaffolds from seaweed extracts to help wounds heal.

In an interview with Lindsay McDougall from the ABC's Illawarra Drive Radio program, Pia talks about the different properties of the various types of seaweeds and how they are used in different food products. One of the more fascinating points she talks about in this conversation with Lindsay is that seaweed has the potential to be a very good form of skin in saving and assisting burn victims, even better than spray on skin. When seaweed cells are merged with skin, seaweed cells can 'talk' to skin cells at a molecular level and grow cells in line with the skin type of the human that it is transplanted to. These remarkable qualities make it suitable for skin transplants https://electromaterials.edu.au/2021/04/16/dr-pia-winberg-chats-to-abc-illawarra-about-aces-seaweed-collaboration/

Pia Winberg works in partnership with the University of Wollongong. Scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterial Science (ACES) and University of Wollongong (UOW), in partnership with their seaweed bioinks collaborators Venus Shell Systems, have discovered that a molecular species known as ulvan aids wound healing in humans. Their research paper is the cover story on the latest issue of Biomaterials Science and it is titled ‘3D bioprinting dermal-like structures using species-specific ulvan’. The new findings outline how ulvan contained in green seaweed can play a key role in wound healing with its structure resembling the biomolecules found in humans. “It has been so exciting to begin the journey of unlocking molecules from seaweed and delivering them to new heights in partnership with researchers in biomaterials,” Dr Winberg said. To read more about this research it can be read here https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/BM/D0BM01784A.