Dr Firas Rasoul

BSc(Hons), MSc, PhD

Position: Senior Research Fellow (ResTeach position as Senior Lecturer)
Affiliation: The Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) and Centre for Advanced Imaging (CAI), St Lucia
Telephone: 07 3364 3860
Email: f.rasoul@uq.edu.au  

Teaching interests
Dental materials, Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery

Research Interests
Dr Rasoul’s research interests are in polymer surface modification and synthesis of speciality polymers for Biological and biomedical applications. His recent research focus is on biomaterials discovery with an emphasis on synthesis and application of well-defined structures for biomedical uses (bioactive hydrogels for drug delivery, Dental materials (e.g. GIC and other restorative polymers) and Biodegradable polymers for Dental bone regeneration.

Dr Rasoul is one of the key researchers within a multi-disciplinary team of prominent scientists who recently received a large research grant ($3.9 M) on a competitive basis from the Queensland Smart State Scheme “International Biomaterials Research Alliance (IBRA)”. Dr Rasoul’s role on this major grant is to coordinate and manage the scientific research and commercial work of the program. The program involves four major research projects: (i) Dental Bone Repair, (ii) Vascular Regeneration (Artificial Blood Vessels), (iii) Novel contrast agent for MRI and (iv) biocompatible hydrogels as artificial vitreous humor gel. Beside his above responsibilities within this program, Dr Rasoul is the main driver of the “Dental Bone Repair” research work within this program in collaboration with A/Prof. Anne Symons (School of Dentistry) and also the research work on the Development of pH responsive bioactive hydrogels for systematic delivery of anti-inflammatory drugs and protein complexes for the treatment of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers and deep wounds.

Current and requested research projects

  • Injectable biodegradable hydrogels for repair of bone defects and bone resorption associated with tooth implants 
  • Novel antimicrobial photopatterned hybrid polymeric surfaces
  • Design and synthesis of polymers for use in a 3D tissue engineered porous scaffold to treat intractable skin wounds
  • PharmaGel: Improving the ease of swallowing oral medication

Selected recent publications
Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Partly-Fluorinated Block Copolymers as MRI Imaging Agents; Hui Peng, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Stephen Rose and Andrew K. Whittaker; Biomacromolecules, 2009, 10 (2) 374
Photochemistry of low density poly(ethylene)–montmorillonite composites; Wael A. Ghafor, Peter J. Halley, David J.T. Hill, Darren J. Martin, Firas Rasoul, and Andrew K. Whittaker; Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 2009, 112, 381. 
Studies of the copolymerisation of acrylic acid with n-butyl vinyl ether; Qianhui Lee, David J.T. Hill, Tri Le, Firas Rasoul and Andrew K. Whittaker, Polymer International 2009, 58, 348
Effect of solvent quality on the solution properties of assemblies of amphiphilic diblock copolymers as potential 19F MRI agents; Hui Peng, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Andrew K. Whittaker; Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) 2009, 101, 1545-1546. 
Simultaneous swelling and degradation of crosslinked PEG-PLLA networks; Hui Peng, Xiaoying Chua, Yami Chuang, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Anne Symons, Srini Varanasi, Andrew K. Whittaker, Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering (PMSE) 2009, 101, 1063-1064. 
Mechanism of 157 nm photodegradation of poly[4,5-difluoro-2,2 bis(trifluoromethyl)-1,3-dioxole-co-tetrafluoroethylene] (Teflon AF) Idriss Blakey, Graeme A. George, David J.T. Hill, Heping Liu, Firas Rasoul, Llewelyn Rintoul, Paul Zimmerman and Andrew K. Whittaker; Macromolecules 2007, 40 (25): 8954-8961 
RAFT Mediated Surface Grafting of t-Butyl Acrylate onto an Ethylene-Propylene Copolymer Initiated by Gamma Radiation, Khalid Kiani, David Hill, Firas Rasoul, Michael Whittaker and Llewellyn Rintoul; J. Polym. Sci. Part A: Polym Chem. Ed. 2007, Vol. 45, 1074-1083 
Synthesis of high refractive index sulfur containing polymers for 193 nm immersion lithography: a progress report. Blakey, Idriss; Conley, Will; George, Graeme A.; Hill, David J. T.; Liu, Heping; Rasoul, Firas; Whittaker, Andrew K. Proceedings of SPIE-The International Society for Optical Engineering 2006, 6153 (Pt. 1, Advances in Resist Technology and Processing XXIII) 
XPS and 19F NMR Study of the Photodegradation at 157 nm of Photolithographic-Grade Teflon AF Thin Films, Idriss Blakey, Graeme A. George, David J. T. Hill, Heping Liu, Firas Rasoul, Andrew K. Whittaker Paul Zimmerman. Macromolecules (2005), 38(10), 4050-4053

Refereed Conference papers (major contributions 2009)
Synthesis of injectable biodegradable hydrogels for the delivery of bioactives to treat periodontitis and per-implantitis; Firas Rasoul, David Wang, Hui Peng, Andrew K. Whittaker, Anne Symons and Srinivas Varanasi: EPF09 Graz Austria July 2009
Effect of solvent quality on the solution properties of assemblies of amphiphilic diblock copolymers as potential 19F MRI agents; Hui Peng, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Andrew K. Whittaker. 238th ACS National Meeting, Washington, DC, August 16-20, 2009.
Simultaneous swelling and degradation of crosslinked PEG-PLLA networks; Hui Peng, Xiaoying Chua, Yami Chuang, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Anne Symons, Srini Varanasi, Andrew K. Whittaker. 238th ACS National Meeting, Washington, DC, August 16-20, 2009.
Synthesis and evaluation of novel partly-fluorinated block copolymers as MRI imaging agents By Hui Peng, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Stephen Rose, Andrew K. Whittaker. 237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, March 22-26, 2009.
Functional PEG-PLLA networks for dental bone repair: Effect of network chemistry on properties and performance; Hui Peng, Xiaoying Chua, Idriss Blakey, Bronwin Dargaville, Firas Rasoul, Anne Symons, Srini Varanasi, Andrew K. Whittaker. 237th ACS National Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, March 22-26, 2009.

Other activities and service
Member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and Member Elect for the Polymer Division Standing Committee at the RACI (1996-2000).
Member Elect for the RACI Queensland branch-Polymer Division 2004-2006 and 2008-2010.
Reviewer for several international journals including Polymer International, Current Drug Delivery and Journal of Polymer Science (Polym. Chem. ed.).
Member of the Australian Referees of research grants for the Australian Research Council (Australia) since 2001. 
Reviewer of various grants from the University of Queensland, the University of Petroleum and Minerals (Saudi Arabia) and King Saud University.
Acted as an external examiner for 11 PhD and Master Dissertations and staff promotion applications from The University of Queensland (Aust.), Monash University (Aust), University of New South Wales (Aust), King Saud University and King Fahad University (Saudi Arabia)
 

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