Dr Sherif Elsharkawy

Dr Sherif Elsharkawy is a Clinical Lecturer in Prosthodontics at the Centre for Oral, Clinical and Translational Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences at King's College London (KCL). Dr Elsharkawy graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) with honours from Alexandria University, Egypt, and practiced in both hospital and private practices for about three years. Dr Elsharkawy then pursued his MSc at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry in Oral Biology with Distinction, followed by PhD studentship and postdoctoral fellowship in Bio-engineering and Materials Science under the supervision of Prof. Alvaro Mata at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). Dr Elsharkawy worked as a Clinical Teacher in Restorative Dentistry at QMUL before moving to King's, where he is currently funded by the prestigious NIHR integrated academic clinical lectureship schemes. Clinically, Dr Elsharkawy has special interests in dental implants, toothwear, and prosthodontic rehabilitation for oncology patients.

The Centre's research group is also currently funded by the Wellcome Trust Seed Award in Science. The work is highly interdisciplinary and collaborative, focusing on biomineralization and developing bio-inspired hierarchical materials for various biomedical and dental applications. The work has been published in high-impact journals like Nature Communications, Materials Today, and Advanced Healthcare Materials. The Centre's research group is leading the development of ambitious projects that exploit protein structures to design and optimise organic materials capable of controlling crystal nucleation and hierarchical growth at multiple length-scales. The Centre's  work has led to intellectual property, attention from industry, and prestigious awards such as the Royal Microscopy Society Lecture Award and IADR Heraeus Kulzer Award. The Centre's research efforts have been featured in major UK media outlets including; the Telegraph, Times, Daily Mail and others. The Centre's aim is not only to develop materials for bone and enamel regeneration, but also looking into the physicochemical mechanisms that drive both biological hard tissues during developmental and disease progression.