Joanne Tipper

Joanne moved into the multidisciplinary research field of medical engineering in the mid 1990s after completing a PhD in skin microbiology. Over the last 30 years she has developed methodologies for isolating wear particles generated by total joint replacements. With over 100 peer reviewed publications her work has contributed to the understanding of implant failure and the development of longer lasting, more reliable joint replacement devices. Joanne has co-authored all of the international global standards on the isolation and characterisation of wear particles including ISO 17853 and ASTMF1877. In addition, Joanne led the development of two European Pre-standards CWA 17253:1 and CWA 17253:2 which cover isolation of very low volumes of nanoscale particles and biological responses to wear particles. Both of these documents are currently being converted to ISO standards. Her areas of interest include using 3D bioprinting to investigate spinal cord injury alongside projects investigating neural stem cell and primary neural cell responses to spinal implants debris/ions and to matrix stiffness of novel hydrogel scaffolds for central nervous system repair. 

In 2018, Joanne relocated from the University of Leeds in the UK to Australia to take up the position of Head of School of a new School of Biomedical Engineering at UTS. More recently, she has also taken up the role of ADVC Academic in the STEM College at RMIT