I hold a Bachelor’s in Dentistry from University of Khartoum, Sudan and a Ph.D. in Tissue Engineering from the University of Bergen, where I was awarded Faculty of Medicine’s best PhD prize. I investigated the efficacy and immune responses of functionalised bioactive scaffolds in delivering growth factors for bone tissue engineering. I continued as a post doctor in the Tissue Engineering group at UiB with a research fellowship at Department of Applied Oral Sciences at The Forsyth Institute and Harvard School of Dental Medicine, USA. My research efforts were recognised by the Meltzer Prize for Outstanding Young Researchers in 2020.

Currently, my research is centred on immune-driven tissue regeneration. My overarching goal is to create conducive environments for the regeneration of injured tissues, with a specific focus on understanding and harnessing the impact of the immune system on regeneration, particularly in the realm of stem-cell based bone regeneration. Employing a combination of in vitro and in vivo translational methodologies, we strive to unravel insights into the intricate crosstalk between immune cells and stem cells within the context of regenerative engineering. Additionally, we aim to use this knowledge to promote regeneration in compromised healing and to design regenerative biomaterials with osteoimmunomodulatory properties.

 

 

What Happens in a Bone Tissue Engineering Lab? - YouTube - A tour briefly showing how we use stem cells to engineer bone in a research lab at the University of Bergen - Department of Clinical Dentistry - (Tissue Engineering Research Group). The content of the video is created with the aim of targeting high school students and the general public audience.

Conference lecture

• Neha Rana; Salwa Suliman; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2021). Systemic monocyte-macrophage response to co-transplanting mesenchymal stromal cells and biphasic calcium phosphate biomaterial for bone regeneration. (external link)
• Daniela Elena Costea; Allison Hills; Amani Hamza Ali Osman et al. (2015). Different subsets of carcinoma-associated fibroblasts promote oral carcinoma cell invasion by distinct mechanisms.. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Daniela Elena Costea; Kamal Babikeir Eln Mustafa (2015). Development of a novel scaffold stimulating stem cells growth, differentiation and bone regeneration. (external link)
• Himalaya Parajuli; Dipak Sapkota; Salwa Suliman et al. (2015). Expression of integrin α-11 by carcinoma associated fibroblasts modulates oral squamous cell carcinoma behaviour. (external link)

Academic article

• Siddharth Shanbhag; Carina Kampleitner; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2021). Ectopic Bone Tissue Engineering in Mice Using Human Gingiva or Bone Marrow-Derived Stromal/Progenitor Cells in Scaffold-Hydrogel Constructs. (external link)
• Neha Rana; Salwa Suliman; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2021). Systemic and local innate immune responses to surgical co-transplantation of mesenchymal stromal cells and biphasic calcium phosphate for bone regeneration. (external link)
• Arooj Munir; Anne Døskeland; Steven J Avery et al. (2019). Efficacy of copolymer scaffolds delivering human demineralised dentine matrix for bone regeneration. (external link)
• Ridhima Das; Lisa Harper; Kayoko Kitajima et al. (2023). Embryonic Stem Cells Can Generate Oral Epithelia under Matrix Instruction. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Salwa Suliman; Anne Isine Bolstad et al. (2020). Xeno-free spheroids of human gingiva-derived progenitor cells for bone tissue engineering. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Yang Sun; Torbjørn Østvik Pedersen et al. (2016). In vivo host response and degradation of copolymer scaffolds functionalized with nanodiamonds and bone morphogenetic protein 2. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Anna Mieszkowska; Justyna Folkert et al. (2022). Immune-instructive copolymer scaffolds using plant-derived nanoparticles to promote bone regeneration. (external link)
• Tobias Weigel; Tobias Schmitz; Maren Jannasch et al. (2019). Session 9: Biomaterials -Elektrospinning. (external link)
• Carla Alvarez; Salwa Suliman; Rawan Almarhoumi et al. (2020). Regulatory T cell phenotype and anti-osteoclastogenic function in experimental periodontitis. (external link)
• Zhang Zhuoyuan; Zhenjie Gao; Saroj Rajthala et al. (2019). Metabolic reprogramming of normal oral fibroblasts correlated with increased glycolytic metabolism of oral squamous cell carcinoma and precedes their activation into carcinoma associated fibroblasts. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Zhe Xing; X Wu et al. (2015). Release and bioactivity of bone morphogenetic protein-2 are affected by scaffold binding techniques in vitro and in vivo. (external link)
• Tobias Weigel; Tobias Schmitz; Tobias Pfister et al. (2018). A three-dimensional hybrid pacemaker electrode seamlessly integrates into engineered, functional human cardiac tissue in vitro. (external link)
• Mohamad Nageeb Abdelaziz Hassan; Mohammed Ahmed Yassin; Ahmed Maher Eltawila et al. (2022). Contact osteogenesis by biodegradable 3D-printed poly(lactide-co-trimethylene carbonate). (external link)
• Carla Alvarez; Henrique Abdalla; Salwa Suliman et al. (2021). RvE1 Impacts the Gingival Inflammatory Infiltrate by Inhibiting the T Cell Response in Experimental Periodontitis. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Salwa Suliman; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2021). Bone regeneration in rat calvarial defects using dissociated or spheroid mesenchymal stromal cells in scaffold-hydrogel constructs. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Hassan Mohamed Abdel-Raouf Ali; Tommy Aleksander Karlsen et al. (2019). Impact of humanised isolation and culture conditions on stemness and osteogenic potential of bone marrow derived mesenchymal stromal cells. (external link)
• Mohamad Nageeb Abdelaziz Hassan; Ahmed M. Eltawila; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2024). Correlation between Ca Release and Osteoconduction by 3D-Printed Hydroxyapatite-Based Templates. (external link)
• Lea Zoe Landolt; Jessica Furriol; Janka Babickova et al. (2019). AXL targeting reduces fibrosis development in experimental unilateral ureteral obstruction. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Samih Mohamed Ahmed; Turid Helen Felli Lunde et al. (2020). Influence of platelet storage time on human platelet lysates and platelet lysate-expanded mesenchymal stromal cells for bone tissue engineering. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Himalaya Parajuli; Yang Sun et al. (2016). Establishment of a bioluminescence model for microenvironmentally induced oral carcinogenesis with implications for screening bioengineered scaffolds. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Salwa Suliman; Nikolaos Pandis et al. (2019). Cell therapy for orofacial bone regeneration: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. (external link)
• Neha Rana; Salwa Suliman; Niyaz Abdulbaqi Abdulmajid Al-Sharabi et al. (2022). Extracellular Vesicles Derived from Primed Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Loaded on Biphasic Calcium Phosphate Biomaterial Exhibit Enhanced Macrophage Polarization. (external link)
• Eylem Baysal; Niyaz Abdulbaqi Abdulmajid Al-Sharabi; Kamal Babikeir Elnour Mustafa et al. (2025). Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Osteogenesis is driven by Paracrine signals from Regulatory T Cell. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Ahmad Rashad Elsebahy; Ellen Helgeland Nymark et al. (2021). Spheroid Coculture of Human Gingiva-Derived Progenitor Cells With Endothelial Cells in Modified Platelet Lysate Hydrogels. (external link)
• Hassan Abdel-Raouf Abdel-Wahab Ali; Salwa Suliman; Tarig Al-Hadi Osman et al. (2023). Xeno-free generation of human induced pluripotent stem cells from donor-matched fibroblasts isolated from dermal and oral tissues. (external link)
• Samih Mohamed-Ahmed; Inge Fristad; Stein Atle Lie et al. (2018). Adipose-derived and bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells: a donor-matched comparison. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Kamal Babikeir Eln Mustafa; Anke Krueger et al. (2016). Nanodiamond modified copolymer scaffolds affects tumour progression of early neoplastic oral keratinocytes. (external link)
• Mehmet Serhat Aydin; Nora Chiara Marek; Theo Jean Luciani et al. (2024). Impact of Porosity and Stiffness of 3D Printed Polycaprolactone Scaffolds on Osteogenic Differentiation of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Activation of Dendritic Cells. (external link)
• Ahmad Rashad Saad Mohamed Elsebahy; Salwa Suliman; Manal Mustafa et al. (2019). Inflammatory responses and tissue reactions to wood-Based nanocellulose scaffolds. (external link)
• Hiba Mohamed Ali; Manal Mustafa; Salwa Suliman et al. (2020). Inflammatory mediators in saliva and gingival fluid of children with congenital heart defect. (external link)
• Daniela Elena Costea; Allison Hills; Amani Hamza Ali Osman et al. (2013). Identification of two distinct carcinoma-associated fibroblast subtypes with differential tumor-promoting abilities in oral squamous cell carcinoma. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Neha Rana; Salwa Suliman et al. (2022). Influence of Bone Substitutes on Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in an Inflammatory Microenvironment. (external link)

Conference poster

• Salwa Mustafa Nourelhuda Suliman; Himalaya Parajuli; Emmet McCormack et al. (2013). A novel model: Microenvironmentally-induced carcinogenesis for screening bone regeneration scaffolds. (external link)
• Samih Ahmed; Inge Fristad; Mohammed Ahmed Yassin et al. (2018). Adipose-Derived Stem Cells for Bone Tissue Engineering. (external link)
• Neha Rana; Salwa Suliman; Siddharth Shanbhag et al. (2019). Effect of human platelet lysate on rat mesenchymal stem cells for bone regeneration – an in vitro study (POSTER). (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Samih Ahmed; Salwa Suliman et al. (2018). Characterization of Human Gingiva- and PDL-derived Progenitor Cells in 3-D Xeno-free Conditions.. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Samih Ahmed; Salwa Suliman et al. (2018). Comparison of donor matched human bone marrow- and adipose-derived mesenchymal stem/stromal cells in Xeno-free conditions.. (external link)

Doctoral thesis (PhD)

• Salwa Suliman; Kamal Babikeir Eln Mustafa (2015). Bioactive copolymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Efficacy and host response. (external link)
• Siddharth Shanbhag; Kamal Babikeir Elnour Mustafa; Salwa Suliman et al. (2020). Xeno-free 3D Culture of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells For Bone Tissue Engineering. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Kamal Babikeir Eln Mustafa; Daniela Elena Costea et al. (2015). Bioactive copolymer scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Efficacy and host response.. (external link)

Media feature article

• Guro Nore Fløgstad; Salwa Suliman; Simen Andreas Ådnøy Ellingsen et al. (2023). Studieavgift er korttenkt kunnskapspolitikk. (external link)
• Salwa Suliman; Guro Nore Fløgstad (2025). Styrk støtten til fordrevne forskere. (external link)

Academic literature review

• Siddharth Shanbhag; Andreas Stavropoulos; Salwa Suliman et al. (2017). Efficacy of humanized Mesenchymal stem cell cultures for bone tissue engineering: a systematic review with a focus on platelet derivatives. (external link)
• Mohamad Nageeb Hassan; Mohammed Ahmed Yassin; Salwa Suliman et al. (2019). The bone regeneration capacity of 3D-printed templates in calvarial defect models: A systematic review and meta-analysis. (external link)

Journal corrigendum

• Siddharth Shanbhag; Carina Kampleitner; Samih Salah Eldin Mahgoub Mohamed-Ahmed et al. (2022). Corrigendum: Ectopic Bone Tissue Engineering in Mice Using Human Gingiva or Bone Marrow-Derived Stromal/Progenitor Cells in Scaffold-Hydrogel Constructs (Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol., (2021), 9, (783468), 10.3389/fbioe.2021.783468). (external link)
• Carla Alvarez; Henrique Abdalla; Salwa Suliman et al. (2022). Corrigendum: RvE1 Impacts the Gingival Inflammatory Infiltrate by Inhibiting the T Cell Response in Experimental Periodontitis (Front. Immunol., (2021), 12, 664756, 10.3389/fimmu.2021.664756). (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.

2021 - 2025 (Principal Investigator) Immune-driven tissue regeneration (STEMreg) funded by Trond Mohn Foundation Starting Grant: 19.2 million NOK

2021 - 2026 (Principal Investigator) Harnessing regulatory T cells to enhance the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cell-based bone regeneration funded by Research Council of Norway, Young Researcher Talent grant: 8 million NOK