Previous 6 months (from June 30 to December 31, 2022) were very intensive with a lot of work and activities. The greatest news is that we now have a symbol for the MATRIX project – a hedgehog. MATRI-X project symbol- heaghoug. No less important is the fact that in July we have submitted the mid-term report of the project, which was highly appreciated by the FLPP reviewers. At the beginning of August, another student has been admitted to the project, who will develop her bachelor’s thesis on a MATRI-X related subject. After a long period of virtual meetings, we had the first face-to-face meeting of the MATRI-X project partners at the beginning of September. During the meeting, we talked about further experiments to achieve the goal of the project. During this time period, one article „Injectable Platelet-Rich Fibrin as a Drug Carrier Increases the Antibacterial Susceptibility of Antibiotic—Clindamycin Phosphate” (Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(13), 7407) was published within the framework of the MATRI-X project.

Several conferences with respective presentation titles were attended: 1) I.Salma and K.Egle presented posters at the 32^nd Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials, ESB 2022 (Bordo, France, September 4-8, 2022) – “Development of protocol for obtaining autologous liquid PRF for local drug delivery systems” and „ Fucoidan/chitosan hydrogels as matrices for sustained delivery of platelet-rich fibrin containing bioactive molecules”;

2) L.Micko attended the congress 26^th Congress of the European Association for Cranio-Maxillo-Facial Surgery, (EACMFS) (Madrid, Spain, 27-30 September, 2022) with an poster presentation “Antimicrobial activity of Platelet-Rich Fibrin”. Project members also took part in “European Researchers’ Night 2022” which takes place at RTU, showing a small part of their daily work. From the beginning of September to the end of December, two members of the MATRI-X project, L.Micko and K.Egle, were on a long-term visit to the AO Research Institute in Davos to gain new knowledge about growth factors and cell experiments, which are planned to be applied during the implementation of the project. Another review “Can Our Blood Help Ensure Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Properties in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery?” was submitted at the beginning of November.