MsMaria-Kristina Bartolo

Kristina is the Chief Executive Officer of Orthonika, a spin-out company from Imperial College London developing a novel total meniscus replacement, and is leading the product design, development and testing.

Prior to joining Orthonika, Kristina was involved in the design and development of a low-wearing metal on polymer hip joint prosthesis for the MaltaHip Project in collaboration with the University of Malta, leading to the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Award (2016). Kristina also worked as a Mechanical Engineer in the automotive industry, gaining experience in product design and development, manufacturing, continuous process improvement and product quality.

Kristina completed her PhD in meniscus biomechanics at Imperial College London under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Amis and Prof. Daniele Dini in 2022. Her research at the Biomechanics Group focussed on the mechanical characterisation of meniscus replacement materials and developing testing methodologies for novel meniscus replacements.

Kristina obtained an MSc in Biomedical Engineering with Distinction from the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London in 2017, with a dissertation titled ‘Forensic Biomechanics of Paediatric Long Bone Fractures’ under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Bull. In 2014, Kristina was awarded a First Class BEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Malta with her in-silico based final year project titled ‘Stress-Strain Analysis of a Healthy Hip Joint’.