IMPERIAL BIOENGINEER Aug-Sept 2017 Imperial Bioengineer Aug-Sept 2017 NEW ACADEMICS ON THE BLOCK WELCOME The Department of Bioengineering is delighted to welcome new members of staff to our academic team. Our talented new crop of lecturers and research fellows will ensure that TO THE DEPARTMENT our department remains at the forefront of research and teaching. We look forward to having them on board with us and would like to take this moment to introduce them and Welcome to new starters: their work to readers of the Imperial Bioengineer. Estefania Nunez Bajo, RA with Dr Firat After returning to Cambridge to develop high- Guder LECTURERS throughput super-resolution localization Mahendran Subramanian, RA with Dr microscopy techniques, Chris joined us here. Aldo Faisal Dr Sam Au Chris’s interests lie primarily in optical engineering Ester Reina Torres, RA with Dr Darryl and neurophotonics, but with a broad background Overby Lecturer he is keen to collaborate widely and take full Bailey Marques, Student Administrator advantage of the academic freedom that a Dr Au did a postdoctoral fellowship at lectureship provides. Ollie Waite, Student Administrator Harvard Medical School with Mehmet Saima Ahmed, RA with Dr Niamh Nowlan Toner where he developed microfluidic models of capillaries to explore the ability of Ivan Vujaklija, RA with Professor Dario circulating tumour cell aggregates to transit RESEARCH FELLOWS Farina through the circulation. Using biophysical, Dr Jonathan Mark Kendrew, Honorary xenograft and computational models, he Dr Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro Research Fellow demonstrated that these multicellular clusters can unfold into single file chains which permitted them ICRF Research Fellow to transit through constrictions as small as five microns. Dr Ledesma-Amaro has just joined the We will sadly be saying goodbye to a number of Department of Bioengineering as an colleagues who are leaving. We wish them the best Sam is particularly excited about future Imperial College Research in their new roles: collaborations and scientific advances that will Fellow. Before this, he studied Biotechnology and emerge in the years ahead. A major theme of his Chemical Engineering in Spain where he also Dr Yanan Li interests are how physical forces interact with cells completed a PhD in Systems Metabolic Dr Emma Burke or subcellular. Sam is delighted to join the Engineering. During that, he has been a visiting Department and is looking forward to getting to researcher in Japan, Sweden, France, and Dr Margherita Castronovo know everyone. Belgium. After his PhD, he moved to Paris (INRA) as a Marie Curie Agreenskills Fellow to work on Dr Adam Celiz: engineering microorganisms for the production of fuels and chemicals. His works produced Lecturer numerous articles and patents. UPCOMING EVENTS Dr Celiz gained his bachelor’s degree in The Invention Rooms Open Day Pharmaceutical and Chemical Sciences Now, Rodrigo will be developing his research on at the University of Brighton and a PhD the interface of synthetic biology and metabolic 28 Oct 2017 Imperial College London in Chemistry at University of Cambridge in the engineering with applications in biotechnology Celebrate the opening of The Invention Rooms at Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis. and biomedicine. He is specially interested in White City with a free community open day of free Following this, he was awarded a Marie Curie metabolism, microbiome research, strain maker activities for people of all ages International Outgoing Fellowship to perform engineering and bioproduction. postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham and the Wyss Institute for Biologically BSSM Postgraduate Experimental Mechanics Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Dr Joseph Sherwood (PGEM) Conference During this fellowship, Adam designed RAEng Research Fellow 16-17 Nov 2017 Imperial College London biomaterials that interact with tissues and stem The BSSM PGEM Conference aims to bring cells to repair or regenerate tissues, specifically, Dr Sherwood studied Mechanical together PhD/MPhil postgraduate students and “tough” surgical tissue adhesives and regenerative Engineering at Kings College London early career researchers involved in the field of dental fillings. His research has been published in before completing a PhD in Biofluid Dynamics journals such as Science, Nature Materials and with Dr Stavroula Balabani at University College Engineering measurement and experimental Advanced Materials. Adam joined the Department London. In Autumn 2012, Joseph started as a techniques in stress, strain and vibration analysis. of Bioengineering at Imperial College London in post-doctoral researcher with Dr Darryl Overby The conference provides an excellent opportunity August 2017 as a Lecturer where he will be here at the Department of Bioengineering, to share and discuss their current research in a low developing biomaterials for tissue repair and working on a project looking at endothelial cells regeneration. under controlled mechanical forces in pressure and relatively informal environment, learn microchannels. During this project, Joseph about research projects at other institutions, became involved with investigating the flow of network amongst like-minded people and make Dr Chris Rowlands aqueous humour in the front part of the eye and used his experimental fluid dynamics experience contacts for the future. For more information, Lecturer to develop a system to measure aqueous please contact Dr Hari Arora. humour flow called iPerfusion. iPerfusion is now Dr Rowlands studied Chemistry here at being used by over thirty researchers in seven The Centre for Blast Injury Studies 2017 Annual Imperial College, before leaving to international research institutions. Networking Event complete a PhD in glass physics with Stephen Elliott at Cambridge University. Now, Joseph will be focus his research on 16 Nov 2017 Imperial College London establishing the role of blood flow in microvascular CBIS’ 2017 Networking and Research Update Chris’ interest in Raman microscopy lead him to diseases in order to open up avenues for potential Event will cover topics from point-of-injury through Ioan Notingher’s lab at the University of treatments. Nottingham, to study the use of Raman in to long-term outcomes of blast injury. For more diagnosing and treating cancer, before leaving to information, please contact Melanie Albright. take up a Wellcome Trust MIT Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Peter So’s lab at MIT. At CONTACT Professor Manos Drakakis’ Inaugural Lecture: MIT, he developed new tools for multiphoton “Non-linear Low-power Microelectronics For photodynamic therapy for cancer treatment, super -resolution mapping of the mouse brain for Send news for the next issue to: and From Biology: A Log Story” connectomic applications, activity mapping of 6 Dec 2017 Imperial College London large numbers of synapses in a mouse brain, high Kemi Aofolaju The lecture is free to attend and open to all, but -throughput multiphoton intravital imaging and Communications and Events Officer registration is required in advance blood-flow monitoring. IMPERIAL BIOENGINEER Aug - Sep 2017 STAFF & STUDENT SUCCESS Congratulations are due to: PhD student Sarah Johnson who won a prize for her poster at the Dr Hari Arora and Dr Ben Almquist who were awarded Fellow status NAVBO Outstanding Poster awards in the Higher Education Academy Professor James Moore Jr who represented Great Britain at the Dr Yu Liu who was awarded Associate Fellow of the Higher World Championships of Beach Ultimate Frisbee in June 2017 Education Academy Dr Rylie Green who won the RSC Emerging Technologies Darshan Shah who passed his viva with his thesis entitled ‘Design competition in the Materials and Enabling Technologies category. and implementation of a physiologic wrist simulator with applications This includes a £10,000 prize and support in developing a start-up to surgical reconstructions’. based on our conductive polymer technologies for bionics Mara Pop and Alistair Rice who were joint winners of the 2017 PhD Dr Jenna Stevens-Smith who was highly commended for the Symposium prize President’s Award for Leadership in Societal Engagement for 2017 Jaime Aguilera Garcia who won the Student Award for Outstanding Dr Christina Warboys who was elected to sit on the committee of Achievement 2017. These awards are to recognise and commend the British Society for Cardiovascular Research for a three year outstanding achievement beyond the academic subject area. term from January 2018 Professor Molly Stevens who was awarded the Harrison Medal by Dr Stefaan Verbruggen who was awarded 1st prize Oral the Royal Pharmaceutical Society for her outstanding contribution to Presentation at the 2017 Joint Meeting of the Anatomical Society pharmaceutical science. and the American Association of Anatomists. Dr Amanda Foust on the birth of her son, John. Dr Ben Almquist who passed his academic probation on the 19th July 2017 Dr Tom Ellis on the birth of his daughter, Pim. OUT AND ABOUT PUBLICATIONS Professor James Moore Jr presented an invited lecture at the 5th Be sure to check out the Department’s recent publications, some of which are included here: Annual BME-IDEA EU conference Dariusz Lachowski, Ernesto Cortes, Daniel Pink, Anthony Dr Ben Almquist gave a talk titled “Rewiring wounds to heal” at the Chronopoulos, SA Karim, JP Morton, and Armando del Río Hernández, Substrate rigidity controls activation and durotaxis in World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of New