Yuval Elani - Group Leader 

Dr Yuval Elani is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Imperial Chemical Engineering, where he leads the Artificial Cell Engineering group. He previously held EPSRC and Imperial College Research Fellowships at Imperial Chemistry. Prior to joining Imperial, Yuval was at Cambridge University where he studied Natural Sciences. 

Yuval is an expert in synthetic biology, membrane biophysics, opto- / microfluidics, and molecular bioengineering, and has published extensively in these areas. Since completing his PhD in 2015 Yuval has secured > £3.6M as PI to conduct both blue-skies and applied research and has set up several collaborations with clinicians and industry. He has won multiple prizes and medals, including the Roscoe Medal (Parliamentary & Scientific Committee), Felix Franks Medal for Biotechnology (RSC), Rita and John Cornforth Medal (RSC), Lord Porter Prize, and the President’s Medal for Outstanding Early Career Researcher. Yuval’s work has also been recognised by the World Economic Forum, who selected him to be part of their Young Scientist Community (50 under 40 worldwide).

Yuval is co-director of the Membrane Biophysics Platform, co-founder and member of the executive of fabriCELL, and Associate Editor of Experimental Biology and Medicine. He also sits on the management team for the Leverhulme Centre for Cellular Bionics, and on the EPSRC Early Career Forum for Engineering.

Yuval’s full CV can be found here

Ignacio Gispert Contamina - Postdoc

Ignacio “Nacho” is working on developing new methods and approaches to develop synthetic cells for biomedical applications using cell-free protein synthesis and microfluidic techniques. After studying Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS, Barcelona), he joined the lab in 2017 as an MRes student. He then secured a Leverhulme Trust scholarship to complete his PhD on artificial/biological hybrid cells using stimuli-responsive systems to control cell behaviours. His skill set includes the design and production of a wide range of soft-matter nanodevices, plasmid design and protein expression in bacteria, and flow cytometry.

When he is not in the lab, he collaborates with researchers at Michigan University, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard to work on biomolecular neural networks in the context of synthetic Biology. He also helps manage the protein production facility in the Chemistry department at Imperial, collaborates with the Imperial Graduate Biotechnology Network (GradBio), participates in workshops and outreach activities for children, and coaches Imperial’s Men Basketball first team.

Andrew Stannard - Postdoc

Andrew obtained his PhD from the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nottingham, where he subsequently held postdoctoral research fellowships, working in the fields of 2D self-assembled nanostructured systems and ultra-high-resolution scanning probe microscopy. He had a career break as a secondary school science teacher via the Researchers in Schools programme, before returning to academia in the Department of Physics at King’s College London, shifting focus to the nanomechanical characterisation of biophysical systems. Andrew is now in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial College London, researching the roles of topology and homology in DNA-DNA interactions.

Zalike Keskin Erdogan - Postdoc

Zalike is a Bioengineer (BEng) with an MSc degree in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering from Ege University in Turkey, then she did her PhD at University College London (UCL) on developing hydrogel-based tissue constructs for neural tissue engineering applications.
Dr Zalike Keskin Erdogan holds competent experiences in natural hydrogels, 3D cellular structures and cell-material interactions with a strong background in biomaterials design and development for the state-of-the-art biomedical applications. Her current research in the team focuses on the utilisation of biomaterials and hydrogels for cell encapsulation, for the functionalisation of whole-cell biosensors via hydrogel droplet microfluidics.

Marcus Fletcher - Postdoc

Marcus focuses on the study of bottom-up synthetic cell systems with a particular emphasis on understanding cell membrane phenomena like membrane transport regulation and sub-cellular membrane architecture. He completed a BA and MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge, followed by a PhD in the group of Prof Ulrich Keyser at the same university. In his PhD, he worked on studying the ion transport properties of cellular membrane models by combining DNA nanotechnology, optofluidics and mathematical modelling. Now, he is developing new microfluidic methods to controllably design and study artificial cell architectures with precisely defined compositions. These efforts will form part of a collaboration between the Elani and Ellis groups at Imperial and the Murray group in Caltech to build a synthetic nucleus and study the rules governing eukaryotic cell structure. The tools developed will also be used to explore the large multivariate parameter spaces which control fundamental biological processes such as protein/membrane interactions and protein synthesis.

 Roberto Di Blasi - Postdoc

Roberto obtained his BSc and MSc in Industrial Biotechnology (University of Palermo) and then his PhD in Chemical Engineering (Imperial College London). He has since joined the Elani group as a postdoctoral researcher. Roberto has leveraged synthetic biology and cell engineering to build complexity in yeast and mammalian systems. Now, he is working on interfacing synthetic and living cells for advanced therapeutic applications. Outside the lab, Roberto is a committee member of the Imperial Graduate Biotechnology Network (GradBio) and leads outreach activities for Imperial College. 

Ion Ioannou - PhD Student

Ion is a Leverhulme Trust funded PhD student working on synthetic cells. His project regards the on-site assembly of the actin cortex in semi-synthetic cells to control cell mechanics and behaviour. Ion completed his undergraduate studies in biochemistry and biotechnology in Greece and then moved to University College London to study Synthetic Biology as an MRes student under the supervision of professor Nick Lane. He did research in the field of the Origin of Life and tried to understand how primitive iron-sulfur clusters could have been formed in protocells under prebiotic conditions. Following his MRes studies, he worked as a research assistant in Nick Lane’s group, before commencing his PhD at Imperial in 2019. In his free time, Ion enjoys exercising, visiting parks and exhibitions and playing the piano, being a classic music enthusiast.

Matt Allen- PhD Student 

 I completed my undergraduate degree in chemistry at Imperial College during which I looked at the influence of methylation of lipid headgroups on phase behaviour.  During my undergraduate studies I also had a research placement at the University of California Los Angeles where I helped develop a novel method for preparing supported lipid bilayers. My PhD is focussed upon further developing stimuli responsive artificial cells for drug delivery.

Hannah Sleath - PhD Student

I am an EPSRC funded PhD student working with DNA nanotechnology and microfluidic techniques to engineer motility in artificial cells, co-supervised by Lorenzo Di Michele. I previously completed my undergraduate studies in Natural Sciences (Physics) at the University of Cambridge, where I did my MSci project with Prof Ulrich Keyser’s group. For this project I investigated a novel microfluidic method of producing artificial cells (‘octanol-assisted liposome assembly’) and used it to study drug transport through biological membranes. I have also worked on projects focusing on pattern formation in the green alga Volvox, and simulating diffraction contrast in scanning helium microscopy. In my free time I enjoy staying active, caring for plants and playing piano.

Colin Pilkington - PhD Student

I began my studies in medicinal chemistry at Trinity College Dublin, where I wrote my dissertation on biomimetic inorganic complexes, and completed a 1-year placement at GSK, Stevenage. I went on to research droplet microfluidics as part of a University of Cambridge spin-off. I then worked as a polymer and materials chemist at Illumina. Under Dr. Y. Elani and Prof. J. Seddon, my PhD will focus on the bottom-up assembly of stimuli-responsive artificial cells, hopefully adding to the complexity and usefulness of these systems.

Carolina Monck - PhD Student

Carolina is a third year PhD student in the Elani and Ceroni groups at Imperial, working to develop stimuli-responsive synthetic cells as a proof-of-concept platform for advanced drug delivery. Her research interests are focussed on translational technologies that have the potential to transform precision therapy for a wide range of diseases including cancer. Beyond the lab, Carolina is passionate about growing the life sciences student network in London and connecting graduate researchers with the wider biotech community. In her spare time, she enjoys singing, swimming and cooking. Carolina has an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences and Masters in Systems Biology from the University of Cambridge. 

Aileen Cooney - PhD Student

Aileen is completing a PhD funded by the Leverhulme Trust under the joint supervision of Yuval, Lorenzo di Michele and Pietro Cicuta. Her focus is on applying DNA nanotechnology to engineer motile artificial cells. Prior to starting her PhD, Aileen was living in Tokyo as a Scholar of the Daiwa Foundation, where she conducted research into α-Hemolysin nanopores in the Kawano lab at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. She previously completed her integrated Bachelors-MSci at Imperial College London with a year in industry spent in organic synthesis at GlaxoSmithKline. Her Master's project under Professor Sophia Yaliraki utilised network theory to investigate allosteric protein signalling. She is interested in combining computational and synthetic chemistry methods during her doctoral research. In her spare time she enjoys boxing, football and cooking in community kitchens.

Tom Kitto - PhD Student

Tom is a PhD student supervised by Yuval Elani, Laura Barter, Nazila Kamaly and Oscar Ces working on artificial plant cells. His work at Imperial is co-funded by Syngenta. He completed his undergrad at the University of Bath in chemical engineering, but decided to pursue a career in scientific research after a research internship at Polytechnique Montreal on organic electronics. Before his PhD, Tom worked briefly in Sydney on next-gen QR codes for industry.

 Tom has diverse interests outside of his research, with constants being fencing, art and science communication.

Hannah Cooke - PhD Student

My interests in soft matter began in the final year of my MChem (Hons) degree in Chemistry at the University of York, where I researched the patterning of stimuli-responsive supramolecular hydrogels by spatiotemporally controlling gelator self-assembly, for their application as biomimetic stem cell scaffolds in tissue engineering. Now, I am an EPSRC funded MRes student on the 1+3 years MRes + PhD ICB CDT studentship at Imperial College London. My project focusses on the fabrication of compartmentalised biomembrane capsules using microfluidics technology, and their application as novel vaccine delivery vehicles. In my spare time, I love cooking, making music and rock climbing!

Shameem Golestaneh - MRes / PhD student

I started my microfluidics and biophysics journey during my Masters in Physics degree at the University of Warwick, looking at Chlamydomonas responses under external stimuli before moving on to utilising microfluidics to differentiate malarial cells from background healthy cells in my final year. I will now be developing a lab-on-chip to profile metabolic degradation as part of the 1+3 Mres + PhD ICB CDT program at Imperial College London, which is co-funded by EPSRC and Syngenta.

Juan Ivars Miñana - PhD student

Juan is a 2nd year PhD student funded by the Department of Chemical Engineering at Imperial, working on the design of bionic cells. His project focuses on the integration of artificial compartments with living cells to impart novel functionalities. Previously, he completed an MRes in Bioengineering supervised by Prof. Molly Stevens at the same university, where he worked on 3D printing of biomaterials. Before joining Imperial, he did his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering at UC3 Madrid, with an exchange programme at the University of Sydney. In his final year, he did a project on skin tissue regeneration supervised by Prof. JL Jorcano. He is the co-chair of the newly-formed Imperial Graduate Biotechnology Network (GradBio).

Oliver Gonzales-Carvajal - PhD Student

I’ve recently graduated with an MChem degree from the University of York. My final year masters project was on developing azide-tagged ribitols to be used as metabolic labelling probes to investigate various neuromuscular diseases, including muscular dystrophy. Now, under the supervision of Dr Fets (at the MRC), Dr Elani and Dr Baron I have started my PhD at the MRC and Imperial College as part of the SAMURII scheme. My PhD involves measuring intratumor heterogeneity at the single-cell level using microfluidic lab-on-chip devices that interface with high-resolution mass spectrometry. In my spare time, I enjoy playing rugby, scuba diving and going on walks.

Yu Cheng - PhD Student

Yu Cheng is a CDT student sponsored by Syngenta. Under the co-supervision of Dr. Yuval Elani, Dr. Oscar Ces and Dr. James Hindley, his PhD project aims to build membrane/cell/tissue models for targeted discovery in the agri sector, involving applications of 3D bioprinting, microfluidics and membrane engineering. Yu Cheng studied chemistry at Fudan University (China) between 2014 and 2018 and graduated with an honours award in the National Top Talent Undergraduate Training program. During his MRes in chemical biology at Imperial College London (UK) in 2020, Yu Cheng mainly worked on microfluidic vesicle formation and membrane reconstitution. Yu Cheng is a fan of football and dota2 in his free time

Lucy Sifeng Chen - PhD Student

I am an EPSRC funded PhD student co-supervised by Francesca Ceroni, and am working on artificial cells to synthesise and deliver anti-cancer peptides at tumour sites. I previously completed my Bachelors in Biochemistry and Masters in Systems and Synthetic Biology, both at Imperial College. In the summer following my Bachelors degree, I led the wet lab division of the Imperial team competing in the first annual iDEC (International Directed Evolution Competition) with our project on dual transcriptional regulators for quorum sensing, supervised by Prof. Mark Isalan. Outside of my studies, I like to write, play piano, and bake!

Zihan Zhang - PhD Student

I completed my MRes degree in chemical biology at Imperial College London in 2020. Now I am doing my PhD under the co-supervision of Prof. Oscar Ces and Dr. Yuval Elani. My MRes project was to fabricate vesicles with microfluidic methods, which aroused my interest in the design and application of artificial cells. My PhD project aims to develop a new microfluidic platform to create stimuli-responsive liposome formulation libraries and enable high-throughput production. I enjoy hiking and video games, and I am also an amateur singer.

MRes, MEng, and MSc students

• Zhuoer Li

• Yuilam Ng

• Diya Agrawal

• Wanrong Li

• Febin Xavier

• Yuayuan Gu

• Sunita Mabu

PhD and Postdoc Alumni

• Divesh Baxani (Microfluidics Innovation Hub)

• Claudia Contini (BBSRC Fellow and Lecturer, Life Sciences, Imperial College)

• Greta Zubaite (Lightcast Discovery)

• Federica Raguseo (PDRA - The Crick)