Principal Investigator

Prof. Maïwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas         

Maïwenn is a Full Professor in the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering at Heriot-Watt University. She also holds an honorary fellowship at the University of Edinburgh since 2015. She obtained her PhD from Heriot-Watt University in 2010 and her main research focuses on the development of novel microfluidic tools for rapid sample preparation. She works closely with biologists and clinicians to develop applications in the field of non-invasive prenatal testing, cancer and beyond. She was a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow from 2013 to 2018. In 2017 she was awarded the £1.3M EPSRC Healthcare Technology Challenge Award. Her interests in Manufacturing Research lie in micro and nanotechnologies, rapid prototyping and the development of cost-effective manufacturing processes for medium to high volume production of polymeric microfluidic components. She is also interested in the replacement of petroleum-derived products by composites derived from renewable resources in the production of high-value microsystems. Maïwenn is delivering outreach activities about microsystems and microfluidics and would like to change the public attitude towards engineering and manufacturing from passive consumers to active problem solvers.

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Postdoctoral researcher

Dr. Mert Gülçür   

Dr. Gülçür completed his PhD in 2020 with the thesis title ‘Process fingerprinting of microneedle manufacturing using conventional and ultrasonic micro-injection moulding’ at the University of Bradford within an EU funded H2020 Marie-Curie Early Stage Researcher program called MICROMAN (ID:674801). Prior to that, he obtained an MSc degree at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology – School of Optics & Photonics in 2016 which was fully funded by a scholarship given by German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). From February 2021 he joined MKK Lab and his work encompasses microfluidics design & system engineering and high-precision manufacturing of microfluidic chips using injection moulding.

PhD Candidates

Ehtashamul Haque (Rahat) 

Md Ehtashamul Haque (Rahat) received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2013) from American International University Bangladesh. Later on, he finished his MSc degree in Smart Systems Integration (2018) which was an European Commission funded joint Master programme at Heriot Watt University (Scotland); University of South Eastern Norway (Norway); and Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), with a master thesis regarding microfluidic separation using standing surface acoustic waves. Currently Rahat is a PhD student in a team of Dr Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas and his research goal is to develop front-end pre-analytical microfluidic modules for hydrodynamic blood plasma separation. His research focuses on development of novel microfluidic hybrid structures with high purity and high yield of plasma from undiluted blood.

Adelaide Lety-Stefanska   

Adelaide is currently a PhD student of Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas. She obtained her MSc in Physics in 2018 at the Paris-Saclay University in France, where she chose to specialize herself in bioengineering and spent the last MSc year at the Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Institute for Microfluidics (Paris). The various experience she gained in France while working on different projects both at the Ecole Polytechnique as an MSc intern (2017-2018) and in the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) as a research engineer (2018-2019) has granted her with a good understanding of microfluidic and microbiology laboratory practice, as well as general engineering skills. Her research now focuses on the on-chip enrichment of circulating tumor DNA in clinical samples.

Research Assistant

Ana Martinez Lopez

Ana joined Dr. Kersaudy-Kerhoas’ Clinical Microfluidics lab as a research assistant in July 2020. Her current project focuses on developing a sequencing protocol for the detection of microbial cell free DNA samples using Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ MinION. Having completed her MSc in Synthetic biology and biotechnology at the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Biology at the University of Lancaster (UK), Ana’s research mainly focuses on using molecular biology techniques for bacterial genome sequencing and metagenomic analysis. Before joining the lab, Ana carried out her MSc dissertation as an Industrial placement student at Carbogenics Ltd. Her project focused on the identification of key species for the stability of industrial microbial digestion through metagenomic analysis.

Visiting Researchers

Assistant Professor

Dr. Franceso Lopresti       

Dr. Lopresti received his B.Sc and M.Sc in Chemical Engineering from University of Palermo in 2011 and 2013 respectively. He completed his PhD in 2017 with a thesis entitled “Preparation and characterization of biopolymeric porous structures for advanced applications” tutored by Prof. Roberto Scaffaro. In 2017 and 2018 he gained two research fellowships entitled respectively “Immobilization of streptomycete strains producing antibiotics” at the Department of Biological, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies of University of Palermo and “Use of sodium bicarbonate for polymer foaming” founded by Solvay SA. He joined the Maiwenn Kersaudy-Kerhoas Clinical Microfluidics lab in 2018 with a Post-Doc Position in “Polymer engineering for microfluidic applications” and he is currently working in the engineering of biopolymeric membranes for blood separation and DNA binding on lab-on-a-chip devices.

Lab Alumni

• Noman Naeem,  MSc Student and research assistant (2019-2021), now at MicrofluidX  , UK
• Ieva Keraite, PhD (2016 – 2020), then 2020-2022 postdoc at Development at Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG-CRG), Barcelona, Spain, now Oxford Nanopore Technologies
• Dr. Conni McCarthy, Scientific Officer (2018-2020) 
• Mhairi Clark, Scientific Officer (2019-2020), now at Lumira Dx
• Antonio Liga, PhD student then postdoc (2014 – 2020), now founder and main designer at Kabula
• Marilena Stamouli, Research Assistant (2019 – 2020), now research assistant at the Institute of Hepatology
• Alvaro Conde, Postdoc (2018 – 2020), now at R&D Scientist at Micronit Microtechnologies, Netherlands
• Alfredo Ongaro, PhD (2016 – 2019), now postdoc at ICFO Institute of Photonic Sciences, Spain
• Damaso Sanchez-Carrera, Research Technician (2018 – 2019)
• Rhiannon Grant, Postdoc (2018 – 2019), now University of Maastricht, Netherlands 
• Vanya Vasileva, Postdoc (2018), now Head of Research & Product Development at Vetsina Animal Diagnostics Ltd, UK
• Witold Mielczarek, PhD student (2013-2016), now analyst at McKinsey & Company, Poland
• Virginia Alvarez Garcia, Postdoc (2015-2017), now postdoc at the University of Edinburgh
• Jonathan Morton, Research Assistant (2014-2015), now teacher at Earlston High School, UK
• Raja Lingam, MSc Student (2017)
• Mohammed Ashour, MSc Student (2017), now MEMS engineer at Bosch, Germany
• Salvatore Caputo, MSc Student (2017), now Cooper Standard Italy
• Ang Li, MSc Student (2016), now PhD student at the University of Edinburgh