Group members

	Prof Aline F. Miller is a Professor of Biomolecular Engineering in the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science having joined the University of Manchester in 2002. Prior to this she held a New Hall College Junior Research Fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University. She is a chemist by training (B.Sc. Glasgow University and Ph.D. Durham University) and during this time gained several awards, including the Sir George Beilby Medal and the Hackman Research Fellowship. She has also gained several awards while in Manchester including the Exxon Mobil Teaching Fellowship in 2004, The Royal Society of Chemistry MacroGroup UK Young Researchers Medal in 2008 and the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Engineering in 2014. Aline was elected fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 2013 and fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP) in 2016. In 2019 she became CEO of Manchester BIOGEL having taken a leave of absence from the University. In 2021 she rejoined the University of Manchester and became Associate Dean for Business Engagement & Innovation in Faculty of Science and Engineering.
	Prof Alberto Saiani was awarded an European PhD in 1997 by the University Louis Pasteur, (Strasbourg, France). Following his PhD, he held a number of post-doctoral positions in Japan, at Osaka University for which he was awarded a Japanese Society for Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellowship (JSPS), the UK, at imperial College London and Belgium, at Huntsman Polyurethanes. In 2000 he was appointed lecturer at the University Blaise Pascal (Clermont-Ferrand, France) before joining in 2002 the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester. His research work spans a wide area of experimental polymer and biopolymer science and focuses on understanding and engineering materials across length scales from molecular design all the way to bulk properties and includes fundamental, industrial and translational research. In 2013 he was awarded a 5-year EPSRC Research Fellowship to pursue his work on peptide hydrogels which led to the co-founding in 2014 of Manchester BIOGEL. In 2016 he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC). From 2018 to 2022 he first treasurer and then chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry Biomaterials Chemistry Insterest Group. In 2022 he joined the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry at The University of Manchester in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health to pursue his translational work.
	Dr Yi-Tung Lu obtained her Master degree of Chemical and Material Engineering from the National Central University (Taiwan) in 2016. In 2019, she was awarded a 4-year Scholarship from the European Regional Development Fund and the Federal State Saxony-Anhalt associated with the International Graduate School AGRIPOLY to pursue her PhD work at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). Her research mainly focused on the design and characterisation of stimuli-responsive biomaterials based on biopolymers for (stem) cell culture and control delivery of biomolecules, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Goettingen, University of Leipzig and Fraunhofer IMWS. In 2024, after completing her PhD, she joined our group as PDRA to work on sustainable self-assembling materials in regenerative medicine.
	Dr Niall Mahon graduated from the University of Surrey in 2020 with a Master of Physics degree. In 2020 he  was awarded a DTA Scholarship from the University of Manchester, Department of Materials to join our group and work on the designing of functional 3D self-assemble peptide hydrogels for early detection of cancer co-sponsored by MERCADO, the University of Manchester International Alliance for Cancer Early Detection  (ACED) CRUK award. Following his PhD he has taken on a PDRA position in our group funded by Innovate UK on developping fully defined scaffolds for synthetic meat production.
	Lauren Churchill graduated from Keele University in 2022 with a Master in Science in Biochemistry. In 2020, she worked at the Alderley Park Lighthouse lab, part of the government’s Covid-19 PCR testing programme in response to the pandemic. In July 2022 she joined the group to pursue a PhD focused on the application of peptide hydrogels for ocular drug delivery, in collaboration with NanOptima.
	Stefano Pretto graduated from University College Cork, Ireland, in 2020 with a BSc in Biochemistry. In the same year, he relocated to UK to work as a Cell and Gene Therapy Scientist and focus on the manufacturing of Covid-19 vaccine. In early 2022, he obtained a new position as a Process Development Associate and worked on new plasmid platforms for multi serotype AVVs used on pre-clinical and clinical studies. In September 2022, he joined our group to pursue a PhD in the optimization of hydrogel for the manufacture of 3D organoids model for drug discovery in collaboration with Manchester BIOGEL and the National Physical Laboratory.
	Chao-Yu Yang graduated from the National Taiwan University with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Chemistry (in 2016) and a master's degree in Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering (in 2019). She also studied intermolecular interactions and integrated embedded systems. During 2019-2022, she was a research assistant working on deep learning at the Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica in Taiwan. In September 2022, she joined our group to pursue a Ph.D. on modeling the self-assembly pathway of amphipathic peptides.
	Junzheng Wen graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, in 2022 with a BEng in Materials Engineering. In 2021, he worked at the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) as an intern on protein quality evaluation for meat alternatives. In September 2022, he joined our group to pursue a PhD focused on the development of hydrogel scaffold for in-vitro cardiac models, in collaboration with Prof. Bernard Keavney group from the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Manchester.
	Qixun Chu graduated from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. He then did a MSc in the same field at the University of Manchester. Following his master He joined our group in January 2023 to pursue a PhD on developing novel peptide-based bioinks for 3D bioprinting.
	Nastaran Zoghi received her bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials, from Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran in 2017. Continuing her education, she pursued a MSc in the same field at Tarbiat Modares University, Iran, which she completed in 2020. In January 2023, she embarked on a PhD journey in our group focusing on Design and synthesis of novel biodegradable peptide-based elastomers for biomedical applications in collaboration with Dr. Lee Fielding at the Department of Materials.
	Agineszka Jugowicz graduated from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, with a BSc in Genetics and Immunology in 2022. Her BSc thesis focused on synthesising fluorescent peptides later used to investigate the role of formyl peptide receptors in inflammation. She then relocated to the University of Manchester to undertake MSc in Cancer Biology and Radiotherapy Physics. During her Master’s thesis, she designed a beam modifier for novel irradiation protocols regarding the radiobiological experiments in the proton research beamline at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust. In September 2023 she joined the group as a PhD student to work on stabilising growth factors in peptide hydrogels for cancer research applications.
	Muhan Ayi graduated from Shanghai Polytechnic University in 2022 with a BSc degree in Chemical Materials and studied for an MSc degree in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2023. During 2018-2022, she studied the stability and related work on PVA hydrogels and carried out research on pulsed bias active screen plasma nitridation of austenitic stainless steels for her MSc project. In April 2024, she joined our group for her PhD, studying peptides and PVA self-healing hydrogels for drug delivery.
	Sara Hosseinzadeh graduated from Tarbiat Modares University in 2018 with a master's degree in medical biochemistry. She subsequently worked in the Nanobiotechnology department at the Pasteur Institute of Iran and simultaneously collaborated as a Quality Control expert in the Recombinant Protein section of Renap Iran. In April 2024, she joined our group to pursue a PhD on design of polysaccharide-peptide conjugated hydrogels for biomedical application.
	Nainsi Chauhan graduated in 2024 from The University of Manchester with an MSc in Biomaterials having been awarded a British Council Women in STEM Scholarships. In October 2024, after been awarded a University of Manchester Dean's Doctorate Scholarship, she joined our group to pursue a PhD focusing on designing novel biodegradable hydrogel scaffolds for cultured meat.
	Saarah Mazhar graduated in 2023 from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BSc in Biomedical science. She completed an MSc in Tissue Engineering for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Manchester in 2024. She joined the group in October 2024 to pursue a PhD focusing on developing a new drug delivery method to target solid tumours in collaboration with Dr Katherine Finegan in the Department of Cancer Biology.

Associated Members

Amir Hossein Namdar joined Dr Tom Shearer group in the Department of Mathematics in September 2022 to undertake a PhD on modelling of fibrous networks.

Megan Green joined Prof Olga Tsigkou group in the Department of Materials in September 2022 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our and Dr A. Gilmore's groups in the Division or Cancer Sciences on designing scaffolds for modelling breast cancer initiation.

Catherine Pennington Joined Prof Kay Marshall Group in the Division of Pharmacy and Optometry in September 2022 to undertake a PhD in collaborations with our group on design injectable hydrogels for endometriosis drugs delivery.

Samuel Chin joined Prof E. Cartwright group in the Division of Cardiovascular Sciences in September 2023 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our and Prof D. Oceandy group in the same Division on designing injectable scaffolds for cell delivery for heart repair.

Yu Xin was appointed in September 2023 as a PDRA on a project funded by the Humane Research Trust in Prof J. Gough's group in the Department of Materials (Henry Royce Institute) to work in collaboration with our group on designing of non-animal-based liver organoids for toxicity testing.

Eve Tipple joined Prof J. Gough's group in the Department of Materials (Henry Royce Institute) in September 2023 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our group on designing an in-vitro model for bladder cancer.

Yiting Chen joined Prof J. Gough's group in the Department of Materials (Henry Royce Institute) in September 2023 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our group on developing scaffolds for liver organoids engineering.

Raul Pacheco Sousa Silva joined Prof A. Herrick group in the Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine in September 2023 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our group on developing an in-vitro model for endometriosis.

Jeyapriya Thimukonda Jegadeesan joined Dr M. Amer group in the Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine in September 2024 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our group on developing hydrogel / nanoparticle comaposites for stem cell differentiation.

Elizaveta Miroshnik joined Prof A. Herrick group in the Division of Cell Matrix Biology & Regenerative Medicine in September 2023 to undertake a PhD in collaboration with our group on developing drug delivery systems for the prevention of adhesions.

  For past group members see the Alumni page

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