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Postdoctoral

Team Profiles

Anna Johnston

Anna Johnston

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Anna has a BA in Molecular Medicine from TCD, an MSc in Biomedical Engineering from UU, and obtained a PhD from the Healthcare Technologies Institute at the University of Birmingham in 2024. During her PhD, her research focused on developing electrospun polymer fibre materials for oesophageal tissue engineering. At RCSI, Anna will be developing a 3D printed tubular polymer scaffold for tracheal regeneration under the supervision of Prof. Sally-Ann Cryan.

Amir Mohammed Abdo

Amir Mohammed Abdo

Post Doctoral Candidate

Amir obtained his PhD in biomedical engineering in 2023 from the University of Galway, and he has MSc in Biological& Bioprocess Engineering from Sheffield University U.K and MSc in Biochemistry from Helwan University, Egypt. His research interests are the development of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species shielding materials for different biomedical applications. In CÚRAM, he is working under the supervision of Prof. Abhay Pandit on the development of nitric oxide scavenging hydrogels, and funded by the Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme.

Andrew Gallagher

Andrew Gallagher

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Andrew obtained his BSc and MSc Industrial Biotechnology from Liverpool John Moores University, England. His PhD, awarded in 2018 from the University of Liverpool, England focussed on the development of a novel peptide based hydrogel as an antimicrobial bandage contact lens. He also spent seven years in industry developing biomaterials for a range of applications. Currently, under the supervision of Professor Pandit, he is investigating novel mucoadhesive microparticles for ocular drug delivery.

Anna Hobbins

Anna Hobbins

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr Anna Hobbins is a postdoctoral researcher working on economic evaluation of medical devices at CÚRAM and Health Economics & Policy Analysis Centre University of Galway. She completed her PhD in Queen’s University Belfast which involved producing the Irish “value set”, “population norms” using the EQ-5D-5L system. The output from Anna’s work, which has involved collaboration with colleagues across multiple disciplines, has been published in a range of leading national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Anneke Verbruggen

Anneke Verbruggen

Postdoctoral Researcher

Qualifications: PhD, Masters and Bachelors in Biomedical Engineering. Research Area: Mechanobiology, Metastasis, Medical Device technology, computational modelling. CURAM project: Optimising novel experimental and computational models to aid in the development of medical device technologies designed by Stryker (Cork). Specifically investigating responses of soft tissue to the cutting action of RF Electrosurgical Instruments and ultrasonic debridement. Funded by CURAM and Stryker.

Cansu Sahin

Cansu Sahin

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Cansu obtained her PhD in Histology and Embryology from the Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University Faculty of Medicine in Türkiye. Her research focused on investigating the expressions and functions of ubiquitin proteasome system proteins in human placenta. She is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Karen Doyle on the characteristics of thrombi from acute ischemic stroke patients, using a mix of histological and immunohistochemical techniques. Her main role is to involve the management and analysis of the database of clot pathology, exploring the correlation of clot characteristics with clinical characteristics, and electrical impedance analysis.

Chithra Reghuvaran

Chithra Reghuvaran

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Chithra obtained her Ph.D. degree from National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India. She has experience of working in the areas of sensor edge intelligent circuit design, neural accelerator design, power optimization techniques, and related areas. Her project at CÚRAM aims to develop early seizure onset prediction techniques from EEG using Echo State Network based ML models and its hardware implementation. Chithra is working under the supervision of Dr. Deepu John from University College Dublin.

Clara Sanz Nogués

Clara Sanz Nogués

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Clara has a BSc Biotechnology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain), a MSc in Clinical Research from NUI Galway, and a PhD from University of Galway. Her research focuses on developing novel mesenchymal stromal cell (MSC)-based therapies for treating diabetic complications. Clara’s current project at CÚRAM aims to develop a novel tissue engineered construct using umbilical cord MSCs for treating non-healing wound ulcers in diabetic patients. Her supervisors are Prof Timothy O’Brien and Dr Dimitrios Zeugolis.

Clodagh O'Neill

Clodagh O'Neill

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Clodagh obtained her MSc in Biomedical Science in 2017 and completed her PhD in 2022 from the University of Galway. Her PhD work was focused on Extracellular Vesicle (EV)-encapsulated microRNAs (miRNAs) for treatment of breast cancer. Her current area of research at CÚRAM, under the supervision of Prof. Laurence Egan, involves evaluating nanoparticle formulations for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

Daniel Kelly

Daniel Kelly

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Daniel received his PhD in Computer Science, specialising in Machine Learning and Serverless Computing, from the University of Galway, Ireland. His research focused on translation of web traffic into images for detection of a cyber-attack on Serverless Computing, known as Denial of Wallet. Daniel also has conducted prior research on the application of Computer Vision to Search and Rescue tasks such as casualty. Currently, Daniel is working in a postdoctoral research position that brings together his past research experience and love of 3D printing, that aims to utilise Computer Vision for the autonomous correction of control parameters in extrusion-based 3D printing. Daniel is working under co-supervision of Dr. Andrew Daly and Dr. Karl Mason.

Daniela Rodrigues Amorim

Daniela Rodrigues Amorim

MedTrain+ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow

Daniela graduated in Pharmacy from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain), completed an MSc at the University of Lisbon (Portugal), and earned a PhD in Neuroscience and Clinical Psychology from the University of Vigo (Spain). She later received the "la Caixa" MIT-Aging Brain Initiative fellowship and worked at the Tsai Lab (USA) on demyelination and aging. Now, at Roche's Lab, University of Galway, she studies neuroinflammation in stress-exacerbated post-surgical pain through the MedTrain+ program. Daniela's Supervisor is Dr. Michelle Roche, and her Co-Supervisors are Professor David Finn and Professor Abhay Pandit.

David Keane

David Keane

Postdoctoral Researcher

David has a background in medical physics with 15 years in the NHS as a registered Clinical Scientist. His research focuses on technology in haemodialysis, including a PhD on measurement of fluid status. Clinically, he supported clinical measurement and data usage in the renal unit and had leadership positions in the UK Kidney Association. David will be working with CÚRAM Co-PI Prof. Matt Griffin, developing clinical trial methodology and infrastructure as part of the Clinical Translation Support team.

Eimear Wallace

Eimear Wallace

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Eimear obtained her with BSc in Biomedical Science and MSc in Regenerative Medicine from University of Galway. During her PhD, Eimear developed an implantable soft robotic drug delivery system for controlled release of VEGF. At CÚRAM she is working as a MedTrain+ fellow with Doctor Eimear Dolan of University of Galway and Doctor Andrew Cameron of FeelTect to develop an actuatable drug delivery device to deliver angiogenic growth factors to encourage healing of diabetic foot ulcers.

Enda Murphy

Enda Murphy

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Enda obtained a BSc in Sports Science and Health (1st class honours) from Dublin City University in 2014. He worked as a Senior Technical Officer in the School of Health and Human Performance there from 2014 - 2022, while also completing a PhD on the role of exercise intensity and muscle contraction frequency in modulating exercise response. At CÚRAM, he will investigate the relevance of physiological ketosis as an indicator of health improvements in patients with obesity and related metabolic disorders.

Eulalie Lafarge

Eulalie Lafarge

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

After obtaining her Master's degree in Soft Matter Physics & Chemistry in 2019 from the University of Bordeaux, Eulalie defended her PhD in 2022 at the University of Strasbourg. Her work focused on the modification of lipid membrane physical properties as a function of lipid oxidation degree. She is now a Postdoctoral Researcher at CÚRAM (University of Galway), investigating brain inflammatory response caused by biomaterial of various physicochemical properties, a study done under the supervision of Dr. Declan McKernan and funded by the MedTrain+ program.

Giriprasath Ramanathan

Giriprasath Ramanathan

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Giriprasath obtained his PhD in 2017 from Anna University, Chennai, India. His research focused on the fabrication and characterization of biomaterials using different techniques for skin and bone tissue engineering application. He was awarded Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Individual Fellowship (IF) during his postdoc at KU leuven, Belgium. His research area is in the development of hydrogels for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) in CURAM, under the supervision of Dr. Yury Rochev & Dr. Abhay Pandit.

James O'Connor

James O'Connor

Postdoctoral Researcher

James received a BSc in Biotechnology from DCU and a BM BS from UL. His research interests include thoracic surgery, airway disease and regenerative medicine. James will be working on tracheal regeneration and tissue engineering under the supervision of Professor Karen Redmond and Professor Sally-Ann Cryan in conjunction with the Tissue Engineering Group in RCSI.

Joan Martí Muñoz

Joan Martí Muñoz

Postdoctoral Researcher

Joan received his PhD in Material Science and Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (Barcelona, Spain). His research was focused on synthetic scaffolds to induce vascularization in hard-to-heal wounds. Then, Joan joined CÚRAM as part of the MedTrain Program where he developed Galectin-3 inhibitory hydrogels under the supervision of Prof. Abhay Pandit. Currently, Joan has been awarded the prestigious Individual (Global) Marie Curie Action in an international collaboration with Yale University (EEUU) under the supervision of Prof. Abhay Pandit and Prof. Naftali Kaminski, MD (Yale) to investigate the effects of this novel Galectin-3 inhibitor hydrogels in lung Fibrosis.

Juan Fandiño

Juan Fandiño

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Juan obtained his B.Sc. in Biology, M.Sc. in Nutrition and PhD in Endocrinology from the University of Vigo. His PhD research was focused on the study of the effect of a GLP-1 receptor agonist in an animal model of lung fibrosis. His research interests are the study of novel therapies for the treatment of pulmonary diseases. At CÚRAM, Juan is working in a preclinical testing of iPS-derived MSCs in animal models of bacterial and viral ARDS under the supervision of Dr. Daniel O’Toole and Prof. John Laffey.

Juan Uribe-Gomez

Juan Uribe-Gomez

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Juan obtained his B.Sc. in chemistry, M.Sc. in organic synthesis from Universidad Nacional de Colombia and his PhD in polymer science from the University of Bayreuth. His PhD research was focused on the synthesis, characterization, processing, and biological assessment of polyurethanes. At CÚRAM, Juan is working in biomaterials database BiomatDB under the supervision of Prof. Abhay Pandit.

Juhi Chakraborty

Juhi Chakraborty

Postdoctoral Researcher

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Kevin Ng

Kevin Ng

Postdoctoral Researcher

Kevin obtained his PhD from UNSW Sydney, Australia in 2021, with a focus on the perception and neural coding of vibrotactile stimuli. He then trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Linköping University, Sweden in the peripheral neural coding of pain. At CÚRAM, Kevin will investigate the use of EMG and the nociceptive withdrawal reflex in studying and predicting the outcomes of low back pain patients. He is supported by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions COFUND fellowship and supervised by Prof. David Finn.

Kieran Joyce

Kieran Joyce

Postdoctoral Researcher

Kieran graduated with a Bachelor of Medical Sciences as part of an integrated MB PhD program in NUI Galway. He completed his PhD, investigating the glycoprofile of the intervertebral disc in degeneration under the supervision of Prof. Abhay Pandit. An intern doctor at University Hospital Galway and postdoctoral researcher at University of Galway, Kieran's postdoctoral research focuses on the development of biomaterial-based therapies in intervertebral disc degeneration.

Kishor Das

Kishor Das

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Das obtained his PhD in Biostatistics from University of Galway. His research is focused on analysing high-dimensional data using Mixed-effects Modelling framework and Functional Data Analysis. His current work at CÚRAM is focused on developing multivariate adaptive reference region, providing statistical supports to CÚRAM researchers, and facilitating training and workshops on statistical methodologies and statistical software R. He is supervised by Professor John Newell and Dr. Davood Roshan.

Krittish Roy

Krittish Roy

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Krittish completed his PhD from the Department of Chemistry, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700032. He has expertise in inorganic synthesis, MOF synthesis, graphene synthesis, thin and thick film preparation, nanofiber preparation through electrospinning technique, energy harvesting devices, device fabrication. He has published nearly 15 articles to date in different reputed journals. In addition, he has presented his work in several national and international conferences. Krittish is enthusiastic about learning different tools to improve research contributions. His research is on biodegradable film preparation and coating for in-vivo application, supervised by Dr. Tofail Syed.

Muhammad Riaz ur Rehman

Muhammad Riaz ur Rehman

Postdoctoral Researcher

Muhammad Riaz ur Rehman obtained his PhD degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Sungkyunkwan University, South Korea in 2020. He has 10 years industry experience related to design of Software Defined Radios and embedded system design. His area of interest are design of digital IC and embedded systems based on FPGA and microcontroller. Currently developing an electronic embedded system for powering and communication with an implantable biosensor. He is supervised by Dr William Wijns and Dr Atif Shahzad.

Nazan Güner Sak

Nazan Güner Sak

Postdoctoral Researcher

Nazan has a B.Sc. in Biology, obtained her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Human Anatomy from the Bursa Uludag University Faculty of Medicine in Türkiye. She has worked as a researcher at the Queen Mary University of London. Her study is related to investigating brain structures in children with epilepsy diagnosis. She is currently working under the supervision of Dr. Karen Doyle on the characteristics of thrombi from acute ischemic stroke patients, using a mix of histological and immuno-histochemical techniques. Her main role is to involve the management and analysis of the database of clot pathology, exploring the correlation of clot characteristics with clinical characteristics, and electrical impedance analysis.

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Niamh Hynes

Niamh Hynes

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ms Niamh Hynes is a Senior Registrar in Vascular & Endovascular Surgery at the Galway Clinic, Honorary Clinical Lecturer in Endovascular Surgery at the University of Galway, and co-founder of the Western Vascular Institute (WVI), an international vascular research foundation. Her areas of interest are clinical vascular research, biomedical engineering and vascular medical device design.

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Noemie Petit

Noemie Petit

Postdoctoral Researcher

Noémie obtained a BSc and MSc in Food Science and Biotechnology from the University of La Rochelle, France. She completed her PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, focusing on the food-based delivery of bioactive peptides for gut health. Noémie is now a MedTrain+ postdoctoral researcher based at RCSI under the supervision of Dr Shane Browne. Her work focuses on the development of hyaluronic acid-based hydrogels for the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.

Paddy McDermott

Paddy McDermott

Postdoctoral Researcher

Paddy McDermott holds a BE from the University of Galway and a M.Sc in Management from Trinity College, Dublin. Patrick has worked in industry for 35 years, 20 of which were in global leadership positions, culminating in 5 years as President and Chief Innovation Officer of Transitions Optical, a multinational organisation which is part of the EssilorLuxottica Group. Retiring from there in 2019, last year he started to work as Commercial Lead with Andy Gallagher on the Ocusphere project in CÚRAM, and was supervised by Abhay Pandit. Patrick's experience is in ophthalmics, which is the industry targeted by the project.

Patricia Vazquez

Patricia Vazquez

Postdoctoral Researcher

Patricia Vazquez obtained her PhD in Micro-Electro-Mechanic sensors in 2011 from the University DTU Nanotech, Denmark. She trained as a postdoctoral researcher at Tyndall National Institute, Ireland, studying microfluidic techniques applied to electrochemical sensors for biomedical applications. In the last years, her interests have focused in cardiovascular sensors based on wireless technology. As a researcher at CÚRAM, she is working on the development of a smart renal denervation device to treat hypertension and the use of ultrasound for implantable sensors.

Prateek Ranjan Yadav

Prateek Ranjan Yadav

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Prateek obtained his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2023. His PhD was focused on modelling and optimisation of polymeric microneedle based transdermal drug delivery systems. Currently, Prateek is working on medical device development for gastrointestinal applications.

Pravin Bhattarai

Pravin Bhattarai

Postdoctoral Researcher

Pravin Bhattarai completed his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Peking University, China (2019). He worked on the near-infrared fluorescent molecular probes-based phototherapy and imaging for cancer theranostics. After PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Biophotonics at Phutung Research Institute, Nepal. Currently, at CÚRAM he plans to work on the design of piezoelectric energy scavenging biomaterials for low power biomedical applications under Dr. Manus Biggs.

Rasha Alshaikh

Rasha Alshaikh

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Rasha obtained a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm), MRes in Pharmaceutical Technology and PhD in ocular drug delivery. During her PhD, she investigated novel molecules for ocular neovascular diseases and developed an implantable drug delivery system for sustained drug release. At CÚRAM, she is conducting postdoctoral research on the implications of the EU Regulation on Health Technology Assessment for medical devices in Ireland under the supervision of Professor Caitriona O’Driscoll at UCC.

Rashmi Ramakrishnan

Rashmi Ramakrishnan

Postdoctoral Researcher

Rashmi received her PhD in Biological Sciences (Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine) in 2020 from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India. She also holds an MPhil in Biomedical Technology and an MSc in Medical Biochemistry. Her research interest focuses on the application of stem cells, biomaterials, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine towards development of cost-effective, scalable biomedical therapeutics and devices for tissue repair. Currently at CURAM, she is working as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr Andrew Daly’s group on an industry-funded project to investigate new in vitro models for optimization of compatibility tests for extracellular matrix-based biomaterials.

Remya Kommeri 

Remya Kommeri 

Postdoctoral Researcher

Remya obtained her Ph.D in Biomaterial science in 2017 from Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, India. Her research quest is to find a bioactive material for cardiac regeneration in mammals after ischemic injury. She was awarded the Fulbright-Nehru postdoctoral fellowship in 2021. In CÚRAM, she is working on the regenerative potential of zebrafish cardiac extracellular matrix vesicles under the supervision of Dr. Michael Monaghan, Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin.

Sahil Anchal

Sahil Anchal

Postdoctoral Researcher

Sahil earned his MS [Res.] and PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, specializing in footstep-based biometrics using AI algorithms. He also has experience in embedded system design. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at CÚRAM, working with Professor Padraig Cantillon-Murphy at University College Cork, where he will develop wireless electromagnetic tracking devices for navigational diagnostics in medical applications.

Sahil Malhotra

Sahil Malhotra

Postdoctoral Researcher

Sahil obtained a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Indian Institute of technology Delhi. His research focused on engineering Red Blood Cells membrane to develop biocompatible nanovesicles for biomedical applications. After completing his PhD, Sahil worked as a scientist with Biocon, one of the leading global brands in Biopharmaceuticals, where he worked on physico-chemical characterization of biosimilars. He is currently working on an SFI and Marie-Curie Action co-funded project under the supervision of Prof. David Brayden at UCD wherein he will develop a Mucoadhesive Buccal patch for systemic delivery of anti-cancer peptide drugs.

Sergis Vasileios

Sergis Vasileios

Postdoctoral Researcher

Vasilis is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the aiPRINT project under Dr. Andrew Daly's supervision, developing an AI-powered 3D bioprinter. He is a Mechanical Engineer with interests in automation, additive manufacturing, and artificial intelligence. His PhD at École de Technologie Supérieure centred on automating mortar mix development and quality monitoring in 3D concrete printing using AI. He earned his Bachelor's degree at the Technical University of Crete and Master's degree at the Technical University of Athens.

Seán McCarthy

Seán McCarthy

Postdoctoral Researcher

Seán obtained his PhD from University College Dublin. His research interests include genomics and gene therapy in the area of acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis. At CÚRAM, Seán is examining high efficacy throughput screening of vehicles for mRNA delivery to the lung in ARDS with Dr Daniel O’Toole and Prof. John Laffey.

Siobhan Crilly

Siobhan Crilly

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER

Siobhan works as a Medtrain+ Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at CÚRAM and her interests lie in the development of non-animal systems for neuroscience. Her current project involves utilising the state-of-the-art technique of vascularising brain organoids to develop a model of haemorrhagic stroke. Siobhan received her PhD from the University of Manchester in 2019 and since, has been awarded a Stroke Association postdoc and a NC3Rs funded Fellowship to characterise a model of haemorrhagic stroke in zebrafish larvae and develop bioengineered material techniques for in vitro stroke modelling.

Thi Nga Tran

Thi Nga Tran

Postdoctoral Researcher

Dr. Tran obtained her PhD on material science. Her research focused on the development of biocomposites and hydrogels from sustainable resources for active food packaging, tissue engineering and 3D printing applications. Currently, she is a Postdoctoral Researcher working on the CellMembrance project, which is funded through the Horizon Europe Framework Pathfinder Programme, with Dr. Manus Biggs at CÚRAM. The project aims to develop a novel artificial lung technology comprised of biomaterials and cellular elements.

Thomas Fruleux

Thomas Fruleux

Postdoctoral Researcher

Thomas obtained his PhD degree in Material Sciences in October 2023 at the University of South Brittany in France. He is currently working in CÚRAM under the supervisorship of Dr. Manus Biggs. Thomas is participating in the international Cell Membrane project which is aiming to design a nanocellulose-based scaffold membrane for temporary artificial lung applications. He is also involved in raising awareness about the plastic lifecycle and pollution as a member of "La Fresque du Plastique / The Plastic Collage".

Thomas Lijnse

Thomas Lijnse

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

I received my PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Calgary, where I focused on novel fabrication techniques for metal microneedle technologies. I am presently working under Dr. Eoin O'Cearbhaill, an Associate Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. My current research focuses on development of new microneedle based technologies for pain-free oral therapeutic administration.

Viviane Chiaradia 

Viviane Chiaradia 

Postdoctoral Researcher

Viviane earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Her thesis was focused on the design of biodegradable polyesters and included a secondment to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI). Following this, Viviane worked as a Research Fellow and as a Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Viviane is currently investigating the design of degradable polymers and their manufacturing via 3D printing under the supervision of Andreas Heise, RCSI.

Wenting Shu

Wenting Shu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Wenting Shu is a PhD student in Biomedical Engineering at UCD School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. She has MEng from University of Limerick and a BEng from University of Huddersfield, UK. Her project focuses on the numerical and experimental investigation of microneedle penetration and interaction with skin. At CÚRAM, she is working under the supervision of Prof. Madeleine Lowery on the computational modeling of transcranial focused ultrasound for neuromodulation.