People

Rylie Green
Lead Researcher
Dr Rylie Green joined the Bioengineering department at Imperial College London in 2016. She received her PhD (Biomedical Engineering) from the University of New South Wales, Australia in 2008. Dr Green’s research has been focused on developing bioactive conducting polymers for application to medical electrodes, with a specific focus on vision prostheses and cochlear implants. Specifically, she has been investigating the application of bioactive electrode coating technologies to a developmental bionic eye device (with Bionic Vision Australia), and commercial cochlear implants (with Cochlear Ltd). More recently Dr Green has developed hybrids of conducting polymers and hydrogels to reduce strain mismatch with neural tissue and improve long-term cell interactions at the neural interface. This has led to her development of tissue engineered “living electrodes”, a new concept funded by an ERC Consolidator grant, which will allow neural cells to synaptically interface with bionic devices. Dr Green has ongoing collaborations with a range on industry partners including Galvani Bioelectronics, Boston Scientific and OxSyBio.

Awards

  • Top 5 finalist for USERN prize, 2019
  • Nominee for WEF speaker, 2019
  • EPSRC Healthcare Technologies Challenge Award, EPSRC, 2017
  • Emerging Technologies Competition: Materials and Enabling Technologies, Royal Society for Chemistry, 2017
  • Suffrage Science Award, Suffrage, UK, 2017
  • 2nd Place, Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize, Centenary Institute, 2015
  • NHMRC Career Development Fellowship, 2015

External Positions

  • Chair D&I Committee IEEE EMBS, 2018/2019
  • Member D&I Committee IEEE EMBS, since 2018
  • Consultant for Galvani Bioelectronics Ltd. (technical advisory), since 2018
  • Consultant for National Institute of Health (NIH, US) for SPARC Initiative, since 2016
  • Steering Group Member, Neural Interface Technology (NIT) Steering Group, The Royal Society

Positions with Academic Journals

  • Associate Editor, IEEE Open Access Journal of Engineering in Medecine and Biology (OJEMB), since 2019
  • Editorial Board Member, Advanced NanoBiomed, since 2019
  • Editorial Board Member, Bioelectronics in Medicine Journal,  since 2017

Membership of Professional Bodies

  • Member, Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET), 2019
  • Conference committee, European Biomaterials Society, 2018
  • Committee Member, Women in Engineering, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS), 2017
  • Conference organisation committee, International Spinal Research Trust, 2016
  • Member and Symposium Organiser, Materials Research Society, 2015
  • Senior Member, IEEE EMBS, 2013
  • Engineers Australia, 2000

Research Associates and PhD students:

Dr. Josef Goding
Research Associate

Dr. Josef Goding is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He received his PhD from the University of New South Wales, Australia, for the development of bioactive conductive hydrogel coatings for neuroprosthetic electrodes. His research interests include soft and flexible materials for bioelectronics with a focus on functional materials for neural interfaces.

Google ScholarLinked InResearch Gate
Dr. Christopher A. R. Chapman
Research Associate
Dr. Christopher A. R. Chapman is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He received his PhD from the University of California –Davis for the development of nanoporous gold functionalized neural electrodes and high throughput material testing platforms. His current research interests are centered around the fabrication of bioelectronic implants for neural stimulation and recording as well as localized drug release with a focus on utilizing functional conducting polymer materials.
Google ScholarLinked InResearch Gate

Dr. Omaer Syed
Research Associate
Dr Omaer Syed is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He received his PhD from University College London for work developing of a hybrid scaffold materials for oesophageal tissue engineering. His broad research interests include tissue engineering of both hard and soft tissues and the role of angiogenesis in these areas. Currently his research interest includes the analysis electrode-induced peripheral nerve stimulation using ex vivo and in vivo models.
Google ScholarLinked InResearch Gate
Dr. Roberto Portillo-Lara
Research Associate

Dr. Roberto Portillo-Lara is a Mexican biomedical scientist, biotechnologist and bioengineer, whose research focuses on the development of tissue-engineered technologies for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. He joined the Department of Bioengineering in 2020 as a Research Associate on the Living Bionics project, which is aimed at developing electrode interfaces that can establish functional synapses between bionic devices and target tissues. His areas of expertise include cell and tissue culture, in vitro and in vivo models, cellular and molecular biology and human physiology. During his free time, he enjoys running, good food, hanging out with friends and gaming on his PlayStation.

Google ScholarLinkedInResearch Gate

Dr. Bogachan Tahirbegi
Research Associate

Dr. Bogachan Tahirbegi is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. He obtained his PhD from University of Barcelona, Spain for the development of electrochemical electrode arrays of the EU FP7 Projects ARAKNES and PLANTOID. As a Marie Curie Research Fellow, he worked on sensor array integration into microfluidics for the EU FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects BIOINTENSE, EUROMBR and NanoPilot at Micronit GmbH, Germany.

Dr. Tahirbegi joined Imperial College London in 2017 as a Research Associate and in his current position, he is focused on the novel electrode materials and new fabrication approaches to enable the fabrication of the super high-density electrode arrays for Electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG) and micro-electrocorticography (μECoG) to create a disruptive technology to non-invasively detect the activity of large populations of single neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. His broad research interests include micro/nano fabrication and synthesis, polymer bioelectronics, biosensors, electrochemistry, optical microscopy and neuroscience. His accomplishments are manifested as publications in prestigious journals such as Nature Communications, Biosensors and Bioelectronics and Scientific Reports and highly cited.

OrcidLinkedInResearch Gate
Dr. Karina S. Litvinova
Research Associate

Dr. Karina S. Litvinova is a Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London, with a background of more than 15 years of clinical research, biomedical photonics, and product development in the medical device industry.  Most of her research specialises in advancing biophotonic technologies and ultimately providing consistent, reliable and meaningful diagnostic information within clinical practice, especially for the early diagnosis of conditions such as cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Currently, Dr. Litvinova focuses on a multidisciplinary research approach, challenging herself to expand her knowledge towards new research disciplines, such as big data and AI, and find novel applications for developed optical biosensors for medicine. Her academic and industrial collaborative work, both national and international, has resulted in over 50 publications, including 5 patents, invited and keynote talks. 

OrcidResearch Gate

Sofia Peressotti
PhD Student

I am a Bioengineering PhD student. My interests include the development of interventional approaches for clinically viable brain regeneration platforms. I investigate the effect of electrical stimulation on neural stem cells encapsulated in a bioactive self-assembling peptide, towards a combinatorial treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. The stimulation technique exploits temporally interfering fields (TI), an expertise developed in collaboration with the Interventional Systems Neuroscience Lab (Dr Nir Grossman, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London). I previously completed a MSc in Bioengineering at Imperial College London with a focus on Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering, and a BSc in Biomedical Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, Italy.

Linked In
Martina Genta
PhD Student
Martina Genta is a PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. In 2014 and 2016 respectively, she received her Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Biomedical Engineering from Polytechnic University of Turin (Italy). After a first experience in Volumina Medical SA, a Swiss start-up developing biomaterial solutions for soft tissue repair, she joined Dr. Rylie Green’s group in October 2018. Her research focuses on living bioelectronics as a new approach for implantable neuroprosthetic devices.
Google ScholarLinked InResearch Gate

Estelle Cuttaz
PhD Student

Estelle Cuttaz joined Rylie Green’s group as a PhD student in October 2018. Her research focuses on developing conductive elastomers, as a soft and flexible polymer-based conductive biomaterial, with a view towards applications in the field of implantable bioelectronic devices. Prior to this, she received her MSc in Bioengineering with a minor in Neuroprosthetics in 2018 and a Bachelor in Life Sciences and Technologies in 2016 from the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland.

Linked InResearch Gate
Alexey Novikov
PhD Student
Plastic Electronics CDT student since October 2018 developing soft polymer-based bioelectronics for cardiostimulation. MSc in Biomedical Engineering, Biomaterials stream (2017-2018), Imperial College London, UK. BEng in Materials Science and Engineering (2013-2017), Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia

Gillian Koehl
PhD Student

To come

Google scholarLinked In
Liyang Zheng
PhD Student
Liyang is a bioengineering PhD student who joined Green’s Group in January 2021. She gained Bachelor's degree in Bioscience from Central South University (China Mainland). Later she received her MSc degree in Biotechnology from Imperial College London and MRes degree in Tissue Engineering from King’s College London. Her research is about 3D Bioprinting nerve cells on living bioelectronics. Her interests include Optimisation on 3D Bioprinting, Screen of Bioinks, Implantable Bioelectronic Devices and Microfluidics Chips related to Bioprinting.

Olivia Cauvi
Project Administrator

Olivia Cauvi is a project administrator in the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London. She joined Rylie Green’s group in October 2018 as an MRes student, after receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from McGill University in 2017. After completion of her Master’s in Bioengineering, Olivia stayed in the team as a Research Assistant, focusing on developing living bioelectronics for neural implants. Since September 2020, Olivia took on a new role within the team, and is now responsible for administrative, organisational, and managerial duties.

Google ScholarLinkedIn

Students:

MSc students:

 

MRes students:

 

 

 

 

 

MEng students:

Undergraduates:

 
 

Alumni:

Post doctoral researchers:

Catalina Vallejo-Giraldo (2018-2021)

MSc students:

Alex Scott-Simons (2020-2021)
Alyssa Yek (2020-2021)
Kimberley Grasmick (2020-2021)
Nursat Jahan (2020-2021)

Thomas Adey (2019-2020)

Marianna Massa (2019-2020)
Nnedempka Nnadi (2019-2020)
Sofia Peressotti (2018-2019)
Sarvina Severatnam (2018-2019)
Erik Taylor (2018-2019)
Javier Montalt Tordera (2016-2017)

MRes students:

Joe Josef (2020-2021)
Piers Heathcote (2020-2021)

David Alonso Amado (2018-2019)
Olivia Cauvi (2018-2019)
Emmanuel Kanelos (2017-2018)
Precious Smooth (2016-2017)

MEng students:

Gabrielle Johnston (2020-2021)
Meha Vora (2020-2021)

Abigail Collins (2019-2020)
Shanila Fernandez Patel (2019-2020)
Poppy Oldroyd (2019-2020)
Khai Leed Yau (2019-2020)
Brian Chong (2018-2019)
Jia Ti (2018-2019)
Gillian Koehl (2016-2017)
Rita Sebti (2016-2017)