People

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

To come

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.