Lead Researcher

Stefaan is the lead researcher in Verbruggen Lab. He is a Lecturer in Medical Technology in the Centre for Bioengineering, and a Visiting Academic at the INSIGNEO Institute for in silico Medicine.

He holds a PhD (2014) and Bachelors degree (2009) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Galway, Ireland. He conducted postdoctoral research at Imperial College London, and a Marie Curie Fellowship at Columbia University in New York.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Natalia started her postdoc in the Verbruggen Lab in May 2024 on the interactions between the gut microbiome and skeletal development, as part of a collaboration with UC San Francisco.

She holds a Bachelors degree in Medical Biotechnology from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (2018), and a PhD from Queen Mary University of London (2023), jointly with Singapore’s A*STAR and Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

PhD Student

Fiona started her PhD studies in the Verbruggen Lab in September 2021, building computational mechanobiological models to predict spinal fractures in patients suffering from multiple myeloma.

Fiona holds a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield (2021).

PhD Student

Eisha started her PhD studies in the Verbruggen Lab in September 2024, using computational simulations to investigate the role played by mechanosensitive osteocytes in metastatic cancer.

Eisha holds an Bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering from Queen Mary University of London (2021), and has years of experience as a Clinical Engineer at Barts NHS Health Trust.

PhD Student

Mia started her PhD studies in the Prof Tina Chowdury’s Lab at Queen Mary University of London in October 2022. Her research is focused on investigating the immune signalling underpinning the mechanics of pre-term birth. building organ-on-a-chip models of inflammation in bone cell microenvironments.

Mia holds an Bachelors and Masters Degree in Biological and Medicinal Chemistry (2022) from the University of Sheffield.

PhD Student

Areli started her PhD studies in the Prof Gwen Reilly’s Lab at the University of Sheffield in September 2021. Her research applied novel scaffold biomaterials to build 3D organ-chip models of bone cell, immune, and cancer cell crosstalk.

Areli holds an Bachelors degree in Biotechnology from Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP, 2013) and a Masters degree in Nanoscience from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (2018).

PhD Student

Olivia started her PhD studies in the Prof Martin Knight’s Lab at Queen Mary University of London in October 2023, as part of the London Interdisciplinary Doctoral training program (LIDo). Her research is focused on building organ-on-a-chip models of inflammation in bone cell microenvironments.

Olivia holds an Bachelors degree in Biomedical Science (2018) and a Masters degree in Molecular Biology Research (2019) from the University of Plymouth.

MEng Student

Thagshi started her Masters of Biomedical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London in September 2024. Her research in the Verbruggen Lab is focused on quantifying the effect of image quality on the reproducibility of bone biomechanics predictions in cancer patients. She investigates how segmentation repeatability impacts the accuracy of finite element (FE) predictions in healthy and lesion-affected vertebrae.

Thagshi holds a Bachelors degree in Biomedical Engineering from Queen Mary University of London (2024).

BEng Student

Enrico started his Bachelors of Chemical Engineering at Queen Mary University of London in October 2022. His research in the Verbruggen Lab is focused on comparing the use of phantoms with phantom-less calibration when building in silico models of spinal biomechanics from clinical CT scans.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Joanne worked with the Verbruggen Lab, based in the groups of Prof Martin Knight and Prof Oliver Pearce, from January 2021 to August 2023. Her postdoc led to the development of a validated organ-chip model of osteolytic breast cancer metastases in bone.

Joanne holds a Bachelors degree in Bioanalysis and Biotechnology from the Limerick Institute of Technology (2016), and a PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Limerick (2020).

PhD researcher

Reduan completed his PhD studies at the Tecnun - Universidad de Navarra (2024), focusing on computational of cells within tissue engineering scaffolds. Reduan joined the Verbruggen Lab in January 2023 for a secondment from the Rodríguez Flórez Lab.

Reduan holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (2018), and a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Universidad de Zaragoza (2020).

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ayushi worked with the Verbruggen Lab, alongside Prof Martin Knight and Prof Oliver Pearce, from November 2023 to February 2024. Her postdoc applied multi-omics techniques to validate an organ-chip model of osteolytic breast cancer metastases in bone.

Ayushi holds a Bachelors degree in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (2018), and a PhD in Cancer Biomechanics from University College London (2023).