Bioscience and Bioengineering Research Centre
The Bioscience and Bioengineering Research Centre focuses on advancing the biological understanding of health and disease and on developing innovative technologies to improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient management. We aim at enhancing healthcare outcomes and medical practices both in the community and in tertiary centres.
We bring together a broad array of expertise covering: cancer biology, bioinformatics, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics modelling and analysis, microwave sensing and imaging, ultrasound sensing and imaging, biological and medical image analysis, modelling and analysis of deformations, human biomechanics, biomechanical properties of human muscle and tendon in healthy and disease.
Centre activities revolve around four pillars:
1. Sensing technologies
The research centre brings together unique capacities in the innovation, development, and application of non-invasive, non-ionising sensing technologies.
The ultrasound research lab aims to develop technologies using acoustic waves at ultrasonic frequencies, exploiting high frame-rate ultrasound imaging, super-resolution methods, 3D ultrasound imaging.
The microwave lab developed (in collaboration with Umbria Bioengineering Technologies) a microwave-based screening system for breast cancer, now undergoing clinical trials in Europe under the umbrella of a Horizon Europe grant. It also expanding the technology in order to apply it to other clinical targets (stroke, gait, …).
The Biox spinoff is commercializing bio-impedance-based devices to assess and monitor skin condition.
2. Image and signal analysis
The biomedical imaging research group is applying classical computer vision, artificial intelligence, and system modelling approaches for the analysis of biological and medical data.
It has an extensive experience in the modelling and analysis of PET, dynamic PET, and MRI data in brain studies related to Alzheimer’s, chronic conditions as migraine, and neuroinflammation. It has broad experience in the analysis of ultrasound and contrast-enhanced ultrasound data in an array of conditions (e.g. prenatal, musculoskeletal, cancer, …), and in the analysis of a variety of endoscopic (endoscopy and virtual chromoendoscopy, confocal microendoscopy, cystoscopy, …) data in inflammatory bowel disease. Moreover, it is actively working on the multimodal integration of data from different sources to improve assessment, outcome prediction or therapy response of a patient.
The group has successfully developed a set of tools for the analysis of histological data, in particular for the analysis of the cytoarchitecture of different regions of the central nervous system in the mammals.
3. Human biomechanics and biomechanical properties of tissues
The biomechanics research brings together a broad range of experiences and unique topics. The computational biomechanical analysis of the cardiovascular system activity lead to the development of a patient-specific model of models of coronary atherosclerosis from (OCT) data, and to the integration of fluid-structural interaction analytical model into patient-specific cardiovascular models, to gain a deeper understanding of the interactions between blood flow and the vessel walls, and to assess the plaque vulnerability using computational models.
The gait and sports biomechanics group is known for its work on the plasticity of the human musculoskeletal system in response to mechanical loading (such as exercise), and on the interaction between the neural and the motor system during functional activities such as walking and running. The aim is to provide insights to researchers, clinicians and coaches to improve the prevention and rehabilitation of sport related injuries, as well as to reduce the risk of falls in the older population.
4. Cancer biology
The research theme on cancer biology aims at contributing to the understanding of molecular drivers and hypoxia-induced effects, of the mechanisms of cancer development, metastasis, and the discovery of novel “druggable” targets to apply in refractory/resistant cancer types. The group bring together multidisciplinary expertise as molecular biology, molecular docking, epigenetics, and bioinformatics
Academics
- Enrico Grisan (Director)
- Eiman Abdel Aleem
- Ludovica Brusaferri
- Sandra Dudley-Mcevoy
- Gaspar Epro
- Mohammad Ghavami
- Geoff Goss
- Sevan Harput
- Kiros Karamanidis
- Pawel Markiewicz
- Jiaqiu Wang
- Perry Xiao
Research fellows
- Mehran Taghipour Gorjikolaie
- Gianluigi Tiberi
- Bilal Khalid
- Ujwala Chaudhari
Doctoral students
- Moein Movafagh
- Valentina Vadori
- Bisi Bode Kolawole
- Abraham Vaquero Castro
- Maryam Dorvashi
- Hossam Hassan Sultan Abdelreheem
- React Innovation Centre
- SABER South Bank Applied Bioengineering Research Group
- Cancer Biology and Therapy Research Group
- Sport and Exercise Science Research Group
- Ultrasonics lab (UARP-II research imaging system, pressure calibration, wave simulator)
- Microwave lab (measurement anechoic chamber, PCB production facilities, MammoWave medical imaging system, stereophotogrammetry and microwave gait acquisition system)
- Sports and biomechanics lab
- Cancer research lab (high-throughput drug screening, high content imaging, flow cytometry, Real-time QPCR and basic molecular biology instruments)
- EU funded MammoScreen project (£600K) (ends Dec 2026) (PI: Ghavami) ( https://mammoscreenproject.eu/)
- EU funded ROVER project (£150K) (ends Oct 2025) (PI: Ghavami)