Nazia is a tissue engineer working closely with surgeons in the repair and regeneration of several different types of tissues, such as neural tissue, skin and adipose tissue. She completed her PhD on engineering ligaments from University of Birmingham before moving to University of Bristol to learn more about protein design and the development of novel hydrogels for cell culture. Nazia is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at UCL where she is developing novel, implantable materials towards tissue engineering; either as cell-populated scaffolds or towards biocompatible medical devices. Her current role allows her to work with engineers, biologists, chemists and even roboticists in exploring the diversity of research in translational medicine from bench to bedside.
In her spare time Nazia enjoys travelling and hiking and can often be found in the countryside (national or international) trying to combine the two. She also loves spending time with her family and friends, especially as it almost always involves good food!
Stephen is based in the Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI) at UCL, where he develops and applies medical imaging techniques for non-invasively tracking transplanted cell therapies, bio-materials, and nanoparticles. Whether this involves labelling with radiotracers for nuclear imaging, or using contrast agents for MRI, the aim is to provide a better understanding of the behaviour of new therapies within the body, and to accelerate their translation.
Before joining UCL Stephen obtained a BSc in Cell Biology from the University of Durham, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where he developed new methods to image gene expression in vivo with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and other imaging techniques. During his free time Stephen enjoys cooking, reading, and taking life easy.