Research Grants

The following are current grants held by members of the Centre for Bioengineering that have been flagged as being of particular relevance:

  • AI-Driven Smart Harvesting for Precision and Sustainable Viticulture
    Xuechun Wang and Lei Su
    £35,000 Innovate UK
    08-10-2025 - 23-01-2026
  • AI-Powered Clinical Reasoning for Skin Cancer Screening with High Fidelity Imaging Sensor
    Zion Tse
    £74,246 Barts and the London Charity
    01-10-2025 - 31-03-2027
  • COacT Feasibility of the CallaVid Platform for the Delivery of Live Biotherapeutics for the Restoration of the Vaginal Microbiome
    Tina Chowdhury, Stefaan Verbruggen and Ruairi Robertson
    £46,623 Calla Lily Clinical Care Ltd.
    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2029
  • COaCT - Development of a vascularised muscle-tendon inflammation-on-a-chip model
    Hazel Screen and Martin Knight
    £166,623 UCB Pharma SPRL 
    Grant Summary

    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2029
  • COacT PhD Studentship_Band A 25/26 - Heart-joint On A Chip
    Lucy Norling, Thomas Iskratsch and Jianmin Chen
    £171,868 SynAct Pharma ApS, Denmark
    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2029
  • Development of an Osteosarcoma-on-a-Chip Model to Investigate Chemoresistance and the Role of CHI3L1 in Tumour Microenvironment
    Stefaan Verbruggen
    £122,749 Hannah’s Willberry Wonder Pony Charity
    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2029
  • Generate and test a cutting-edge Organ-on-a-Chip technology for Polycystic Kidney Disease
    Maria Fragiadaki and Thomas Iskratsch
    £123,105 Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Europe) Limited
    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2029
  • Role of the mechano-lipid matabolic signalling axis in cardiovascular disease
    Thomas Iskratsch, Nicolae Radu Zabet and Qingzhong Xiao
    £919,939 British Heart Foundation 
    Grant Summary

    01-10-2025 - 30-09-2030
  • COaCT - An organ-chip model of inflammation in the canine cartilage-synovium interface
    Stefaan Verbruggen and Martin Knight
    £159,868 Zoetis LLC 
    Grant Summary

    29-09-2025 - 28-09-2029
  • Engineering functional tissues by spatiotemporal patterning: 3D bioprinting and optogenetics for directing the organization of cell spheroid building blocks (OPTO-BIOPRINTING)
    Josephine Wu
    £685,186 Wellcome Trust 
    Grant Summary

    15-08-2025 - 14-08-2030
  • Fluid Dynamics of Microfluidic Cell Mechanoporation for Intracellular Gene Delivery
    Yi Sui
    £12,000 Royal Society
    01-08-2025 - 31-07-2027
  • Human Tendon-CHIP: Novel In Vitro Predictive Models To Explore Tendinopathy
    Hazel Screen, Xavier Griffin and John Connelly
    £668,842 Medical Research Council 
    Grant Summary

    01-08-2025 - 31-07-2028
  • Oligodendronics: Engineering biology for scalable neural interfaces
    Christopher Chapman
    £403,666 ARIA Advanced Research and Invention Agency 
    Grant Summary

    01-07-2025 - 31-12-2026
  • (uPSCale) Scaling up iPSC Expansion and Differentiation using Recombinant Bioemulsions
    Julien Gautrot
    £118,175 EU Commission - Horizon Europe
    01-05-2025 - 31-10-2026
  • RAEng Research Chair Sept 2024 KA Hing
    Karin Hing
    £209,059 Royal Academy of Engineering
    28-04-2025 - 27-04-2030
  • Full-field Biomechanical Characterization Of Oral Wounds In Physiological Conditions
    Marco Pensalfini
    £29,620 Royal Society
    31-03-2025 - 31-05-2026
  • Newton International Fellowship: Dynamics of a microcapsule enclosed in a droplet in channel flow (Dalei Jing)
    Yi Sui
    £6,000 Royal Society
    31-03-2025 - 30-03-2026
  • Development of multimodal tumour margin detection paradigm for use in neurosurgical oncology
    Christopher Chapman
    £74,990 Barts and the London Charity 
    Grant Summary

    31-03-2025 - 31-03-2026
  • AI and Robotics for Inclusive Healthcare Engineering
    Zion Tse
    £79,991 British Council
    01-03-2025 - 31-08-2026
  • Chronic Obstructive pulmonary disease-MultiPle Long tErm conditions and Assistive Technology
    Ratna Sohanpal, Stephanie Taylor, Jamie Ross, Nina Fudge, Charlotte Edwards Roscamp, Veronica Toffolutti, Pat Healey, Zion Tse and Mohammad Hassannezhad
    £92,754 NIHR National Institute for Health Research
    03-02-2025 - 02-05-2026
  • Portable Luminescent Chemical Compass
    Lei Su
    £240,176 EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
    01-01-2025 - 31-12-2027
  • ULTIMATES MSCA PF 2023
    Yi Sui
    £206,086 EPSRC - EU Scheme
    12-11-2024 - 11-11-2026
  • Micro-manufacturing of tissue patterned organ-chips for accelerated deployment of new medicines
    Martin Knight, Hazel Screen, Julien Gautrot, Timothy Hopkins, John Connelly, Liisa Blowes and Xavier Griffin
    £1,787,725 EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 
    Grant Summary

    01-10-2024 - 30-09-2027
  • Clock-Chips - Incorporating the Circadian Clock into Organ-on-a-Chip Technology
    David Lee and Lei Su
    £387,326 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
    01-10-2024 - 30-09-2026
  • The role of novel mechanosensitive complex in cardiomyocyte pathophysiology
    Thomas Iskratsch and Andrew Tinker
    £254,588 BHF British Heart Foundation 
    Grant Summary

    01-10-2024 - 30-09-2027
  • Unravelling mechanisms of drug-induced myocarditis using immune-responsive human cardiovascular chip
    Yung-Yao Lin and Julien Gautrot
    £121,420 MRC Medical Research Council
    01-10-2024 - 30-09-2028
  • Unravelling mechanisms of drug-induced myocarditis using immune-responsive human cardiovascular chip
    Yung-Yao Lin and Julien Gautrot
    £20,000 AstraZeneca UK Limited
    01-10-2024 - 30-09-2028
  • Establishing a physiologically relevant in vitro model of blood development
    Stefaan Verbruggen
    £11,413 National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research
    01-09-2024 - 31-08-2027
  • Development and Validation of Smartphone-Based Tools for Characterisation of Gait - QMUL-HUMA KTP
    Caroline Roney, Zion Tse, James Scales, Greg Slabaugh, Dylan Morrissey, Stuart Miller and Trevor Prior
    £227,485 Innovate UK
    01-08-2024 - 31-08-2027
  • EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Next Generation Organ-on-a-Chip Technology (COaCT)
    Hazel Screen, Martin Knight, Thomas Iskratsch, Caroline Roney, Yi Sui, David Lee, Julia Shelton, Zion Tse, John Connelly, Adrian Biddle and Lucy Norling
    £7,066,811 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 
    Grant Summary

    01-07-2024 - 30-09-2032
  • Mechanisms underlying preterm birth in women with HIV in rural Zimbabwe
    Andrew Prendergast, Ruairi Robertson, Melanie Smuk, Claire Bourke, Nikolaos Donos, Robert Allaker, Abish Stephen, Conrad Bessant, Stefaan Verbruggen and Tina Chowdhury
    £1,142,315 Medical Research Council
    01-05-2024 - 30-04-2027
  • Novel antibody encapsulation and release technology for tailored Medicine and Dentistry applications
    Michael Cattell, Angray Kang, Simon Rawlinson and Gleb Sukhorukov
    £148,333 Barts and the London Charity
    01-04-2024 - 31-03-2028
  • Scalable Manufacturing of Single-Crystal Perovskite Optical and Electronic Devices: Follow-On
    Lei Su, Oliver Fenwick, Colin Crick and Stoichko Dimitrov
    £941,955 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
    01-03-2024 - 28-02-2028
  • Talin dependent mechanical imprinting as driver for cardiac disease progression
    Thomas Iskratsch
    £231,663 BHF British Heart Foundation 
    Grant Summary

    22-01-2024 - 21-01-2027
  • Thermochemical patterning to generate Bionanoarrays: Studentship Rachel Smyth
    Thomas Iskratsch
    £9,000 Heidelberg Instruments Nano AG
    18-01-2024 - 17-01-2027
  • Artery-on-a-Chip
    Thomas Iskratsch
    £103,372 Novo Nordisk Foundation (Denmark)
    01-01-2024 - 31-12-2026
  • Epithelial Exchange Surfaces – From organizing principles to novel culture models of the gatekeepers of the body
    Martin Knight, Hazel Screen, Wen Wang, Clare Thompson and Cleo Bishop
    £260,676 EPSRC - EU Scheme 
    Grant Summary

    01-12-2023 - 30-11-2027
  • Extreme heat and preterm birth in rural Zimbabwe
    Andrew Prendergast, Andrew Russell, Melanie Smuk, Tina Chowdhury and Stamatina Iliodromiti
    £460,148 Wellcome Trust
    01-10-2023 - 30-09-2028
  • G1F1Application of a new high throughput platform for validation of mechanosensitive miRNA
    Rob Krams and Gleb Sukhorukov
    £117,986 British Heart Foundation
    01-09-2023 - 31-08-2026
  • Integrated Human-Augmented Robotics and Intelligent Sensing Platform for Precision Viticulture
    Ketao Zhang and Lei Su
    £297,599 Innovate UK 
    Grant Summary

    01-09-2023 - 31-08-2026
  • Targeting epigenetic gene regulation in epidermolysis bullosa simplex
    John Connelly, Julien Gautrot and David Kelsell
    £199,751 Action Medical Research
    01-06-2023 - 31-05-2026
  • Tommy’s National Preterm Birth Research Centre
    Stamatina Iliodromiti, Tina Chowdhury and Steven Thornton
    £432,791 Tommy's
    01-04-2023 - 31-03-2028
  • On-Demand Targeted RNA Delivery Nanotheranostics for Glioblastoma Treatment
    Silvia Marino and Julien Gautrot
    £184,106 Barts and the London Charity
    01-03-2023 - 01-04-2026
  • Precision Musculoskeletal Care
    John Whiteley, Costantino Pitzalis, Martin Knight, Greg Slabaugh and Xavier Griffin
    £3,343,542 National Institute for Health Research
    01-12-2022 - 30-11-2027
  • Mapping populations to patients: designing optimal ablation therapy for atrial fibrillation through simulation and deep learning of digital twins (UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship)
    Caroline Roney
    £1,224,259 Medical Research Council
    01-11-2022 - 31-05-2027
  • Incorporating physical cues in organ-chip models
    Hazel Screen and Martin Knight
    £20,000 Emulate Inc.
    01-10-2022 - 30-09-2026
  • NIH Development of Contactless Vital Sign Sensors
    Zion Tse
    £112,782 NIH National Institutes of Health - USA
    25-09-2022 - 31-08-2026
  • Engineered Recombinant Strategies to Organogel Design for Food Product Formulations
    Julien Gautrot
    £31,688 Motif Food Works Inc
    01-09-2022 - 31-08-2026
  • Harmonised IAA grant - Improve and accelerate the impact of QMUL research BBSRC
    David Lee and Viji Draviam Sastry
    £495,000 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
    01-04-2022 - 31-03-2026
  • Harmonised IAA grant - Improve and accelerate the impact of QMUL research EPSRC
    David Lee and Yang Hao
    £882,583 EPSRC Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
    01-04-2022 - 31-03-2026
  • Harmonised IAA grant - Improve and accelerate the impact of QMUL research MRC
    Mauro Perretti, Tatjana Crnogorac-Jurcevic and David Lee
    £457,000 MRC Medical Research Council
    01-04-2022 - 31-03-2026
  • Human synovium-cartilage organ-chip for personalised surgical screening
    Martin Knight and Timothy Hopkins
    £311,203 Versus Arthritis
    01-04-2022 - 30-06-2026
  • Professorship
    Zion Tse
    £497,258 AMS Academy of Medical Sciences
    31-03-2022 - 30-03-2027
  • How does ageing related loss of basement membrane collagen regulate epidermal barrier homeostasis
    Edel O'Toole, Julien Gautrot and Matthew Caley
    £116,803 BBSRC Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
    27-09-2021 - 20-12-2025
  • 3D perfusion bioreactor studentship Baxter - EPSRC DTP CASE Conversion 2021
    Karin Hing
    £30,000 Baxter Healthcare Corporation
    21-09-2021 - 20-03-2026
  • Organ-on-a-chip Centre of Excellence
    Martin Knight and Hazel Screen
    £420,794 Emulate Inc.
    20-08-2019 - 01-10-2029
  • Engineering the fetal membranes
    Tina Chowdhury
    £40,000 Prenatal Charity UCL EGA INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN’S HEALTH
    01-12-2018 - 01-10-2028
  • Sponsorship of P/T Student: Daniel Johnson
    Karin Hing
    £128,992 Apatech Ltd
    01-02-2011 - 01-08-2026