Early Career Researchers Meet, Greet & Talks

Join the EngBio bi-monthly meets to meet fellow Early Career Researchers from across the University interested in biology, engineering, design, computer science, bioethics and more. This is a great opportunity to meet ECRs from other schools and departments, share knowledge and ideas, establish connections and collaborations and find out more about EngBio activities such as funding calls and support.

Each session will host 1-2 lightning talks from ECRs covering research, tools & technologies, and fields & applications of synthetic and engineering biology. This will be followed by informal discussion (and free light lunch).

Speakers:
Holly Bachas Brook, PhD
Development of a functional 3D eccrine sweat gland-on-chip model

Holly Bachas Brook completed her PhD at Queen Mary, University of London. Her doctoral project focused on developing a functional organ-on-chip model of the human eccrine sweat gland (ESG), incorporating a novel ESG cell line into an engineered microfluidic scaffold, then investigating cellular function via functional marker staining and live cell imaging assays. She has experience in microfabrication, optimizing cell culture within microfluidic devices and 3D in vitro culture systems, confocal microscopy and live-cell imaging. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, investigating host-pathogen interactions in 3D in vitro models of the maternal-foetal interface.

Fatma Mihoubi 
Chemical Diversity of Nucleotides and Peptides Widens the Scopes of Possibilities for Coacervate Protocells 

Fatma Zohra Mihoubi is a PhD candidate in supramolecular biochemistry at the University of Strasbourg and the University of Cambridge. She studies how simple mixtures of peptides and nucleic acids self‑organise into coacervate droplets that behave as primitive, membrane‑less compartments. She is particularly interested in how subtle changes in molecular composition or sequence can trigger large shifts in phase behaviour, with implications for both the origins of life and cellular organisation.

For any questions or queries, please contact Vicky Reid 

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