Principal Investigator
Dr. Carlos Escobedo
Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University. He received his BSc from UNAM (2000), Mexico, his MSc from University of Toronto (2002) and PhD form University of Victoria (2011), Canada. He worked in the R&D biomedical industry between 2002 and 2007, as Head of Mechanical Engineering of Innovamedica R&D, focusing on the development of a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), which has been succesfully implanted in patients. He has lectured at four different universities in Canada and Mexico since 2002. From 2011 to 2013, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow with tenure at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland. He serves as Technical Chair in MEMS and Nanotechnology for the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME).
Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University. He received his BSc from UNAM (2000), Mexico, his MSc from University of Toronto (2002) and PhD form University of Victoria (2011), Canada. He worked in the R&D biomedical industry between 2002 and 2007, as Head of Mechanical Engineering of Innovamedica R&D, focusing on the development of a Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), which has been succesfully implanted in patients. He has lectured at four different universities in Canada and Mexico since 2002. From 2011 to 2013, he was an NSERC postdoctoral fellow with tenure at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering at the Swiss Institute of Technology (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland. He serves as Technical Chair in MEMS and Nanotechnology for the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering (CSME).
Ph.D. Students/Candidates
Srijit Nair (Ph.D. Candidate)
Srijit was born and raised in Yavatmal, India and received his B.Tech/M.Tech degrees in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. During his master’s, he worked on developing and studying chitosan nanoparticles based drug delivery system in Entamoeba histolytica. His doctoral research deals with the development of cost-effective, integrated microfluidic-nanophotonic (bio) sensors. He is currently working on fabrication and characterization of nanoholes and nano-gratings based substrates, investigating their optical properties based on Surface Plasmon Resonance. He also works with the MiiCraftTM 3D printer and EnvisionTECTM 3D bioplotter to make inexpensive microfluidic and photonic structures.
Srijit was born and raised in Yavatmal, India and received his B.Tech/M.Tech degrees in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur. During his master’s, he worked on developing and studying chitosan nanoparticles based drug delivery system in Entamoeba histolytica. His doctoral research deals with the development of cost-effective, integrated microfluidic-nanophotonic (bio) sensors. He is currently working on fabrication and characterization of nanoholes and nano-gratings based substrates, investigating their optical properties based on Surface Plasmon Resonance. He also works with the MiiCraftTM 3D printer and EnvisionTECTM 3D bioplotter to make inexpensive microfluidic and photonic structures.
Saaed Rismani Yazdi (Ph.D. Student)
Saeed joined our group as a PhD student in September 2015. He received his M.Sc. from Politecnico Di Milano in Italy. Being always excited to take up the challenges of multidisciplinary research, he did an internship at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, where he used microfluidics and 3D cell culturing to study cancer cell mechanics. He conducted experiments at ETH Zurich, developing a microfluidic platform for “Body-on-a-Chip” applications. Saeed’s current research focus is to develop microfluidic systems for bacterial studies.
Saeed joined our group as a PhD student in September 2015. He received his M.Sc. from Politecnico Di Milano in Italy. Being always excited to take up the challenges of multidisciplinary research, he did an internship at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology, where he used microfluidics and 3D cell culturing to study cancer cell mechanics. He conducted experiments at ETH Zurich, developing a microfluidic platform for “Body-on-a-Chip” applications. Saeed’s current research focus is to develop microfluidic systems for bacterial studies.
Hannah Dies (co-supervised with Prof. Aris Docoslis; Ph.D. Candidate)
Hannah began her career in research as an undergraduate physics student at McMaster University, working in the lab of Dr. Maikel Rheinstädter, where she studied biophysical interactions in a cell membrane environment through X-ray and neutron scattering. She quickly became attracted to the research environment, but wanted the opportunity to do more translational, practical research where she could eventually end up as a user of the concepts that she was studying and the innovations that she was developing. She was particularly interested in the biomedical field, which led her to apply to the MD/PhD program at Queen’s University (co-supervised with Dr. Docoslis). Among many other achievements, Hannah is recipient of the prestigious Vanier scholarship.
Hannah began her career in research as an undergraduate physics student at McMaster University, working in the lab of Dr. Maikel Rheinstädter, where she studied biophysical interactions in a cell membrane environment through X-ray and neutron scattering. She quickly became attracted to the research environment, but wanted the opportunity to do more translational, practical research where she could eventually end up as a user of the concepts that she was studying and the innovations that she was developing. She was particularly interested in the biomedical field, which led her to apply to the MD/PhD program at Queen’s University (co-supervised with Dr. Docoslis). Among many other achievements, Hannah is recipient of the prestigious Vanier scholarship.
Amy MacLean (co-supervised with Prof. Hans-Peter Loock; Ph.D. Candidate)
Amy hails from the small town of Truro, Nova Scotia. She did her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Mount Allison University, and gained experience researching hydrogen free radical reactions using exotic antimatter probes. In 2013, she moved to Kingston, and started her Ph.D. in the labs of Drs. Carlos Escobedo and Peter Loock. While being co-supervised, she is still technically a chemist. Her research goal is to characterize NHC-gold chemistry in gold plasmonic sensors. As opposed to thiol-gold bonds, which are more traditional but prone to removal from the gold surface, NHC-gold bonds are much more robust and can withstand harsher conditions. Kinetic studies will help point to a mechanism for NHC self-assembling monolayer formation.
Amy hails from the small town of Truro, Nova Scotia. She did her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at Mount Allison University, and gained experience researching hydrogen free radical reactions using exotic antimatter probes. In 2013, she moved to Kingston, and started her Ph.D. in the labs of Drs. Carlos Escobedo and Peter Loock. While being co-supervised, she is still technically a chemist. Her research goal is to characterize NHC-gold chemistry in gold plasmonic sensors. As opposed to thiol-gold bonds, which are more traditional but prone to removal from the gold surface, NHC-gold bonds are much more robust and can withstand harsher conditions. Kinetic studies will help point to a mechanism for NHC self-assembling monolayer formation.
Juan Manuel Gomez (co-supervised with Prof. Gabriel Ascanio; Ph.D. Candidate)
Juan Manuel obtained a BSc from Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico. He has been always interested in the application of electronics in Biology, which motivated him to pursue a M.Eng. at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM), Mexico. His masters' research involved magnetic sensor design, with the aim of detecting magnetic fields as small as those of cells, with which he achieved honorable mention. In 2016, he joined Escobedo´s group as a Ph.D. cotutelle student between UNAM (supervisor: Dr. Gabriel Ascanio) and Queen´s University, Canada. His research is focused on the development of optofluidic (bio)sensors, utilizing periodic nanostructures, through theory, computational and experimental approaches.
Juan Manuel obtained a BSc from Instituto Politecnico Nacional (IPN), Mexico. He has been always interested in the application of electronics in Biology, which motivated him to pursue a M.Eng. at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México (UNAM), Mexico. His masters' research involved magnetic sensor design, with the aim of detecting magnetic fields as small as those of cells, with which he achieved honorable mention. In 2016, he joined Escobedo´s group as a Ph.D. cotutelle student between UNAM (supervisor: Dr. Gabriel Ascanio) and Queen´s University, Canada. His research is focused on the development of optofluidic (bio)sensors, utilizing periodic nanostructures, through theory, computational and experimental approaches.
M.Sc. Students
Yazan Bdour (co-supervised with Prof. Georges Sabat)
Yazan completed his BASc in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he focused his studies on biotechnology and material science. He has previously worked on organic material synthesis at Soochow University and polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery system at Harvard Medical School. His research is currently focused on developing new surgical devices and tools in collaboration with an industrial partner in Toronto, and on the development of cost-effective photonic sensors.
Yazan completed his BASc in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo, where he focused his studies on biotechnology and material science. He has previously worked on organic material synthesis at Soochow University and polymeric nanoparticle drug delivery system at Harvard Medical School. His research is currently focused on developing new surgical devices and tools in collaboration with an industrial partner in Toronto, and on the development of cost-effective photonic sensors.
Undergraduate Students
Alumni
(Position at Queen's; current position)
- Dr. Reza Nosrati (postdoctoral fellow; Lecturer at Monash University, Australia)
- Dr. Karla Karina Gomez-Lizarraga (visiting researcher, PhD co-supervised, UNAM; Scientist at Colgate)
- Jared Roth (Undergraduate student; Graduate student, Waterloo)
- David Vogel (Visiting MSc, UniBasel, Switzerland; PhD student, Switzerland)
- Kristian Kraemer (Undergraduate student; Graduate student, Queen's)
- Adam LeClaire (Undergraduate student)
- Hilda Rodriguez (Visiting MSc, Universidad Michoacana, Mexico; PhD student, Mexico)
- Sebastieen Goodchild (Undergraduate student)
- Matthew Bastin (Undergraduate student)
- Yuting Wang (Visiting Summer Researcher, Hunan Agricultural University, China)
- Isabella Cusano (Undergraduate student; J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School, USA)
- Sean Stuart (Undergraduate student)