I obtained my first degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). I then did a one-year MSc in Biochemical Engineering at University College London (UCL), followed by two years research under the supervision of Prof Peter Dunnill (OBE). I won a Marie Curie Research Training Grant and moved to the Center for Process Biotechnology (CPB) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where I obtained my PhD degree in Biotechnology. In 2002 I took up the position of Senior R&D scientist and Purification team leader at the Pharmaceutical company ALPHARMA (now Xellia Pharmaceuticals), before returning back to the UK as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham and then Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University. I joined Aston in November 2015.

My current research is in the areas of Healthcare and Cellular Agriculture, including the development of methods for the selective separation of human cells for clinical applications, and the creation of edible scaffolds from natural biomaterials, for animal stem cell expansion and differentiation at scale. 

• Materials and devices for efficient separation and purification of high value biotherapeutics and human cells
• Edible scaffolds for cultivated meat production

• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
• PhD in Biotechnology
• MSc in Biochemical Engineering
• MEng in Chemical Engineering

Current students:

Alice Johnson - Project title: 'Optimisation of scaffolds for the bioprocessing of lab-grown meat'.

Louis Hutchings - Project title: '3D printing of edible biomimetic scaffolds for the engineering of animal muscle tissue'.

Benjamin Dages - Project title: 'Novel microcarriers for scalable clean meat production'.

Sophie Caprioli - Project title: 'Engineering degradable, ‘tuneable’ microcarriers for the bulk culture of therapeutically active mesenchymal stem cells'.

Rajan Vraitch - Project title: 'Modelling of the spinal cord for the greater understanding of the aetiology and management of compressive spinal cord pathology'.

Past students:

W. Joseph A. Homer - Project title: 'Thermally stabilised, crosslinker-free poly(vinyl alcohol) nanofibers produced by electrospinning: Applications in cell processing and tissue engineering'. Awarded 2024 by Aston University.

Kinana Aliko - Project title: 'Towards a green route for the synthesis of renewable poly(butylene succinate) antimicrobial fibrous mats'. Awarded 2020 by Aston University.

Tina Šutar - Project title: ‘New formats for affinity selection of human cells’. Awarded 2015 by Loughborough University.

William S. C. Bowen - Project title:  ‘Development and characterisation of affinity devices for cell detection and separation’. Awarded 2015 by Loughborough University.

• The Birmingham Orthopaedic Charity. Value: £50,633 (Ongoing) 
• EPSRC IAA Impact Builder Award. Value: £25,000 (Completed 2023)
• The Birmingham Orthopaedic Charity. Value: £15,000 (Completed 2023)
• The Royal Society International Exchanges Award. Value: £11,712 (2019-2023)
• The Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professors Scheme (Academic Champion) (2019-2022)
• EPSRC AMR4AMR seedcorn fund - 'Novel poly(butylene succinate) fibre dressing with naturally sourced antimicrobial agents for burn wound treatment'. Value: £33,150 (Completed 2018)
• EPSRC AMR4AMR seedcorn fund - 'Critical points in the pathway of antibiotic prescribing in the hospital setting; the antibiotic mapping of prescribing (ABMAP) study'. Value: £23,149 (Completed 2018)
• Bioprocessing Research Industry Club/BBSRC Grant (BB/I017143/1) - ‘Developing generic scalable selection methods for human therapeutic cells’. Value: £189,000 (Completed 2015)

Mass Tansfer (CE2MAT) - Module Leader

Advanced Process Design Project (CE3APD) - Module contributor

Research Project (CE4PRJ) - Module Leader

Downstream Processing for Biotechnology Products (CE4DPB) - Module Leader

Member of:

• Student Experience Team
• Outreach Team

Year Tutor for Final year MEng 

• Network of Cellular Agriculture (NCA) - Founding Member
• Cellular Agriculture Greece - Advisory Board Member
• Institution of Chemical Engineers Biochemical Engineering Special Interest Group (IChemE BESIG) - Committee Member & Webinar coordinator
• UK Society for Cell Culture Biotechnology (ESACT-UK) - Committee Member & Deputy Secretary
• Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology - Editorial Board Member
• Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology ‘Bioprocess Engineering’ - Review Editor

• Senior Research Fellow honorary appointment at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, UK (since October 2020)

Phone number: 0121 204 4702 
Email: [email protected] 
Room number: MB134