People

Dr Jamie Marland (PI)

Jamie Marland is a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. He established an independent research group in 2021 focusing on bioelectronics, and also teaches electronics design and manufacturing at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His PhD training was in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge (2007-2011), studying RhoGTPase protein signalling in neurons, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of Edinburgh (2012-2015) on bulk endocytosis in neuronal synapses. A strong interest in interdisciplinary research led him to further postdoctoral work at Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems the University of Edinburgh (2016-2020) on implantable biomedical sensors. Exploring communication between biological and electronic systems is a fundamental theme of his research. He brings together experience in microsystems engineering, electrochemistry, and semiconductor devices to tackle contemporary challenges in biomedicine and synthetic biology. He has received the WCSIM Beloe Fellowship (2018), MDPI Micromachines “Best Paper” (2023), and was a nominee for the EUSA Teaching Awards “Teacher of the Year” (2024).

Jennifer Dong (PhD student)

Jennifer Dong is a PhD student working on silicon nanowire field effect transistors for multiplexed biosensing at the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Marland. She received a BSc in aerospace engineering from Shenyang Aerospace University in China and an MSc in electronics from the University of Edinburgh. She has working experience on software development and embedded system. Her current research interests are biosensing and nanofabrication.

Aarushi Ruhela (PhD student)

Aarushi Ruhela is a PhD student funded by the University of Edinburgh, working on the interface of electronics and synthetic biology. She is co-supervised by Dr Nadanai Laohakunakorn in the School of Biological Sciences. She is working on developing a multiplexed electronic readout system for cell free synthetic biology biosensors. Aarushi moved to the UK from India in 2021 because of her keen interest in cancer research. She did her MRes from the Imperial College London in Cancer Technology where she developed a microfluidic device to study the interaction between cancer organoids and immune cells. Later, she joined the Institute of Cancer Research to explore more about cancer biology and study the heterogeneity in PDAC. She has a background in biochemical engineering from her undergraduate degree from India. Other than this, you can find her doing pottery and painting or running around Edinburgh.

Keshavi Nalla (PhD student)

Keshavi Nalla is a PhD student working on design and simulation of a miniature implantable electrochemical oxygen sensor, under the supervision of  Dr Jamie Marland and Prof Ian Underwood. Her research involves the optimisation of sensor design and materials to improve manufacturability and performance. She completed her B.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Kakinada in 2021, and worked on the design of a coplanar capacitive pressure sensor at CSIR-CEERI (Pilani, India). In addition, she has three years professional experience at DXC Technology (Chennai, India) as Analyst 1 in Cloud Engineering, and received the Champs Award for her contribution FY23. Her research interests are in micro and nano bioelectronics, flexible and implantable Sensors, and medical devices.

Shan Zhang (PhD student)

Shan Zhang joined the University of Edinburgh in 2018 as a BEng (Hons) 2+2 student in Electronics and Electrical Engineering. After graduation, she joined Prof. Ian Underwood’s group as a PhD student, and is jointly supervised by Dr Jamie Marland. Her work focuses on developing an implantable miniaturised electrochemical oxygen sensor, which is designed to provide an early warning of anastomotic leakage after colorectal surgery. This cross-disciplinary project is driven by her interests in microfabrication, biomedical applications and electrochemistry.

Muhammad Usman (PhD student)

Muhammad Usman is a PhD student at University of Edinburgh. He started his PhD in 2023 and the focus of his study is to monitor mental health in real time using wearable sensors. Prior to this, Muhammad had four year of teaching experience (2018-2022) at University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Pakistan, New Campus. During his tenure there, he taught courses in Mathematical Modeling, Signal Processing and Embedded Systems. Muhammad holds a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering and Masters in Mechatronics Engineering. Muhammad has research interests in signal processing, embedded systems, machine learning and their applications in biomedical engineering.

Collaborators:

• Dr Nadanai Laohakunakorn, Institute of Quantitative Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Edinburgh
• Prof Ian Underwood, Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems, University of Edinburgh
• Mr Mark Potter, Western General Hospital Colorectal Unit, NHS Lothian
• Prof Alan Murray, Institute for Bioengineering, University of Edinburgh
• Dr Gordon Drummond, Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, University of Edinburgh