Lab Members

Dr Mark C Allenby, Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering

Mark leads the BioMimetic Systems Engineering (BMSE) Lab and is a Senior Lecturer of Biomedical Engineering in UQ's School of Chemical Engineering. Mark is an Australian Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow (2025-2029), an ARC DECRA Fellow (2022-2025), an Advance Queensland Fellow (2019-2022) and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at QUT. Depite being 7 years post-PhD, Mark has published over 50 papers, principally supervised 7 PhDs and 3 MPhil/RAs, co-supervised 7 PhDs and has been awarded more than $3.8m of funding as chief investigator across 25 competitive funding rounds. Mark received a PhD and MSc in chemical engineering from Imperial College London, UK and has undergraduate degrees in mathematics and chemistry from Pepperdine University, USA. Mark's background includes the engineering of dynamic stem cell bioreactors for tissue biomanufacturing, automated signal and image processing for tissue diagnostics, and model-based optimisation and control of 4D cell systems.

Email: m.allenby@uq.edu.au

Dr Rose Ann Franco, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Rose Ann joined the BioMimetic Systems Engineering (BMSE) Lab as a Graduate Research Officer in April 2023 and became a postdoc with the conferral of her PhD in September 2023. In 2024, Rose Ann began working part-time with the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. Under the supervision of Dr. Mark Allenby, she will be working on the enrichment of endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) from mononuclear cell (MNC) populations isolation from peripehral and umbilical cord blood, and vascularisation of organoid models derived from MNCs. Prior to this, Rose Ann worked on guided chondrogenesis of bone marrow stromal cells in micropellet cultures using signalling molecules, pathway inhibition, and gene silencing as the focus of her PhD project at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research experience also included biomaterials fabrication and evaluation of its regenerative capabilities using in vitro and animal models at Soonchunhyang University, South Korea and microbial-derived nanocellulose production for tissue-engineering applications at University of the Philippines. 

Email: roseann.franco@uq.edu.au

Dr Yoel Garcia Marin, Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Title: Computational Tissue Engineer and BioImage Analyst

Email: y.garciamarin@uq.edu.au

Ms Chloe De Nys, 4th Year PhD Student

Chloe is a fourth-year PhD student, focussing her research on developing a bioengineered cerebrovascular model that can simulate the physiological mechanobiology of an intracranial aneurysm, to aid surgical decision making. She graduated in 2021 from a Chemical and Biological Engineering degree at University of Queensland, with a dual Biomedical Sciences degree. In 2024, Chloe was a chief investigator in a $140,000 Queensland Government grant with TUM in Bavaria; where she has fostered a close collaboration. Chloe also has a background in pharmaceutical chemistry, previously working as a student chemist at Viatris where she became skilled in High Preformance Liquid Chromatography. She is interested in combining chemical engineering, stem cell biology, computational modelling, and artificial intelligence to advance tissue engineering research and development. 

Email: c.denys@uq.net.au

Mr Ryan McKinnon, 4th Year PhD Student

In 2022, Mr Ryan McKinnon began a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Mark Allenby with the goal of overcoming limitations in current vascularization strategies by controlling micro-vessel morphology and subsequent phenotyping utilising novel matrix manipulation techniques. Further developments are currently being made to improve cell tracking methodologies, enhance micro-vessel versatility within vascularised tissues and develop a range of perfusable micro-tissues. In 2024, Ryan was the chief investigator of a $25,000 UQ IP grant supporting the future commercialisation of his research. Mr McKinnon has a Bachelor of Biomedical Science and a Master’s in Medical Research (MMR) under A/Prof Andrew Bulmer (Griffith University, AUS) on developing a pre-clinical biocompatibility assessment of medical devices, in humans. Since graduating from an MMR Ryan has worked in industry, most notably, a stage IIb/IIIa clinical trial and in an industry sponsored group at Griffith University. The methods utilised in his previous projects included flow cytometry, scanning electron microscopy, biochemical analysis, and functional medical device assessments (e.g., flow set-ups), sonography, microscopy and thromboelastometry. 

Email: r.mckinnon@uq.net.au

Ms Astrid Nausa Galeano, 3rd Year PhD Student

Astrid is a second-year PhD student at the UQ BioMimetic Systems Engineering (BMSE) Lab. Her project, under the supervision of Dr. Mark Allenby, seeks to understand how tridimensional tissue formation can be controlled by manipulating its environment, such as microscale structure and macroscale nutrient transport. To do so, she is studying the effect of 3D microscaffolds and culture designs on cell morphology, growth, maturation, and tissue organisation for RBC production with the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood. She has a Bachelor and a Master's degree in Chemical Engineering, both at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Previously she has worked in the production of therapeutic recombinant proteins employing mammalian cell culture and bioreactor optimization. Her motiviation is to develop high-impact biomedical engineering applications to facilitate patients' access to state-of-the-art technologies. 

Email: g.nausagaleano@uq.edu.au

Ms Thanh Truc Nguyen, 1st Year PhD Student

Thanh-Truc holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from the International University, Vietnam National University, in 2018. She has gained research experience in the field of bioengineering, with a focus on synthetic nanoparticles, biomaterials, physicochemical characterisation, in vivo biocompatibilitiy assays, and in vivo techniques using animal models. She completed her Master of Philosophy in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Queensland in 2024. Truc is now commencing her PhD project entitled "Engineering vessels from blood to predict transplant-associated cardiovascular disease" under the supervision of Dr Mark Allenby and Dr Rose Ann Franco.

Email: thanhtruc.nguyen@uq.edu.au

Ms Beracah Liu, BBioTech Honours Researcher

Title: "Bioengineering a 3D Microtissue Model for In Vitro Modelling of Thrombotic Microangiopathy"

Email: beracah.liu@student.uq.edu.au

Mr Meiko Wang, Visiting MPhil Researcher

Title: "Biofabricating cell culture models of intracranial anuerysms for rupture risk prediction"

Email: 

Ms Samantha Cooper, Mech Eng Honours Thesis

Title: "Recreating a perfusable patient-specific intracranial aneurysm model using a two-part printing technique."

Email: samantha.cooper@student.uq.edu.au

Mr Hugo Martin, Chem Eng Honours Thesis

Title: "Designing a marrow mimicry bioreactor for manufacturing lab-grown RBCs."

Email: hugo.martin@student.uq.edu.au

Mr Luke Ross, Co-Supervised 1st Year PhD Student

PhD student in Mathematical Biology principally supervised by Prof. Mat Simpson (QUT).

 Open Positions at the BMSE Lab (please contact Mark for details)

Postdoc position openings: 

• No funded postdoc openings at this time, please contact Mark if you are interest to co-apply for a fellowship funding opporitunity with our lab.

PhD/MPhil project openings:

• QUIDAR (UQ-IITD) Research Academy PhD Scholarship in "High content screening of 3D cell culture environments for biopharmaceutical discovery". Applications due mid-March for funding in mid-2025 (Australian / New Zealand citizens or permanent residents only). 
• UQ's Annual PhD Scholarship Round. For domestic and international students. Applications due mid/late-March 2025 for funding in late 2025 (domestic) or early 2026 (international). 

Engineering Masters and Honors project openings (10h/week; 1-2 semesters):

• Integrating equipment and sensors into stem cell bioreactors for human tissue engineering.
• Programming single-cell analyses from 3D microscopy images of lab-grown tissue .
• Bioprocess model-based optimisation of dynamic stem cell bioreactors.

We also host biomedical science final-year honors theses (full-time, 2 semesters), contact Mark for details.

Alumni

Mr. Arturo González Pont (2024-2025) University of Maastricht MSc Thesis Placement - Validating fluorescent reporter MSCs. Principally supervised by Mr. Ryan McKinnon and Ms. Astrid Nausa Galeano and co-supervised by Prof. Lorenzo Moroni. 

Ms. Alyssa Detterman (2024) Casual Researcher - Analytical platforms for cell culture. Currently working at Gelomics.

Ms. Alyssa Binder (2024) Honors Thesis Researcher - Engineering cardiovascular perfusion platforms for cell culture. Principally supervised by Mr. Ryan McKinnon and Ms. Chloe De Nys. Currently working at Cook Medical.

Ms. Susana Costa Maia (2023-2024) University of Maastricht MSc Thesis Placement - Designing trabeculae-like MEW PCL structures for peripheral blood mononuclear cell adherence and expansion. Principally supervised by Ms. Astrid Nausa Galeano and Dr. Rose Ann Franco and co-supervised by Prof. Lorenzo Moroni. 

Mr. Harrison Krek (2023-2024) Honors Thesis Researcher - Video analysis algorithms for microvascular network formation. Co-Supervised by Dr. Ashley Murphy. Currently a medtech engineer at UQ.

Dr. Brenna Devlin (PhD 2021-2024): Development of geometric melt electrowritten polycaprolactone scaffolds to optimise cellular growth and mechanobiology. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruff and Dr Naomi Paxton (QUT). Currently working at Scendea MedTech Consultancy.

Dr. Ashley Murphy (2022-2024) Postdoctoral Fellow - Advanced microfluidic hydrogel chips to controllably organise gradient microvascular, adipose, and hematopoietic tissue formation. In partial collaboration with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (Dr Rebecca Griffiths). Won an ECR EAIT Seed Grant and a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, currently at Maastricht University.

Dr. Sabrina Schoenborn (PhD, 2021-2024) PhD Candidate - Fluid-structure interactions in peripheral arteries: biomechanical coupling of in-silico, in-vitro, and cellular models with application to patient-specific femoral-popliteal bypass graft anastomoses. In collaboration with Princess Alexandra Hospital (Dr Yogeesan Sivakumaran - Vascular Surgery, Dr Thomas Lloyd - Radiology). Won the 2021 Bionics Queensland Start-Up Challenge. Currently Biomechanics Lead Engineer at Q-CTRL.

Mr. William Parker (BE (Hons), 2023) Honors Thesis Researcher - Unruptured intracranial aneurysm detection. Principally supervised by Mark and Ms. Chloe De Nys (UQ). Currently in MedTech industry.

Mr. Mingyang (Aaron) Yuan (MEng, 2022-2023) Masters Research Student - Biomechanics of soft robotic bioreactors. Principally supervised by Ms. Sabrina Schoenborn (UQ). Currently a PhD candidate at QUT (Zhiyong Li, Yi-Chin Toh).

Ms. Amé Badenhorst (BE (Hons), 2022-2023) Summer Research Student - Quantitative analysis of tissue vascularisation. Principally supervised by Dr. Ashley Murphy (UQ). Currently a ChE-BME student at UQ.

Mr. Trent Brooks-Richards (PhD, 2018-2022) - Co Supervisor - 3D printed composite biomaterials for personalised vascular implants. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruff and Dr Naomi Paxton (QUT). Currently in industry.

Mr. Mitchell Johnson (MPhil, 2020-2021) - Principal Supervisor - Medical image analysis of intracranial aneurysms. Currently a frontend engineer at Canva. 

Mr. Cody Fell (MPhil 2019-2020) - Principal Supervisor - Soft robotic devices for emulating vascular mechanobiology. Currently a PhD Student at Rice University (Omid Veiseh).

Ms. Victoria Nguyen (MSci, 2019) - Principal Supervisor - Histological imaging techniques and flexions of femoropoliteal arteries.  Currently a pathologist technician at Sullivan Nicolades.

Dr. Maureen Ross (PhD 2017-2021) - Co Supervisor - Novel imaging and bioprinting approaches for auricular cartilage reconstruction. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruf (QUT). Currently Medical Engineering Lead at VitalTrace.

Dr. Michael Chen (PhD 2017-2021) - Co Supervisor - Clinical applications of 3D printing in urological surgery. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruf (QUT). Currently a clinical urologist.

Dr. Rena Cruz (PhD 2017-2021) - Co Supervisor - Advanced 3D biofabrication appraoches for the treatment of microtia. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruf (QUT).

Dr. Matthew Lanaro (PhD 2017-2021) - Co Supervisor - Multi-material multi-scale biofabrication approaches. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruf (QUT). Currently a medical engineer at Genea Biomedx.

Dr. Naomi Paxton (PhD 2017-2020) - Co Supervisor - Additive manufacturing patient-specific porous high-density polyethylene surgical implants. Principally supervised by Prof Maria Woodruf (QUT). Currently a Senior Research Fellow at QUT.