Irene Taurino obtained her Bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) and her Master's degree (summa cum laude) in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico di Torino. On the basis of merit, she was selected with 150 students in Engineering, Architecture and Design of the two top-ranked Italian polytechnic universities (Politecnico di Torino and Politecnico di Milano) for participating to an educational program of Double Master's degree. 

Since 2010, she has been working in the Integrated Systems Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni De Micheli and Prof. Sandro Carrara at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland where she pursued her PhD in Microsystems and Microelectronics (February 2011 - September 2015). During this period, she developed a strong background in nanotechnology, microfabrication, electrochemistry and microfluidics. In 2014, she worked as visiting student in the Khademhosseini Laboratory at Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge (MA), USA where she tested a micro-nanofabricated electrochemical device that she developed at EPFL for a continuous control of microfluidic cell cultures. For more than one year, she carried out post-doctoral research activities at EPFL where she has been involved in various teaching and supervising activities as well. 

From the end of 2016 till May 2021, she worked in industrial R&D in the field of aerosol science and technology. Irene is inventor of tens of patent applications (40 simple families).

In June 2021 she became Assistant Professor at KU Leuven. She is in a joint position between the Electrical Engineering Department and  the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Her main research focus is on groundbreaking micro-nanotechnologies and fabrication processes for electrochemical platforms. Since May 2023, she is a collaborator (10%) with the IIT (Italian Institute of Technology, Center for Biomolecular Nanotechnologies, Arnesano, Lecce).

Maria Antonietta Casulli obtained her Bachelor degree (110/110 cum laude) and her Master Degree (110/110) in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico of Torino. In 2013 she won an ERASMUS fellowship, joining the Integrated Systems Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Giovanni De Micheli and Prof. Sandro Carrara at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. She was involved in developing an electrochemical sensor for the real-time monitoring of metabolites in human cell cultures. Specifically, she focused on different functionalization techniques for achieving a precise deposition of nanomaterials on the electrode surface.

She pursued her PhD in the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry under the supervision of prof. Takashi Hayashita at the Sophia University of Tokyo (Apr. 2019 – March 2022). Here, she developed new electrochemical assays based on chemical modified cyclodextrins for the detection of the main human metabolites (i.e. glucose, ATP). From Apr. 2022 to Feb. 2023, she carried out post-DOC research activities in the same laboratory, coordinating a project for the development of electrochemical sensors based on cyclodextrin nanogels for the detection of anti-cancer drugs (i.e. curcumin). In her carrier she won different awards, i.e. “The best short communication” award in ICS2020 international conference. From April 2023 she joined prof. Taurino in KU Leuven University as post-DOC researcher for coordinating projects about green electrochemical (bio)sensors.

Batist obtained his B.Sc. (2015) and M.Sc. (2017) degree in Bioscience Engineering at KU Leuven. For his master’s thesis at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, he investigated the microclimate in gardens using sensor systems. His interest in plants and sensing technology led him to pursue a PhD at the Department of Biosystems (KU Leuven), allowing him to combine best of both worlds. During his PhD in the lab of Bram Van de Poel, he studied leaf epinasty as a response to root hypoxia in tomato plants. By developing an IMU sensor system (patented), he was able to monitor small-scale leaf movements in real-time and relate these to physiological and hormonal changes within the leaf.

In 2023, he was granted an FWO junior postdoctoral fellowship to start an exciting research project in the lab of Irene Taurino. This project covers smart sensing technology in plants and focuses on the interface between plant and artificial surfaces. In his spare time, Batist likes to hike, run, read or tinker. 

Nurul Izni Rusli was born in Kelantan, Malaysia. She received the B.Eng. in Electrical-Electronics Engineering and M.Eng. in Electrical from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Malaysia, in 2008 and 2013, respectively. Since 2013, she has been working at Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia. She is currently pursuing the Ph.D degree at KU Leuven, Belgium under sponsorship Skim Latihan Akademik Bumiputera (SLAB) reference no. KPT(BS)860703295192. Her research includes the development of integrated multisensing chip for bioprocess monitoring. Her PhD was under the supervision of Prof. Michael Kraft and the co-supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino. She is currently continuing her project as Postdoctoral researcher.

Catarina Fernandes was born in Almada, Portugal in 1997. In 2019, she received her B.Sc. in Micro and Nanotechnology Engineering from Nova School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon. In 2021, she obtained her M.Sc. in Nanoscience from Aarhus University, Denmark. Earlier that year, she presented her Master thesis titled " Steatotic Hepatocytes and Their Interaction with Artificial Assemblies​" at the American Chemical Society 2021 Spring Conference. Her work has been published in Angewandte Chemie. Currently, Catarina is a PhD candidate at Micro and Nano-Systems (MNS), under the supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino. Central to her research is the investigation of novel materials and microfabrication techniques for the fabrication of implantable bioresorbable electrochemical sensors.

Filippo Franceschini obtained in 2019 the BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Brescia.  In 2021 he received the MSc in Materials Engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin (summa cum laude). As a part of his MSc thesis on bismuth electrocatalysts he developed a semi-empirical computational model, which he then validated through electrochemical means at the Bio-CMOS laboratories of the EPFL (Switzerland). His work on bismuth-based heterostructures resulted in two publications as first author, one article and one review. He also co-authored a comprehensive review on Raman spectroscopy applications.

He’s currently pursuing a PhD in Physics under the supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino, with a focus on novel electrochemical catalytic systems for glucose sensing.

Ruben Van den Eeckhoudt was born in Halle, Belgium, in 1996. He received his B. Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering at the Katholieke Universtiteit Leuven In 2017. He went on to pursue an Erasmus Mundus Master degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and graduated in 2019 jointly from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and Chalmers University. His master thesis project was a collaboration between the department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience at Chalmers University and the Swedish research institute RISE Acreo. He is currently working on the development of a microfluidic chip to capture, analyze and steer single cells under the supervision of Prof. Michael Kraft and the co-supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino.

Xiaoyan Qing was born in Henan, China in 1992. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Material Chemistry at Nanchang Hangkong University in 2015. Later, she began her master's study at Wuhan University of Technology and specialized in the polysaccharides based hydrogels, exploring the applications of chitosan derivative hydrogels in wound dressing field. In 2018, she joined MDPI as an assistant editor. Currently, she is a first-year PhD candidate at KU Leuven, under the supervision of Prof. Pedro Fardim and co-supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino. She is working on the development of multifunctional polysaccharide-based hydrogels for integration on wearable sensors.  

Momina Amir was born in Islamabad, Pakistan in 1994. She obtained an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to carry out her dual master degree in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology from KU Leuven, Belgium and the University of Barcelona, Spain. During her master thesis, she joined the Institute of Bioengineering Catalunya (IBEC) where she worked on organ-on-a-chip microfluidic devices. She is currently carrying out her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Michael Kraft and Prof. Irene Taurino for the development of ultra-flexible patch based on engineered 3D electrodes for applications in biochemical sensing.

Cyrille Sébert was born in Brussels in 2000. He obtained a BSc at the Science Programme of Maastricht University in 2021. He received in 2023 the KU Leuven master's degree (magna cum laude) of Nanoscience, -technology and -engineering (option Nanobiotechnology) with an Erasmus exchange in Université Grenoble Alpes.   

During his studies, he took part in several international student competitions such as iGEM in 2020 and SensUs in 2022. He pursued his master thesis in imec where he studied the interface of thin film TiO2 with liquid electrolyte for photo-electrochemical catalysis. 

He’s currently a PhD candidate in Physics under the supervision of Prof. Taurino, with a focus on novel electrochemical catalytic systems for glucose sensing. 

Mislav Matić was born in 1997 in Osijek, Croatia. He obtained his BSc Degree in Applied chemistry in Croatia at the University of Zagreb in 2020. Mislav continued his education in Belgium where he graduated from the Master of Chemistry program (magna cum laude) at KU Leuven in 2023. 

Mislav is interested in utilizing chemical principles to create functional devices. During his bachelor and master studies, he worked on the development of novel optical and electrochemical (bio)sensors for various analytes. In his Master thesis, Mislav investigated molecular self-assembly on covalently modified carbon surfaces  in the group of Prof. Steven De Feyter.  

Currently, Mislav is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering under supervision of Prof. Chris Van Hoof and Prof. Irene Taurino. His research project is a collaboration between IMEC and KU Leuven with the aim of developing electrochemical biosensing platforms for analytes in complex media.

Carolina Morgado was born in Cascais, Portugal, in 1995. In 2017, she earned her B.Sc. in Micro and Nanotechnology Engineering from School of Science and Technology, Nova University Lisbon. Carolina continued her academic journey at the same university, completing her M.Sc. while doing an Erasmus exchange at Aalborg University, Denmark, at the department of nanophysics and materials. She concluded her master thesis at imec in 2019, in the field of video-rate holography, under the supervision of Prof. Jan Genoe. Her academic background is complemented by some industry experience at imec, where she contributed to diverse roles. Currently, Carolina is doing her PhD topic in “Biosensors for occupational health”, under the supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino and Prof. Patrick Wagner.

Caterina Marchetti obtained her Bachelor Degree (110/110 cum laude) in Biomedical Engineering from Politecnico of Torino in 2022. She is currently in Leuven, on an Erasmus project, to complete the second and final year of her Master. She is working in Professor Taurino's lab to develop an electrochemical enzymatic biosensor to detect ethanol during yeast fermentation. For this project she is being followed by Maria Antonietta Casulli and Nurul Izni Rusli.

Kathy Rebeck, born in Brasschaat, Belgium in 2001, earned her bachelor's degree in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from KU Leuven in 2022. Currently in the final year of her master's program in Biomedical Engineering, she is concentrating on her thesis project at miDiagnostics, an imec spinoff. Under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Irene Taurino and Prof. Dr. Sylvie Castagne, Kathy is specializing in designing and fabricating microfluidic channels for point-of-care diagnostics applications.

Hannah Ulburghs was born in Leuven, Belgium in 2001. She obtained her bachelor's degree in Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at the Catholic Univeristy of Leuven in 2022. She then started a master's degree in Biomedical Engineering, option Tissue Engineering. Currently she is finishing her second and final year of the master. Her thesis project, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Irene Taurino and Prof. Dr. Pedro Fardim, focuses on the development of conductive hydrogels for wearable sensors. 

Davide Ciarrocchi was born in San Benedetto del Tronto (AP), Italy, in 1997. He earned his B.Sc. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University Politecnica della Marche in 2019. In 2022, he completed his M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering at the University Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. For his M.Sc. thesis, he focused on the development of wearable electronics for electrochemical invasive or minimally invasive biosensors at the Electronics for Sensor System Laboratory at the University Campus Bio-Medico di Roma.

Currently, he is actively involved in the development of wearable/portable electronics for electrochemical measurements for neurotransmitter biosensors. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Santonico and Dr. Lazzaro Di Biase (Founder of the Spin-off Brain Innovations).

Moreover, he is serving as a Visiting Researcher at the e-MATI lab at KU Leuven, under the guidance of Prof. Irene Taurino. His research focuses on microfluidic applications for in vitro testing of lag-free glucose sensors.

Anna Altafin received her Bachelor’s degree (110/110 cum laude) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Padova in 2023. She was then selected to participate in the international joint M.Sc. in Micro and Nanotechnologies for Integrated Systems, offered by Politecnico di Torino, Université Grenoble Alpes (INP), and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), of which she has just completed the first year. She is currently at KU Leuven, where she is doing a summer internship under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Irene Taurino, collaborating on Catarina Fernandes' project, studying the impact of microfabrication techniques on implantable bioresorbable electrochemical sensors.

Mallikarjun Madagalam was born in Kodad, India in 1993. He received his Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (India) in 2014. He obtained his 1st master’s degree in Electronics from Halmstad university in 2016 in Sweden. During his master thesis at Lund university, he was awarded “Global Swede” award by Swedish ministry of foreign affairs and the Swedish Institute (SI) on May 18th, 2016, in Stockholm. He worked as a research engineer at Halmstad university and then moved to Italy in September 2017. He obtained his 2nd master’s degree in Nanotechnologies for ICTs from Politecnico di Torino in 2020 in Italy by performing his master thesis on “bismuth oxynitrates based electrochemical sensors” in Bio/CMOS interfaces group at EPFL, Switzerland. He published his master thesis work as an article and at a conference. Later he started working as a research assistant in Sensing Technologies Lab at Free university of Bolzano in Italy. He worked on Laser-induced green electronic devices on fruit waste-based paper substrates. This work has been published in advanced functional materials and featured on the cover of the journal. In the same period, he worked on carbon-based wearable resistive strain sensors, and screen printing of carbon/silver based electrochemical sensors and electrodynamic loudspeakers on flexible substrates. He is very experienced in screen printing electronic devices on flexible substrates. His work at Free university of Bolzano was published in different IEEE conferences.

He moved back to Politecnico di Torino and started his PhD in Electrical, Electronics and Communication Engineering in November 2021. He is working on transition metal oxide nanomaterials synthesis, characterization, and electrochemical sensing applications with a focus on electron transfer at the electrochemical interfaces. He started at KU Leuven as a visiting researcher in July 2023 to continue his research in the framework of his PhD at Politecnico di Torino.

Vasileios Loukopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1992. In 2020, he received his diploma (B.Sc. & integrated M.Sc.) in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens. Currently, he is pursuing a M.Sc. in Bioscience Engineering: Human Health Engineering. His thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Irene Taurino, focuses on microfabrication and characterization of bioresorbable electrode materials.

Iliana Claes was born in Leuven, Belgium, in 1999. In 2021, she obtained her BSc of Physics, with option biochemical science, at the KU Leuven. She is currently pursuing her Master degree in Physics within the profile condensed matter physics. For her thesis, supervised by Prof. Taurino, she will be focusing on the production of reliable electrodes by femto-second lasers for enhanced glucose detection.

Gijs Motmans was born in Hasselt, Belgium in 1999. In 2021, he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Bioscience Engineering with the option of Cellular- and Genetic Engineering at the KU Leuven. Currently, he is pursuing his master’s degrees in Nanoscience, Nanotechnology and Nanoengineering with the option of Nanobiotechnology. For his thesis, he will be examining Molecularly Imprinted Polymers for the fabrication of sensors for the non-enzymatic detection of insulin, under the supervision of Prof. Taurino and Prof. Wagner.

Bárbara Sieira was born in Viana do Castelo, Portugal in 1999. In 2020, she obtained her B.Sc. in Micro and Nanotechnology Engineering from Nova School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon. This last year, she carried out an internship in a research group, where she worked with conventional microfluidics, producing, and testing chips to develop a biosensor to detect cell-free DNA. Currently, she is finishing her master’s degree in Micro and Nanotechnology Engineering. Her thesis will be done in an Erasmus Mundus program at KU Leuven and will consist of the development of gold nanostructures for electrochemical biosensors, under the supervision of Prof. Irene Taurino.