Team - Fibrous Biomaterials Laboratory

People

The team

A growing group of engineers and scientists at QMUL, curious about how fibre-based materials behave across spatial and temporal scales.

Our researchers

Marco Pensalfini

Principal Investigator

Lecturer/Assistant Professor at QMUL since 2024. PhD ETH Zurich, previously Zimmer Biomet and UPC Barcelona. Visitor at Purdue University and UW-Madison. Mechanical Engineering BSc & MSc from University of Bologna.

2025 ERC in Italy Best Frontier Project

2021 MSCA Seal of Excellence (93.6%)

2020 SKINTEGRITY.CH Young Investigator

Sara Piccirillo

PhD Researcher

BEng Biomedical Engineering QMUL 2024. Pursuing a PhD in Medical Engineering on the biomechanical determinants of scarring in skin vs oral mucosa. Co-supervised by Dr Inês Sequeira (QMUL Dentistry).

Interested in working with us? Click to inquire about open positions ↗

Ongoing student projects

Elif Agillar

Multiscale computational modelling of organo-hydrogels for tissue engineering

Cheng-Hao (Howard) Chang

Additive manufacturing of soft materials with skin-like deformability

Omar Hamad

Mechanical characterisation of nanocomposite elastomers for cardiovascular applications

Priya Vijayakumar

Characterisation of the multiaxial and inelastic mechanical behaviour of commercial scar sheets

Interested in what we do?
Come do a project with us!

Our alumni

The Ageing Crew (MEng team of 6) — Data-driven computational modelling of ageing facial skin biophysics

Prapti Shrestha (BME MEng '26) — Characterisation of the deformability and tension-relieving behaviour of commercial scar sheets 2025 Best Undergraduate Research Poster at ILF

Oreoluwa Adeoye (BME MSc '25) — Protocols for the mechanical characterisation of nanocomposite elastomers for cardiovascular applications

Nirshanth Aravindhan (BME MSc '25) — Computational modelling of mechanical interplay between scar sheets and underlying tissues