Nikita Karra 

I am currently a final year PhD student within the Biomedical Electronics Engineering group working on the in vitro ‘Lung on Chip’ platform, which hopes to alleviate issues with current models used for respiratory diseases and aims to replace animal testing in the future.

I completed my undergraduate degree at Aston university in Biomedical Science (2017) with over a year in research laboratories. The research at the time involved an investigation into microorganism interactions between each other and with patients suffering with the respiratory condition cystic fibrosis. In addition to research into inflammation and apoptotic cell signalling important for diseases such as Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Following the completion of my degree I wanted to combine my interest in immunology and biology with engineering.

This PhD is highly interdisciplinary working in a group of engineers and biologists. This project has allowed me to combine my previous research experience with new engineering skills, expanding my horizons to try to tackle the issue of respiratory drug development and animal testing.