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Professor of Bioelectronics, Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge
Deputy Head of School of Technology (Research and Strategy)
Professor Róisín M. Owens is a Multidisciplinary Scientist working at the interface of Biology and Electronic Engineering. She received her BA in Natural Sciences (Mod. Biochemistry) at Trinity College Dublin, and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Southampton University. She carried out two postdoc fellowships at Cornell University, on host-pathogen interactions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the department of Microbiology and Immunology with Prof David Russell, and on rhinovirus therapeutics in the department of Biomedical Engineering with Professor Moonsoo Jin. From 2009-2017 Professor Owens was a group leader in the department of bioelectronics at Ecole des Mines de St. Etienne, on the microelectronics campus in Provence. She is author of over 70 articles and a 2019 laureate of the Suffrage Science Award. Her work has been covered on many news outlets, including the BBC who featured her “human organs on chip” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99s1K0Ph3g4.
Her current research centres on application of electronic materials for monitoring biological systems in vitro, with a specific interest in studying the gut-brain-microbiome axis. Her work on 3D biomimetic electrodes for hosting and monitoring human tissues was recently published in Science Advances. (https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/10/eaat4253) A second major research area focuses on integration of cell membranes with transparent conducting polymer electrodes to study drug and pathogen interactions. A recent publication validated the ability of novel antimicrobial molecules to penetrate membranes (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/adma.201803130)
