Robbyn K. Anand is the Suresh Faculty Fellow at Iowa State University where she joined the Department of Chemistry as an Assistant Professor in August 2015. The Anand research group has advanced methodologies for selective capture and analysis of single circulating tumor cells, electrokinetic enrichment and separation of clinically relevant compounds in complex media, and electrochemical sensing at wireless bipolar electrode arrays. Prof. Anand recently led the the development of a method that leverages ion concentration polarization for enrichment, separation and cation exchange in water-in-oil droplets. She is the founder of the Midwest Retreat for Diversity in Chemistry - an annual event aimed at the retention of underrepresented groups in the chemical enterprise.

Yuval Elani is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. 

Dr. Ayokunle Olanrewaju is an Acting Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Washington. He received undergraduate and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta and completed a Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Engineering at McGill University in 2017 with his dissertation focused on 3D-printed capillary microfluidic circuits for self-powered and self-regulated bioassays. He worked as a MITACS industrial postdoctoral fellow with Sensoreal – a startup that aimed to commercialize microchips for rapid diagnosis of urinary tract infections in infants. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Washington focused on measuring drug concentrations and medication adherence in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) care. His current research is focused on developing point-of-care diagnostics for precision medication dosing to improve health outcomes in global health settings. His awards include the University of Washington Center for AIDS Research New Investigator Award, the Mistletoe Research Fellowship, and the Québec Étudiant-Chercheur étoiles (Star Student Research) Award.

The Robinson lab is embedded within the joint project MaxSynBio, sponsored by the Max Planck Society and the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). The overall objective of MaxSynBio is the creation of a minimal cell from functional modules by means of a bottom-up approach to synthetic biology. The functional modules themselves being made from non-living components. The interdisciplinary joint research project involves 9 Max Planck Institutes in the fields of biology, chemistry, physics and engineering sciences. Our group uses lipid vesicles, namely GUVs, as a means to construct artificial cell-like systems. In the same way the cell plasma membrane acts as a barrier to the outside environment, we use GUVs as compartments to encapsulate various biomolecules to enable de novo mimicry of biological processes.