Who we are
The Institute of Bio-Sensing Technology (IBST) is an internationally recognised centre based at the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol. IBST is led by academics from both the Faculty of Environment and Technology and the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences bringing together the skills of engineers with those of chemists and biologist to address complex challenges. As well as accessing facilities and equipment across UWE, IBST have opened a 4600 sq meter state of the art facility, funded by the ERDF, the LEP and UWE, that brings together, under one roof, all the skills required to design and build sensor systems.
Management Team
Professor Richard Luxton | Director
Richard Luxton first studied clinical chemistry in the National Health Service for thirteen years at the Bristol Royal Infirmary before moving to the Institute of Neurology in London to study for a PhD in neuro-immunology, investigating antibody affinity in the CSF of patients with multiple sclerosis. View Full Bio
Professor Janice Kiely | Director
Janice is responsible for the development of the Institute and research collaborations with a focus on electronics and instrumentation. Janice leads the Health Tech Hub alongside Richard Luxton and its Health Tech Accelerator Programme. View Full Bio
Dr Tim Cox | Director of Research + Enterprise
Tim is responsible for interdisciplinary research collaborations with industry which develop the interfaces between engineering, the physical sciences and the life sciences. His own research interest is in sampling for detection systems. View Full Bio
Dr David Attwood | Director of Industrial Partnerships
David’s research career spans thirty years working in the research laboratories of multinational companies. Areas of expertise include polymer analysis, using chromatographic, spectroscopic and thermal techniques, materials processing and mechanisms of ageing for fibre reinforced polymer composites. View Full Bio
Julie Maggs | Marketing + Events Officer
Julie is responsible for all marketing and promotional activities alongside developing a programme of knowledge exchange events, including the annual Conference for Bio-Sensing Technology in association with Elsevier. Julie is also responsible for the Centre’s academic and business membership activities. She brings with her a wealth of experience in events management, across a variety of sectors. View Full Bio
Research Team
Professor Tony Killard | Partnership Development Co-ordinator
Tony is a Professor of Biomedical Science and provides support to IBST in developing strategic partnerships, connections and networks.
Dr Xicai (Alex) Yue | Head of Instrumentation
Dr Yue’s research is focused on biomedical engineering, having joined the Department of Engineering, Design and Mathematics at UWE as a senior lecturer in Bioinstrumentation and Sensor Interfacing in 2016. His research focus is in biomedical engineering (mostly in biomedical instrumentation).
Professor Darren Reynolds | Environmental + Biophotonics Applications
Darren's experience lies in developing applied technology platforms at the life science/environmental/physical science interface for addressing real world problems, more specifically the big problems that are going to affect humans in the next fifty years. His research addresses problems around water, food and health.
Professor Mark Tooley | FRCP, FREng | Visiting Prof
Mark serves on the IBST Scientific Advisory Group, where his knowledge and experience has been critical in identifying opportunities within the healthcare environment.
Professor Nigel J Silman | B.Sc., FIBMS, Ph.D | Visiting Prof
Nigel serves on the IBST Industrial Advisory Group and is the Strategic R&D Lead to Public Health England’s Porton Down Centre in the UK. He has over 30 years’ experience working in with a range of viral and bacterial pathogens in high-containment laboratories.
Technology Experts
Dr Rachael Chidugu-Ogborigbo
Rachel’s research is focused on deploying sea sponges as a reliable tool and a model system to investigate the mechanism of genotoxicity and cytotoxicity of aquatic pollutants.
Professor Norman Ratcliffe
For over 20 years, Norman has specialised in gas/volatile analysis research, particularly for the agri-food and medical industry, developing the world’s first electronic nose system for quality control of ham and the first volatile organic compound (VOC) quality control system for monitoring stored vegetable produce.
Dr Ben De Lacy Costello
Ben has 20 years’ experience of volatile analysis, particularly the linking of volatiles to disease states. Much of Ben’s work has been based around gas sensors, not only testing gas sensors but also fabricating the devices and instruments required for the testing.
Professor John Hart
John’s current investigations are into the development of glutamate biosensors, based on screen printing technology, which demonstrate that successful glutamate biosensors could be fabricated using several strategies, and applied to the measurement of glutamate in food and biological fluids.
Dr Jackie Barnett
Jackie’s research focusses on the detection of infection both in plants and animals.
Dr Jason Mansell
Jason’s research focus is on human osteoblast (a cell which builds bone) biology with emphasis on tackling osteosarcoma, improving orthopaedic implant design and discovering novel routes to securing osteoblast maturation in a bone regenerative context.
Dr Kevin Honeychurch
Much of Kevin’s research is focussed around High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS).
Dr Joel Allainguillaume
Joel’s research is focussed on developing a sensor for early detection of a virus which is affecting cocoa plantations in West Africa, where 70% of global cocoa production takes place.
Dr Tushar Dhavale
Tushar has a Doctorate in rapid prototyping and teaches on subjects such as Solid Modelling, Engineering Design, Principle of Mechanical Engineering, Stress Analysis, Finite Element Analysis, Design Embodiment and CAD.
Professor Quan Zhu
Quan is a teacher and researcher with expertise in complex dynamic system modelling, identification, control and simulation including using generic methodologies and algorithms applied to bio systems.
Professor Praminda Caleb-Solly
Praminda is Professor of Assistive Robotics and Intelligent Health Technologies in the Faculty of Environment and Technology at the University of the West of England and Theme Leader for Assisted Living at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory.
Dr Roshan Weerasekera
Roshan is a Senior Lecturer in Electronic Engineering within the Department of Engineering Design and Mathematics in UWE. The primary focus of his research is on the design and implementation of microelectronic circuits and systems targeted for wide-range of applications such as portable computing platforms, bio and environmental monitoring.