Dr Petra Hanga Joins UCL Biochemical Engineering

Petra was a Lecturer in Biological Engineering at Aston University, Birmingham, UK, before joining UCL. Petra holds a BEng in Biochemical Engineering from Babes-Bolyai University, Romania and a PhD in Regenerative Medicine from Loughborough University, UK as part of the EPSRC DTC in Regenerative Medicine.

Being a biochemical engineer by training, Petra’s research interests lie at the intersection of Engineering and Life Sciences. Her research addresses two distinct grand challenges:

1) healthcare, by developing future therapies that will minimise the economic and social burden of an aging population

2) food and nutrition for health, by advancing cultivated meat technologies that ultimately will enable a radical shift away from livestock products.

Petra’s multidisciplinary strengths and expertise include an understanding of the whole stem cell culture bioprocess from inoculation to harvest, including engineering characterisation of bioreactors and biological characterisation of stem cells.

At UCL, Petra will continue her research in the two areas and will lead the Cellular Agriculture research. She will teach the Introduction to Biochemical Engineering module in year 1 of the Biochemical Engineering MEng and BEng programmes and will also be the Programme Director and Admissions Tutor for the MSc in Biochemical Engineering.

Links

• UCL Biochemical Engineering Dergrees
• Biochemical Engineering MSc Programme
• Dr Petra Hanga's UCL IRIS profile