QM+Emulate Centre Staff

Dr Clare Thompson

Centre Manager/Lead Centre Scientist
Queen Mary University of London

Having joined Queen Mary in 2009, Clare has extensive experience in the field of cellular mechanobiology and 2D/3D cell culture techniques. Her research is focussed on the mechanical regulation of cell signalling pathways within the synovial joint. In particular, she has published extensively on the role of a small, microtubule-based signalling organelle, the primary cilium, in this phenomenon demonstrating the importance of ciliary trafficking events for this regulation.

As Centre Scientist, Clare manages the Centre's suite of Human Emulation Systems and has specialist training in the use of the Emulate platform. She will provide support and training for Centre users in the design, preparation and analysis of their experiments

Dr Sasha Berdichevski

Principal Scientist/European Science Liaison
Emulate Inc.

Sahsa obtained a BA in Medical Laboratory Science (Faculty of Biology), an MSc in Physiology (Faculty of Medicine) and a PhD in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering (Faculty of Biomedical Engineering) in Technion, Israel. Her research experience included investigating cytoprotective and cardiotoxic compounds on cardiomyocyte physiology; designing biosynthetic hydrogels for tissue engineering and developing imaging methodologies to identify host response to biodegradable implants. She has also established an injectable micro-carrier delivery system for cardiac muscle regeneration. After completion of her PhD in 2014, she joined the Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge as a Post-Doctoral Researcher, having obtained a Blavatnik Fellowship, followed by a Marie-Curie Fellowship. Her research interests were concerned with designing scaffolds for bone and capillary networks growth. In December 2018 she joined the IMED Post-Doctoral program at AstraZeneca, where she was working on evaluating hepatic sinusoidal zonation in Liver-Chip models.