Projects available for 2026-27 entry
MRes students work on their research project throughout the year. You can apply for one of the projects listed below, or contact the Course Director, Dr Jun Ishihara (j.ishihara@imperial.ac.uk) to discuss a different project.
Applications will be considered in three rounds.
Visit our How do I apply? page for full details of the application process including deadlines.
List of Projects
Projects available for 2026-27 entry
Professor Jimmy Moore
Profile: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/james.moore.jr
Contact details: james.moore.jr@imperial.ac.uk
| Project title | Description |
| Lymph Node Implant for Breast Cancer-Related Lymphoedema | A large percentage of breast cancer patients who undergo lymph node resection develop an incurable swelling of the arm called lymphoedema. We are developing an implant to replace the fluid delivery characteristics of lymph nodes. We have developed a lymph node implant that releases a growth factor to regenerate the damaged lymphatic vessels. We would like to visualize the release and flow of the growth factor once it is implanted in the tissue. We can do this using a microfluidic chip that simulates fluid flow like in tissue. The goal of this project is to use a fluorescence microscope to live image the microfluidic device as the fluorescent-labelled growth factor flows through it over time. This will help us understand where the growth factor travels to within the surgical site. |
Dr Kaushik Jayaram
Contact details: k.jayaram@imperial.ac.uk
| Project title | Description |
| Distributed Tactile Sensing | The project involves creating cockroach inspired antenna with distributed 1D and 2D mechanosensors (inspired by insect campaniforms). We will understand the role of active antenna movements for enhancing sensing and tactile discrimination. These antennae will be integrated on insect-scale robots and demonstrate high-speed tactile SLAM-based navigation (in the dark). Will involve collaborations with Dyson School of Engineering. Expect strong interest in microfabrication, nano-3D printing, laser processing. Experience with clean room procedures and microcontroller programming is an advantage. |
| Firefly inspired Optical communication for Swarming Drones | The project involves creating a nanoquadrotor (less than 60mm) capable of emulating firefly like communication (flashing and response). The project will involve mechanical design, electronic fabrication of custom controller boards and software development for developing firefly inspired strategies. We expect to field test this system by the end of the project to demonstrate active closed loop communication with fireflies as the first step towards understanding complex signalling. Will involving collaboration with international teams. Looking for background in prior drone design, control and programming. Experience with building custom electronics is an advantage. |
| Plant-sensing insect robots | The project involves creating custom sensors, manipulators and attachment mechanisms for insect-scale robots to sample and deliver biomolecules to plant tissues. Interest in plant science/ environmental monitoring is an advantage. Strong background in flexible electronics design and integration along with software development is preferred. Involves collaboration with other departmental and international teams. |
| Modeling of Insect-scale Shape Morphing Robots | The project involves modeling the kinematics and dynamics of insect-scale bioinspired shape morphing robots in IssacGym/ Mujoco to create digital twins. These models will be used for training machine learning algorithms and for developing AI bioinspired controllers for navigating complex terrains. Will involve collaborations with Computer Science Department at Imperial and at ETH Zurich. Prior experience with physics-based modeling softwares in a must. |
| Digital twins of spiders | The project involves modeling the kinematics and dynamics of arthropods in Unity/ Mujoco to create digital twins using high-fidelity tracking data collected (DeeplabCut, Replicant) from spiders moving on a treadmill at varying inclinations (vertical, lateral and upside down). These models will inform the creation of new bioinspired gaits to be deployed on insect scale robots. Involve collaboration with other insect labs in department. Expect a strong background in data processing, programming, AI/ML. Prior experience with computer graphics and modeling is an advantage. |
Dr Laki Pantazis
Profile: https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/p.pantazis
Contact details: p.pantazis@imperial.ac.uk
| Project title | Description |
| Beyond fluorescence: watching genetically-encoded bioharmonophores assemble in live mammalian cells | Fluorescent proteins have shaped modern cell biology, but they come with trade-offs: they bleach, saturate, and blur under high-intensity light. These limitations cap what we can see”especially when tracking fast or subtle dynamics over long periods. What if we could express a label that never fades, never saturates, and produces a clean, quantifiable signal”one thats visible through even the densest cellular environments? This project gives you the opportunity to build and validate a new class of genetically encoded imaging probes”bioharmonophores”in live mammalian cells. These are not fluorescent proteins. Instead, they are small peptides that self-assemble into non-centrosymmetric nanocrystals inside protein shells, generating second-harmonic generation (SHG) signal: a narrow, photostable, and unbleachable optical readout. At the heart of the system is a synthetic expression circuit: peptides with strong SHG potential are targeted to encapsulin nanocompartments, where they remain inert until released by a genetically encoded TEV protease. This two-part design allows for controlled liberation and local concentration of SHG-active sequences, triggering their self-assembly into crystalline structures that produce strong SHG signal when imaged. This project focuses on the critical proof-of-principle: can we trigger SHG-active peptide self-assembly inside living human or mouse cells? This has never been shown. Success would confirm that bioharmonophores can be expressed, activated, and imaged in standard cell culture, opening the door to genetically programmable, multiplexed SHG imaging in deep tissues. Practical student experience You will: - design and model SHG-active peptide candidates for expression in mammalian cells, - co-express peptides with encapsulin shells and a TEV-protease under inducible control, - validate encapsulation and proteolytic release by western blot, microscopy, and SHG polarimetry, - culture human and/or mouse cells to assess intracellular assembly efficiency and compatibility, - quantify SHG signal strength across time and conditions using an existing Zeiss two-photon microscope platform - analyse optical signatures to correlate peptide identity, structure, and signal intensity. This project gives you hands-on experience with synthetic gene circuits, nonlinear optics, mammalian cell engineering, signal quantification, and peptide design—a complete pipeline from molecule to imaging outcome. Outcomes By the end of the project, you will produce the first demonstration that genetically encoded bioharmonophores can self-assemble and generate SHG signal in live mammalian cells. |
| Advancing Mechanobiology with ChemiGenEPi Biosensors | Cells are constantly pushed, stretched, and squeezed”and they feel it. Mechanobiology is the science of how cells sense and respond to forces, a process that drives development, organ function, and disease. At the centre of this force-sensing machinery is Piezo1, a pressure-sensitive ion channel. Our lab has already introduced GenEPi, the first genetically encoded Piezo1 activity reporter, but we want to go further. What if you could watch Piezo1 at work in real time, in living tissue, with sensors that are brighter, more stable, and tunable across colours? This project gives you the chance to build exactly that: ChemiGenEPi1.0, a brand-new chemigenetic biosensor. By combining the genetic precision of GenEPi with the dye-based flexibility of WHaloCaMP, ChemiGenEPi will let us see Piezo1 activity with unprecedented clarity”from single cells in culture to developing zebrafish embryos. Practical student experience You will: - design and engineer the ChemiGenEPi sensor using HaloTag chemistry and advanced dye-ligands, - test its performance in live-cell imaging assays (brightness, photostability, dynamic range), - push it further into in vivo models to see mechanosensation unfold in real biological contexts. This project is hands-on at the interface of molecular engineering, synthetic biology, and cutting-edge imaging. You'll gain experience in biosensor design, live-cell fluorescence and FLIM microscopy, and in vivo validation. Outcomes By the end, you'll have helped create a next-generation tool for watching mechanosensitive signalling in action”one that could reshape how we study force in biology and even inspire future drug discovery. |
| PhOTO-Bow: Painting Cell Lineages with Light | Every organism begins as a single cell, yet by adulthood becomes an intricate mosaic of billions. How do individual cells decide who they will become, where they will go, and how their descendants contribute to health or disease? To answer that, we need to see the entire history of each cell” who it divides into, how it moves, and when it changes fate. Traditional lineage-tracing tools are powerful but blunt: they label too many cells at once or rely on stochastic recombination without spatial or temporal control. PhOTO-Bow changes the game. It merges two powerful technologies - primed conversion single cell labelling and Cre/lox rainbow recombination - to create a system where you decide when and where every colour appears. By combining the pinpoint accuracy of light-activated primed conversion with the stochastic diversity of the Brainbow system, PhOTO-Bow allows you to illuminate the story of tissue development and disease in living organisms. Each cells colour becomes a barcode of identity, history, and fate”recorded directly in its fluorescence. You will: Test PhOTO-Bow constructs to integrate precise light control and randomised recombination. Perform primed conversion using dual-beam illumination to trigger spatially confined activation at the single-cell level. Induce rainbow recombination through light-controlled Cre activity, permanently marking clones with unique spectral fingerprints. Track clonal expansion and migration across development using Leica light-sheet microscopy. Quantify lineage dynamics with advanced 3D image segmentation and Python-based tree reconstruction tools. This project gives you hands-on exposure to synthetic gene circuit design, live-cell imaging and computational lineage analysis - a complete pipeline from molecular construction to visualising multicellular history in living tissue. Why It Matters PhOTO-Bow is not just another lineage tool - it is a cinematic recorder of biology in motion. It lets you watch, in real time, how a single cells decision ripples through development or disease. By integrating primed conversion precision with rainbow recombination diversity, this system can resolve cellular ancestry with unprecedented fidelity”mapping how clonal mosaics emerge during organogenesis, tissue repair, or tumour evolution. The resulting colour-coded trees will provide insight into how fate decisions propagate through space and time. Outcomes By the end of the project, you will produce the first demonstrations of light-activated rainbow lineage tracing using PhOTO-Bow. You'll generate multicolour lineage maps that reveal how individual cells shape complex tissues”an essential step towards a fully optical reconstruction of developmental and cancer trajectories. Your work will lay the foundation for next-generation lineage mapping technologies that merge optics, genetics, and computation”one photon, one colour, one cell at a time. |