
Bioengineering

After completing the four year MPhys course at Oxford and achieving a First, I stayed on to carry out research for my DPhil, initially in the field of Terahertz Spectroscopy. After 18 months I changed direction and started a new DPhil in Biological Physics, submitting my thesis entitled ‘DNA Origami Assembly’ a little under three years later. In 2014, I went to York to take up an appointment as a Research Associate in the Department of Electronic Engineering, working primarily on synthetic DNA nanomachines in the context of bioelectronic computing.
I joined the School of Engineering at Edinburgh as a Lecturer in 2017. I am affiliated with the discipline of Mechanical Engineering and I am a member of the Institute for Bioengineering, where I carry out research in the area of Synthetic Biology.
- DPhil in Condensed Matter Physics (Biological Physics), University of Oxford, 2014
- Master of Physics, First Class, University of Oxford, 2009
I have been teaching since 2010, and have taught students at Oxford, York and Edinburgh, covering a wide range of subjects spanning physics, engineering, biology, nanotechnology, mathematics and industry matters.
At Edinburgh, I have been involved in various teaching activities within the Mechanical Engineering degree programme.
In 2017/18, I taught half of the fourth year Thermodynamics course, and for three years running (2017/18, 18/19 and 19/20) I was responsible for the practical work for the second year Thermodynamics course. From 2018 to 2020 inclusive, I organized industrial visits for all third year Mechanical Engineering students, and dealt with the associated coursework assignment, in which students analyse companies and their business-models.
In academic year 2018/19, I became the course organizer for a brand new course in 'Bio-Inspired Engineering', as a result of having formally proposed its introduction a few months earlier. As of 2020/21, my course is in its third year, and has proven to be very popular. It is taken by students on several degree programmes, including both Mechanical and Chemical Engineering.
In 2021, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, I introduced a new assignment to replace the original Industrial Visits coursework, as it was impossible for students to go on any external visits.
Alongside the above, I deliver some classes for second year Engineering Mathematics, on the subject of multiple integrals. I am also the 'personal tutor' for 35 undergraduate students, providing guidance and pastoral support as required, and every year I supervise 4 final year research projects.

Synthetic Biology
The bottom-up approach to synthetic biology aims to create life-like artificial cells from non-living components. Our group specialises in creating synthetic cells that contain multiple sub-compartments (analogous to eukaryotic cell organelles). To do this, we use droplet microfluidics and giant lipid vesicles (or GUVs). Once created, we can setup multi-step enzymatic reaction cascades between the compartments.These synthetic cells can shed light on natural biological cell functions but can also be used for industrial applications like biofuel production or in biomedical applications for drug delivery.
Lipid Membranes
Cell membranes need to be structurally complex in order to perform a multitude of cellular functions. Studying individual components, like biomembranes, is typically performed using real cells. However, isolating biomembranes from the rest of the cell can be difficult or impossible. Therefore, as an alternative, our lab uses model membranes. Here, different aspects of the membrane, such as lipid composition, permeability, and membrane proteins can be studied in isolated under controlled conditions, free from other cellular influences. Different types of lipid membranes serve as our models including GUVs on the micron-scale, and nano-sized lipid vesicles down to 100 nm. In addition, we also use these model membranes systems to study membrane fusion as well as ligand-membrane interactions. Key to our success is the development of our cutting-edge lipid vesicle formation methods including microfluidics and bulk emulsions.
Microfluidics
Microfluidic technology is used throughout the different research topics in the Robinson lab. We current focus on using microfluidics for the following applications:
- Single cell handling and analysis (including cancer cells, and active swimmers).
- High-throughput production of monodisperse lipid vesicles (via double emulsion templating).
- Advanced handling, manipulation (flow, compression, electrofusion), and analysis of lipid vesicles.
Designing, fabricating, and testing novel microfluidic systems for new applications also makes up its own unique line of research.
- Microfluidics.
- Bottom-up synthetic biology.
- Lipid vesicles.
- Membrane fusion.
- Advanced microscopy: including FLIM, confocal, multiphoton, and high-speed capture.
- Single cell handling and analysis.

- BSc., MSc.R
- Instructor of MSc Course: Nanomaterials in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

- Laurea summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy, 2005
- PhD in Chemical Engineering, University of Bologna, Italy, 2009
- Post Graduate Diploma in Tertiary Teaching, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, 2014
- Associate Member of IChemE
- Member of NZBio
- Investigator in the Biomolecular Interaction Centre, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- Chemical Engineering Unit Operations 3 - CHEE09009
- Development of high resolution 3D Printing methods
- Bioseparations for the production of bioproducts/pharmaceuticals, focus on chromatography
- Wet resistant adhesives
- Material science, focus on biomaterials