Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Availability:
Available for supervision
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Dr Divya Chopra is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology working in nanotechnology, biomaterials, and biosensing. Her research focuses on developing nano-engineered biomedical platforms for improved disease detection, antibacterial therapies, and implant technologies.
Her work combines bacterial extracellular vesicle (BEV) biology, Raman/SERS biosensing, plasmonic chip technologies, and nano-engineered biomaterials. She is particularly interested in developing sensitive diagnostic approaches using extracellular vesicles and advanced nanostructured sensing platforms.
Dr Chopra completed her PhD at The University of Queensland, where she developed bioactive and antibacterial nano-engineered zirconia and titanium implant surfaces for dental applications. Her research integrates nanofabrication, electrochemical anodization, surface engineering, spectroscopy, and biointerface analysis.
She has published in leading journals including Advanced Functional Materials, Bioactive Materials, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and has received several national and international research awards and competitive grants.
Affiliate of Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology
NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow
UQ Centre for Clinical Research
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Availability:
Available for supervision
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Dr Kevin M. Koo is currently a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Investigator Fellow and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) Future Leader Fellow at The University of Queensland (UQ). Dr Koo was awarded his PhD (Dean’s Award for Outstanding Thesis & Springer Thesis Prize) from the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology (AIBN), UQ in 2018.
Post-PhD, he begun a productive postdoctoral career with dual industry/academia appointments: as the Head of Assay Development/Lab Director in XING Technologies Pty Ltd (a Brisbane-based biotech start-up) to undertake product development projects for commercialization of disease in vitro diagnostics, and as an Honorary Fellow/Principal Research Scientist at UQ Centre for Clinical Research (UQCCR) to continue his academic research in precision cancer nanodiagnostics. His research skills and experiences are honed through dedicated career time spent in both academic research and regulated industry environments.
Dr Koo's research encompasses multi-disciplinary fields of molecular biomarker and nanobiosensor development, translation, and commercialization for precision disease management applications. Presently, he is working on the design and development of integrated multi-bioanalyte sensing technologies to resolve the various challenges around holistic disease pathway understanding and clinical biomarker profiling.
Dr Koo's research endeavours have been recognized by a Metrohm Australia-New Zealand Young Chemist Award (2018), Australian Institute of Policy & Science (AIPS) Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award (2023) and UQ Faculty of Medicine "Rising Star of the Year" Excellence Award (2024).
Teaching
UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB)
