Sahar Ghorbanpour

Biography

I am currently working as lecturer (level B) in the field of medical biotechnology at the University of Technology Sydney. I hold a Master’s degree in Biotechnology from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, which was centered around the project on production of enzymes engineered for recycling of plastics. Prior to embarking on my PhD, I worked full-time as a Research Assistant at the Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology (ACIB); an esteemed European organization known for developing environmentally-friendly and economically viable practices for the biotechnological and pharmaceutical industries. During my time at ACIB, I published two research articles in the field of vaccine technology. My passion for implementing advanced technology to establish sustainable practices in medical research led me to develop 3D-microfluidic human disease models, including a placenta-on-chip and a microvasculature-on-chip, during my doctoral studies. As translation of animal models to human diseases for pre-clinical studies is challenging due to the variability and unpredictability of disease manifestation, my research focuses on creating new 3D models based on human cells to recreate human vascular tissue microenvironments in real-time. Additionally, I designed and developed the first nanoparticle-based point-of-care devices to detect preeclampsia in pregnant women at an early stage.