LAB's Head

Dr Bertrand CZARNY

Dr Bertrand CZARNY received a PhD degree on structural and functional engineering of biomolecules at University of Paris Descartes. He joined the French governmental agency CEA (Atomic Energy Commission), then Utrecht university, for more than 10 years, and studied the biodistribution, drug delivery systems and toxicology of nanoparticles.

Dr Bertrand CZARNY is Assistant Professor at School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and holds a join position at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKC) in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

His research is focused on the development of nanomedicines with large emphasis on exosomes mimetic and in vivo pre-clinical studies. His research is highly translational, and is broadly applicable to many pathological conditions.

Teaching: undergraduate MS4013 biomaterials

ORCID PROFILE

Research fellow

Dinesh Kumar Kesavan

Dr Dinesh is a senior research fellow in our lab who works on developing a bacterial mimetic vaccine against human bacterial infections. His Master’s and postdoctoral research focused on bacterial extracellular vesicles, membrane proteins, antibiotic resistance, and bioactive natural compounds from microorganisms. He studies bacterial mimetic vesicles at BertLab as vaccines for Streptococcus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. He is also developing therapeutic mimetic stem cell vesicles against wound infection pathogens. During his three-year first postdoctoral fellowship at Jiangsu University, China, his research focused on bacterial whole gene transcriptome, proteome analysis of antibacterial drug resistance, membrane transport proteins, OMVs isolation, and purification.  He has PhD in biotechnology with a microbiology specialisation from SRM University, India’s School of Bioengineering. His PhD research is focused on isolating and identifying marine bioactive secondary metabolites from Actinomycetes, finding new bioactive metabolite targets for bioactive compounds using the in silico approach, and validating them in vitro bioassays. He is an expert in chemical database mining, pharmacophore, QSAR, and structure-based secondary metabolite identification of targets. As a senior researcher in the Department of Biotechnology, Indo-Japanese collaboration project, he conducted research to identify inhibitors for MDR efflux pumps in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using computational and in vitro methods.

Vaibavi Srirangam Ramanujam

Dr Vaibavi Ramanujam is a research fellow in our laboratory, specializing in the preclinical evaluation of biomaterials and tissue engineering. She earned her Ph.D. from IIT Madras, where she investigated the effects of calcium channel blockers on cancer and endothelial cells, focusing particularly on the mechanisms of cancer cell extravasation.

Before joining our lab, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow on the NTU-CNRS project, concentrating on neuro tissue engineering. Additionally, she has experience as a research assistant at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where she collaborated with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to develop injectable hydrogels for cardiovascular applications, conducting in-vivo cardiovascular studies in rat and pig models.

 

In Bert Lab, Vaibavi’s research focuses on the in-vivo testing of extracellular vesicles and innovative vaccines for pathological conditions developed by our team. With her diverse background in in-vivo studies, she brings a valuable perspective to our research team and is committed to advancing innovative developments in the field.

Soheil Haddadzadegan

Dr. Haddadzadegan is a research fellow in our lab, specializing in advanced drug delivery systems. He earned his Pharm.D. in 2020 in Tehran (Iran), where he conducted pivotal research on insulin-loaded hydrogels designed to enhance wound healing in diabetic patients. This early work laid a strong foundation for the development of responsive drug delivery platforms tailored to specific therapeutic needs. He also completed an MBA in 2020, equipping him with a broader perspective on the translational and strategic aspects of pharmaceutical innovation.

In 2024, he earned his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, under the supervision of Professor Andreas Bernkop. His doctoral research focused on the development of lipid-based formulations—such as self-emulsifying drug delivery systems and mucoadhesive nanoparticles—to improve the oral bioavailability and stability of therapeutic peptides and proteins, including insulin. He also gained significant expertise in the synthesis and application of thiomers, a class of mucoadhesive polymers that interact with the mucus layer to prolong drug residence time and enhance therapeutic efficacy. His work has broad applications in oral drug delivery and long-acting treatments for chronic diseases.

Currently, Dr. Haddadzadegan is a postdoctoral researcher at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Under the supervission of Bertrand Czarny (BertLab), he is developing next-generation drug delivery platforms, including lipid-based carriers and peptide-based coacervates, for the delivery of genetic materials such as plasmid DNA (pDNA), messenger RNA (mRNA), and small interfering RNA (siRNA). His research includes conducting preclinical studies to support the therapeutic translation of these technologies.

PhD students

Liqi Wong

Liqi is a PhD student in our lab (2023-      ). She received her bachelor’s degree from the School of Materials Science (MSE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2023. Her current project primarily focuses on CAR T cell targeting for infectious diseases. She is also involved in various aspects of the research process, from cell culture techniques to the production of bacterial vesicles. During her final year project, she worked on encapsulating host-derived probiotics using functional polysaccharides, which equipped her with techniques such as SEM, freeze-drying, and needle extrusion. This final year project experience allowed her to gain valuable insight into the research field and develop a keen interest in the biological sciences.

LIM YUN WEI

Lim Yun Wei is a PhD student in our lab (2022-      ). He completed his bachelor’s degree from School of Materials Science (MSE) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in year 2022. His current research interest focuses on developing probiotics extracellular vesicle as nanomedicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. His works underscore multidisciplinary research techniques including isolation and purification of nanovesicles, in vivo experimentation, bacterial and cell culture ,and TEM imaging.

MOHAMED KHWAJAH SYED MEERA LEBBAI MARICAR

PhD Candidate co-supervised with Prof Ali Miserez (2022-    )

CAROLINA RIVERA LARA

PhD candidate cotutelle with Sorbonne University, (2024-   ) Selective targeting and delivery of iridium-based compounds with anticancer properties

Staff

Logeshwari MN

Logeshwari is a research associate with the School of Material Science at Nanyang Technological University. She received bachelor’s and master’s biotechnology degrees from Anna University, India. She has almost 8 years of research experience in biotechnical and microbiological areas.

Since 2022 she has been associated with Prof. Bertrand’s lab  and exposed to multiple projects  such as nanovesicle production, animal work, cell culture, Mimic Extracellular Vesicles production, lab maintenance and other laboratory and admin duties.

LU JUNLIN

Junlin is a Rearch Associate in our lab. She received master’s biotechnology degree from Northwestern University,US. Her research interest focuses on both animal studies and cell culture. She is currently involved the project of Elucidating the Molecular Interactions of Engineered Protein Nanoparticles in Imaging Atherosclerotic Plaques.

BYUN SUYEON

Suyeon is a Research Assistant in our lab. Her research is focused on developing antibacterial mimetic cell-derived nanovesicles from Mesenchymal stem cells. She is also an expert in isolating, purifying, and characterising mimetic vesicles and exosomes from pathogenic bacteria and various human and animal cells.  She received her bachelor’s degree in chemistry, chemical engineering, and biotechnology (CCEB) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2024. Her current project primarily focuses on producing antibacterial Mesenchymal Stem Cell vesicles via priming with bacterial vesicles derived from Pseudomonas aeruginosa.