Our Team
Meet the multidisciplinary research team of biologists, engineers, chemists, physicists and biomedical specialists that make possible the development of novel biofabrication strategies and cell-instructive biomaterials to create bioprinted, lab-made tissue models and transplantable engineered grafts.
RICCARDO LEVATO
Associate Professor of Translational Bioengineering and Biomaterials at the Department of Clinical Sciences (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University), and at the Department of Orthopaedics of the University Medical Center Utrecht. Principal Investigator at the Regenerative Medicine Center Utrecht. Prior to moving to Utrecht, he worked in several research groups across Europe: 3Bs, University of Minho (Portugal); BioMatLab, Technical University of Milan (Italy), Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC, Spain), and he holds a cum laude PhD in Biomedical Engineering and from the Technical University of Catalonia. Since 2020 he was awarded a Starting grant from the European Research Council on the development of a novel volumetric bioprinting technology for organoid research and to engineer functional bone marrow analogues in vitro. Between 2021 and 2025, he coordinated a European consortium (ENLIGHT, Future and Emerging Technologies scheme, European Innovation Council pilot), and since 2025 he coordinates the Dutch consortium PanCreaTE, aiming at developing biofabricated pancreas to study treatments for diabetes
He published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles international journals, and he was conferred several awards including the 2016 Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Young Investigator Award, the 2021 Jean Leray award from the European Society for Biomaterials, the 2022 Robert Brown award from the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, the 2023 Mid-career Investigator Award from the International Society for Biofabrication (ISBF), the 2025 Materials Today Rising Star Award, and the 2025 O&J Peters International Prize. He is associate editor for the journal Materials Today Bio, and board member for Biofabrication. Riccardo is also serving on the TERMIS-EU council and on the Board of Directors of ISBF.
Postdocs
Paulina Núñez Bernal
Paulina is originally from Mexico and has a master in regenerative medicine and technology (Utrecht University). She obtained her PhD in Regenerative Medicine under the supervision of Dr. Riccardo Levato, developing volumetric 3D printing for biomedical applications. She has experience with various 3D printing technologies, bio-ink development and 3D cell culture. Her research is primarily focused on the design of novel biofabrication approaches for the development of advanced in vitro models. Alongside her research work, she is coordinator for the Master of Science course in Biofabrication at Utrecht University.
Ankita Pramanick
Ankita is a postdoctoral researcher within the LIGHTGRAFT project. Her research focuses on engineering vascularized iPSC-derived pancreatic islets with enhanced engraftment capacity via multiple visible light bioprinting techniques. She obtained her BTech from the University of Calcutta, and MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in Fibre Science and Engineering. She received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Galway, Ireland under the supervision of Dr. Andrew Daly and Prof. Abhay Pandit. Her doctoral research focused on developmentally-inspired 4D bioprinting of iPSC-derived cardiac tissues through shape-morphing and in situ lineage differentiation. She specializes in bioprinting, tissue engineering, and iPSC technology.
Ravikumar Krishnamurthy
Ravikumar is a postdoctoral researcher within the PanCreaTE project. His research focuses on fabricating iPSC derived islet-containing microgels into scalable tissue structures using ultra-fast volumetric bioprinting strategies. He obtained his Ph.D from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and spent 4 years as postdoc at University of Pittsburgh and its associated hospital working on in vitro Microphysiological (MPS) models for Type 2 diabetes using iPSC and primary human islets. He then spent a year at Carnegie Mellon university as a post-doc working on in vitro models for the generation of immunocompetent T-cells using iPSC derived thymic epithelial cells. He specializes in iPSC technology, MPS models for diabetes, multi-parametric imaging and flow cytometry.
Michele Buono
Michele focuses on understanding genetic disease and translating scientific discoveries into clinical impact. His work bridges molecular biology and bioinformatics, integrating cellular models with omics technologies to investigate complex biological systems. He has a strong interest in data-driven science, and statistical and computational tools to extract biological insight. Michele is particularly motivated by research closely connected to patients and society, and is a committed advocate of open science. Currently, Michele is developing iPSC-based systems for regenerative medicine, with a focus on functional pancreatic islets..
Jelle Fok
​Jelle is a chemist working on the development of functional hydrogels for bioprinting with potential for translation to pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. He obtained his BSc in Molecular Science and Technology from Leiden University and TU Delft, and his MSc in Chemistry from the University of Groningen. Having performed his doctoral research under the supervision of Prof. Geert-Jan Boons at Utrecht University, he has experience in organic and enzymatic synthesis, analytical chemistry, protein biochemistry, and bioconjugation.
PhD candidates
Sammy Florczak
Sammy is an Australian researcher from Brisbane. He holds a BSc in Physics from The University of Queensland; as well as a dual MSc in Biofabrication from both the Queensland University of Technology and the University of Wurzburg. With prior experience in experimental optics and extensive work with melt-electrowriting, his interests have now turned towards volumetric bioprinting. As such, his project is focused on improving this technique to enable for the fabrication of both accurate and highly complex multicellular tissue engineering scaffolds within a matter of seconds.
Marième Gueye
Marième is a Senegalese biotechnology engineer, with a MSc in Synthetic Biotechnology from the École Supérieure de Biotechnologies de Strasbourg (France). She is enthusiastic about translational research and has experience with organ-on-chips platforms and cancer organoids. In 2021, she started her PhD in Biofabrication and Regenerative Medicine, within the VOLUME-BIO project. She is working on using a new volumetric bioprinting process to develop physiological-size bone marrow organoids that display near-physiological hematopoiesis.
Gabriel Größbacher
Gabriel is an Austrian computer scientist; he holds an MSc in Biofabrication (Utrecht University). He started his PhD in 2022 under the supervision of Dr. Riccardo Levato. He has a background in software engineering and ample experience with different 3D printing systems. His PhD focuses on the convergence of printing technologies with a focus on machine learning as a tool to automate and enhance state of the art approaches in regenerative medicine.
Núria Ginés Rodriguez
Núria is originally from Barcelona where she obtained a BSc in Biotechnology specializing in Biomaterials and developing ECM-like materials for electrospinning. Núria moved to Business Development in collaboration with the European Commission writing project proposals and building consortia for Horizon 2020, ERC and EiTHealth. During that stage, she obtained a post-graduate degree in IP protection and technology transfer. Núria holds an MSc in Biofabrication and started her PhD in 2022 in smart Organs on Chip. Her expertise ranges from developing printing technologies to tissue engineering and micro-perfused systems.
Estée Grandidier
Estée Grandidier is a French PhD student, with a MSc in biomedical engineering (École Polytechnique de Lausanne) and in biology (École Normale Supérieure de Lyon). She has research experience in the Lafont’s lab (Pasteur Institute), Schneeberger’s lab (Hospital of Innsbruck), Haase lab (EMBL Barcelona), Moser’s lab (EPFL) and Lewis lab (Harvard). Her project, with Roel Deckers (UMCU) focuses on vascularized cancer models for ultrasound-microbubble therapies. Over the course of her PhD, she aims to combine bioprinting, engineering, and biological mechanisms to design a comprehensive in vitro tumor tissue.
Camille Bonhomme
Camille is a French PhD student holding a MSc in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées in Rouen (INSA Rouen Normandie). She has research experience in supramolecular chemistry in the Pilgrim's Lab (Nottingham) and in hydrogel and microgel synthesis and cell culture in the De Laporte's lab (DWI, Aachen). In 2024, she started her PhD at Utrecht University in Biofabrication and Regenerative Medicine. Her project focuses on the development of smart hydrogels for the volumetric bioprinting process to culture liver organoids.
Gaja Zanoni
Gaja is an Italian biomedical engineer with a Master's degree in Biomechanics and Biomaterials from Politecnico di Milano. She has hands-on experience with organs-on-chip, 3D cell culture, and innovative coating techniques, acquired at the Regenerative Medicine Technologies Lab in Bellinzona (Switzerland). Driven by her passion for in vitro modeling and space biotechnology, in 2024 she began her PhD in 3D Printing and Biofabrication for Regenerative Medicine, under the supervision of Riccardo Levato. Her research focuses on bioengineering the AGM niche to generate bona fide hematopoietic stem cells in vitro.
Charlotte Brice
Charlotte is originally from Zimbabwe and holds a BSc in Medicine from the University of Groningen and an MSc in Biofabrication from Utrecht University. Currently a PhD student in the lab, Charlotte’s research focuses on engineering volumetrically bioprinted constructs, using organoids derived from multiple cell sources as building blocks, for advanced in vitro models of various tissues such as the liver and pancreas. Her work aims to develop a foetal liver-like niche for the expansion of haematopoietic stem cells, as well as creating perfusable pancreatic constructs for diabetes modelling and drug testing.
Nuria Crusellas
Originally from Barcelona, Nuria holds a MSc in biomedical sciences, with a specialization in stem cells and regenerative medicine from Leiden University. With previous research experience in the Geijsen lab (LUMC) and the Drost lab (Prinses Maxima Centre for paediatric oncology), she is, since 2025, a PhD candidate at Utrecht University under the supervision of Dr. Prof. Sabine Fuchs (UMCU) and Dr. Riccardo Levato. Over the course of her PhD, Nuria aims to combine stem cell research, gene editing and bioprinting technologies for the development of perfusable pancreatic constructs for diabetes modelling and drug testing.
Stefan Dvoretskii
Stefan holds a BSc in Bioinformatics and a MSc in Neuroengineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM). In his PhD in collaboration with Eightsix Science Ltd he works on a Generative AI-augmented Biofabrication of Implantable Neural Tissue, which aims to ultimately advance personalised regenerative brain therapies.
Céline den Bremer
Céline holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc in High Tech Engineering with a specialization in Micro and Nano Engineering (TU Delft). For her master’s thesis she worked on in vitro models of brain tumours. In parallel, she worked for a SME that develops automation solutions for biological experiments, working on lightsheet microscopy and sample handling for zebrafish research. In her PhD she works with advanced bio-fabrication techniques shaping a toolbox for next generation engineered cardiovascular tissue.
Ana Karen Michel Farias
Ana is a Mexican biotechnology engineer with a master’s degree in Medical Immunosciences and Infection from the University of Bonn (Germany). She gained experience in 3D cell culture and different bioprinting techniques during her bachelor’s at the Shrike Lab (BWH – Harvard). She focused her master thesis on understanding the signaling pathways behind interferon independent autoimmune disorders at the Behrendt Lab (University of Bonn). For her PhD, Ana focuses on the development of microgels for printing stem cell-derived pancreatic islets to investigate how mechanical and chemical factors affect these pancreatic islets.
Research Support
Bram Nijhoff
Bram is a Biofabrication Technician with a mechatronics skillset. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechatronics (the Hague University of Applied Sciences), and is expert in control engineering, positioning techniques, and rapid prototyping using 3D printers and laser cutter. He guides PhD students and their apprentices with facilitating parts to 3D- and bioprint. He also provides assistance with fabricating complex issues models and technical engineering projects.