MAHLA POUDINEH, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AND IDEATION LAB DIRECTOR
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. I received my Ph.D. in electrical engineering (with a minor in biomedical engineering) from the University of Toronto in 2017. Prior to joining Waterloo, I completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Toronto, and at the School of Medicine at Stanford University, in 2017 and 2019, respectively. I received my B.Sc. (2010) and M.Sc. (2012) in electrical engineering, both from the University of Tehran, Iran. My research interests include developing bio-sensing approaches for therapeutics and diagnostics purposes and translating biomedical devices to the clinic.
Refer to Professor Mahla Poudineh's CV for more information:
Contact Information
Email: mahla.poudineh@uwaterloo.ca
Phone: 519-888-4567 x33319
Location: QNC 3622
ELHAM AZIMI, LAB MANAGER
Elham completed her M.Sc. (Culture Technology) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). During Her M.Sc. she focused on Oil Painting Authentication and Evaluation by Generative Adversarial Networks. She started working in the Ideation lab as lab manager and research assistant.
E-mail: elham.azimi@uwaterloo.ca
IRFANI AUSRI, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW
Irfani is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IDEATION laboratory. Her passion in health care led her to receive a B.Sc. in Physiology from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Nanotechnology) from the University of Waterloo. During her Ph.D., she worked on carbon nanotube (CNT) based electrochemical point-of-care and wearable diagnostic platforms for the early detection of heart failure biomarkers and lactate, respectively. In the IDEATION lab, she is developing wearable patch that can simultaneously monitor glucose and ketone levels for Type 1 Diabetes patients.
E-mail: irfani.ausri@uwaterloo.ca
ERFAN SHIRZADI, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOW
Erfan is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IDEATION laboratory. He received his MSc and PhD degrees from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) under the supervision of Prof. Paul Dyson. His PhD was in collaboration with Professors Grätzel, Hagfeldt, and Nazeeruddin on the passivation of perovskite solar cells. During his PhD, he developed a technique to quantify different light-induced ion migrations and studied the impact of passivation on these phenomena. In March 2021, he received the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant with a research interest in CO2 reduction and was a postdoctoral fellow at Sargent’s lab, at the University of Toronto. Erfan was awarded AMTD fellowship in 2023. In IDEATION lab, he is developing non-invasive methods to monitor biomarkers in the brain.
E-mail: erfan.shirzadi@utoronto.ca
HESAM ABOUALI, PHD STUDENT
Hesam is a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo. He holds a M.Sc. in chemical engineering, biotechnology from Sharif University of Technology, Iran. During his M.Sc., he was a research assistant in the Stem Cells Laboratory, and gained experience in design, simulation, and fabrication of an aptamer-based microfluidic device to isolate circulating tumor cells. He is fascinated by translational biomedical science, and his main focus in the IDEATION Lab will be in the field of mathematical oncology and also the development of microdevices to profile cancer biomarkers.
E-mail: Hesam.abouali@uwaterloo.ca
PEYMAN GHAVAMINEJAD, PHD STUDENT
Peyman is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He obtained his B.Sc. from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Iran University of Science and Technology where he found a great interest in Biomedical Microdevices. His passion in Bio-MEMS and Microfluidics made him continue his education in the MMST laboratory in the Department of Mechanical engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). In particular, His work there focused on combining microfluidic devices with acoustic waves for developing a miniaturized RNA-seq system. In the IDEATION laboratory, he focuses on developing real-time aptamer-based electrochemical biosensors and finding new methods that can ease the early diagnosis of diseases.
E-mail: pghavaminejad@uwaterloo.ca
POUYAN KESHAVARZ, PHD STUDENT
I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo. I received my M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran. During my M.Sc. I gained experience in programming and developing numerical models of multi-physics problems. My mission at the University of Waterloo is to develop numerical models at cellular scale to quantify how cancer cells respond to physical forces in their microenvironment. Cancer cells motion and deformation in microfluidic devices will help such numerical models to be validated. I will design and fabricate microfluidic devices to perform experimental measurements on cancer cell deformability in the IDEATION Lab. (Co-supervised by Dr. Nima Maftoon)
E-mail: pkeshava@uwaterloo.ca
FATEMEH KEYVANI, PHD STUDENT
Fatemeh is a PhD student at the IDEATION laboratory. She has a special background in Cell Biology and Physiology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in cell biology and an MSc in kinesiology from University of Waterloo. Her expertise includes cell culture, stem cell differentiation and characterization, as well as gene delivery. As part of her journey she discovered her passion for applying her knowledge on developing advanced biosensors for early diagnosis and screening of diseases, which lead her to found a company- Health Message Technologies- with the mission to bring innovative diagnostic technologies to the hands of physicians, caregivers, and patients. Currently she is focused on developing a multiplexed aptamer-based biosensor to detect low amounts of biomarkers in body fluids.
E-mail: fkeyvani@uwaterloo.ca
SADEGH SADEGHZADEH , PHD STUDENT
Sadegh is a PhD student at IDEATION Lab, University of Waterloo. He is an MSc graduate from Sharif University of Technology in chemical/environmental engineering. During his MSc, he has gained a lot of experiences about micropollutants removal techniques in general and enzymatic one in particular. Also, he is familiar with nanoparticles and membrane synthesis as well as protein immobilization techniques. He is interested in using enzymes for real time diagnosis purposes. In IDEATION lab, he is working on designing and fabrication of enzymatic and nonenzymatic microneedle patches as a novel-noninvasive method for continuous monitoring of different analytes of interest.
E-mail: sadegh.sadeghzadeh@uwaterloo.ca
SHADI VAJDI, PHD STUDENT
Shadi is a PhD student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She received her master’s in software engineering from the University of Waterloo. Prior to joining the IDEATION Lab, Shadi was an application developer in the Health department, University of Waterloo. Also, as a research assistant in the Applied Mathematics department, she achieved proficiency in mathematical modeling and computational analysis of tumor cell functions. In Math Medicine Lab, she performs cell culture and bio-printing to simulate post-printing cancer cells behavior. In the IDEATION Lab, Shadi will focus on computational modeling and developing microfluidic devices to perform experimental analysis for detecting Multiplex cancer biomarkers and quantitative approaches towards cancer treatment. (Co-supervised by Dr. Mohamad Kohandel)
E-mail: svajdi@uwaterloo.ca
HANJIA (SID) ZHENG, PHD STUDENT
Sid is a PhD student at the University of Waterloo working in the IDEATION Lab. She finished her undergrad from the University of Waterloo in biomedical science. Sid has two-terms of research experience in Professor Brian Dixon’s lab at the University of Waterloo to detect antimicrobial activity of a novel antimicrobial peptide (AMP) on rainbow trout macrophages. She also worked in the reproductive toxicology lab to assist a project detecting the effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) on gene imprinting and maturation of F1 hybrid mice oocytes. In the IDEATION lab, she will work on developing microfluidic devices for cancer diagnosis.
E-mail: h96zheng@uwaterloo.ca
SANJANA SRIKANT, MASTER'S STUDENT
Sanjana completed a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Toronto and is now a research assistant at the IDEATION lab at the University of Waterloo. Her research experiences includes developing microfluidic models for analyzing metastatic potential of cancer cells, ELISA-based assays for studying binding behavior of photoactive proteins involved in translation, and developing 3D bile duct epithelia from induced pluripotent stem cells to study bile duct disorders in-vitro. Sanjana is interested in using engineering tools in the healthcare space to foster rapid and early diagnosis of disease and develop personalized therapeutics to improve patient outcomes. In the IDEATION lab, Sanjana is working on using microfluidics and bead based ELISAs to detect and capture physiologically relevant small molecules.
E-mail: Sanjana.srikant@uwaterloo.ca
SUBHAMOY BISWAS, MASTER'S STUDENT
Subhamoy is a Master of Applied Science student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Waterloo. He received his BEng (Honours) degree in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, India. During his undergraduate years, he developed multiple computational frameworks for applications like detecting therapeutic drug targets in viruses and simulating the dynamics of atrial fibrillation. His research interest lies in the domain of computational biology and in applying machine learning approaches to solve state-of-the-art bioengineering problems. In the IDEATION Lab, he is currently developing time-series models for long-term glucose monitoring and forecasting diabetic ketoacidosis in patients.
E-mail: s2biswas@uwaterloo.ca
SALLY YANG, UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT
Sally is a co-op student currently pursuing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Nanotechnology Engineering at the University of Waterloo. She will be assisting Irfani with her work on the development and fabrication of a wearable patch to monitor lucose and ketone levels in patients with Type 1 Diabetes.
