Özkale Edelmann studied Chemical Engineering at Istanbul Technical University for her undergraduate education (2005-2009). She received her Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering at ETH Zürich (2009-2011) where she earned her PhD in 2016. She carried out her doctoral work in the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab and focused her research on small scale robotics for biomedical applications. Following her PhD, she briefly worked as a postdoctoral fellow simultaneously at the Multi-Scale Robotics Lab (ETH Zürich) and the MicroBioRobotics Systems Laboratory (EPFL). In 2016, she was awarded with an Early Postdoc Mobility Grant by the Swiss National Science Foundation to conduct her postdoctoral research in the Mooney Lab for Cell and Tissue Engineering at Harvard University (2017-2020). The project centered on engineering microscale actuators for investigating stem cell mechanobiology. Berna Özkale Edelmann joined TUM in 2021 as tenure track assistant professor and founded the Microrobotic Bioengineering Lab, MRBL.

TUM Profile

Philipp Harder studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich for his bachelor’s degree in physical Geography with the focus on climate change and geological deposits (2014-2018). After his interconnected bachelor thesis with the Geography and Mineralogy departments from the LMU, he started the master’s program Geomaterials and Geochemistry at the Technische Universität München (TUM) and LMU (2018-2020). There his focus lied on different analytical methods in material characterisation for Geo- and Biomaterials, Biophysics and Material Science. The focus of the master thesis was on the material characterization of the high temperature shape memory alloy (Co-Ni-Ga) using neutron diffraction data. Philipp Harder joined the TUM in 2021 for his PhD work at MRBL under the supervision of Berna Özkale Edelmann. 

Chen received his Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering at University of Siegen. In 2021, he completed his Master in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Technical University of Munich, where his master thesis focused on the multi-scale electrochemical and mechanical modeling of electrode active materials (lithium-manganese-oxide and graphite). Furthermore, he had project experiences involving Finite-Element-Method modeling, 3D bioprinting technologies, and electrochemical characterization. After completing his Master’s degree, Chen started as a PhD student at the MRBL, working on the development of soft nano- and microactuators for applications in the biomedical field. 

Nergishan Iyisan gained her bachelor´s degree at Istanbul Technical University with a double major in Molecular Biology & Genetics and Chemical Engineering programs (2013-2018). While her bachelor thesis in Molecular Biology and Genetics focused on protein engineering in transgenic microorganisms, her Chemical Engineering bachelor thesis was based on optimization of controlled drug release from biopolymer hydrogel matrices. Following her BSc, she started studying for her MSc in Chemical Engineering at the same university where she worked on separate projects related to designing self-healing hydrogel wound dressings and designing a 3D matrix media for micro- and super micro anastomosis to be used in plastic surgery (2019-2021). Nergishan joined MRBL at TUM as a PhD candidate in 2021. She is conducting research on stem cell encapsulation and active biomaterials.