Our Team
We have a mixture of highly skilled scientists, finance and support staff. We all work together to make best use of the funding we receive such that maximum resource goes into our science.
They all bring a wealth of experience to RAFT, passionate about making a difference to the lives of patients who have suffered major physical trauma.
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[profile_image src=”https://raft.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Prasad-Sawadkar6-e1502357019575.jpg” type=”rounded” title=”Dr Prasad Sawadkar, PhD, MRSB” text=”Postdoctoral Research Associate” button=”View Profile” style=”text-color:#fff;” window=”new” link=”” button_size=”md”]
Dr. Prasad Sawadkar joined the RAFT team in June 2016 as our Postdoctoral Research Associate for the Breast Reconstruction After Cancer programme. He is working on developing novel breast implants seeded with adipose derived stem cells to improve breast reconstruction surgery for women after undergoing mastectomy or lumpectomy. Prasad is seconded full time to the Griffin Institute.
After completing his PhD in Surgery from University College London (UCL), Prasad completed an intensive training course in clinical trials from Harvard Medical School. Prasad was a Visiting Scientist at the UCL Division of Surgery in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine.
More details on Prasad’s scientific career, publications and collaborators can be found by clicking on the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Prasad_Sawadkar
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[profile_image src=”https://raft.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Nazanin-Owji14-e1502356850796.jpg” type=”rounded” title=”Dr Nazanin Owji, MSc,PHD” text=”POST-DOCTORAL SCIENTIST” button=”View Profile” style=”text-color:#fff;” window=”new” link=”” button_size=”md”]
Dr Nazanin Owji is a Post-Doctoral Scientist part of the Regenerative Biomaterials Research Group working in collaboration with University College London. Nazanin is working on our bone regeneration programme.
Nazanin joined RAFT as PhD student in April 2016 after completing her MSc in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at UCL, which was followed by working as a Research Assistant in the craniofacial group at UCL (Institute of Child Health) and as Editorial Assistant at UCL Science, Medicine and Society Network. She carried out her PhD at The Eastman Dental Institute (UCL) on the development of a 3D Printable Composite for Maxillofacial applications. Nazanin completed her PhD in 2020.
Nazanin has research experience in Tissue Engineering, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Tissue Modelling and Unit Operation Techniques.
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[profile_image src=”https://raft.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Shakouri-Taleen-2-e1540478297376.jpg” type=”rounded” title=”Taleen Shakouri , BSc” text=”PhD student” button=”View Profile” style=”text-color:#fff;” window=”new” link=”” button_size=”md”]
Taleen Shakouri is a PhD student in the Department of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering at University College London. Taleen is part of the Regenerative Biomaterials Group and her research project will be focused on the development of a new composite material specifically for 3D printing to create a custom-fit facial implant.
Prior to this PhD position she undertook a BSc in Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Hertfordshire where her research focused on building computational models to predict the binding of drug molecules to enzymes in the body. In addition to computational chemistry, Taleen has research experience in Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Biochemistry, and molecular biology.
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[profile_image src=”https://raft.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Elena-Garcia-4-e1509439012428.jpg” type=”rounded” title=”Dr Elena Garcia, BSc, BSc, MSc, PhD” text=”Director of Research” button=”View Profile” style=”text-color:#fff;” window=”new” link=”” button_size=”md”]
Elena is the RAFT’s Director of Research and the Group Leader for the Regenerative Biomaterials group, leading work on novel application-specific, tissue engineering and biomaterial therapies for tissue regeneration.
Dr Elena Garcia joined RAFT in November 2011, after completing her PhD at University College London on tissue regeneration and regenerative medicine. She initially joined as Post-Doctoral Scientist, later as Science Team Leader and since April 2017 as Director of Research. Elena is an honours PhD/MSc/BSc/BSc scientist with over 15 years research experience in tissue engineering, biomaterials, stem cells, cell culture, biochemistry and analytical chemistry. Her research background includes the biotechnology, academic and not-for-profit sectors.
Currently, Elena is based at The Griffin Institute (Northwick Park and Saint Mark’s Hospitals, London) and is responsible for supervising all our programmes, whether at Griffin or UCL. In addition she is responsible for the general scientific development at RAFT
More details on Elena’s scientific career, publications and collaborators can be found at:
https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/elena-garcia/3/7b4/6aa/
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elena_Garcia-Gareta/
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[profile_image src=”https://raft.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Nick-L-3-e1525955739635.jpg” type=”rounded” title=”Nick Latham” text=”Finance & Operations Director” button=”View Profile” style=”text-color:#fff;” window=”new” link=”” button_size=”md”]
Nick joined joined RAFT in 2018 and is responsible for the finance function and back office support. Nick is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in a variety of real estate environments and more recently in the not for profit sector, including strategic philanthropy and disability. He has a degree in Engineering from the University of Leicester .
Nick is a Trustee and Treasurer of a local Mencap charity and is mentoring an exciting start-up charity. He was a governor at a school for young people with special needs and involved for a number of years in the design, construction and relocation to inspirational new premises.
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