Ruxandra Cocu, a second-year student in biomedical engineering enrolled in Queen Mary Centre for Undergraduate Research (QMCUR) has secured a RS Student Fund to start a project on the development of oxygenation membranes for wearable artificial lungs that could make respiratory support more accessible outside hospital intensive care units.

Ruxandra’s innovative design is based on a multi-layer composite membrane purposefully engineered to enable oxygen intake and CO2 expulsion. Her long-term plan is to fabricate the composite membranes with an optimized hierarchical structure to achieve optimum flows conditions, and to evaluate of gas transfer performance, blood-material interaction, and long-term stability of the device.

The plan appears highly challenging and ambitious, but very exciting from a scientific and technological perspective, given its multidisciplinary character and potential to acquire a valuable know-how and capabilities for the development of advanced respiratory aids.

The project will be directly supervised by Dr Colin Crick and supported by QMCUR.

Huge congratulations to Ruxandra, and best of luck to her for a successful project!