Meet the team!

Prof. Nako Nakatsuka

Nako  is a tenure track assistant professor at the Neuro-X Institute at EPFL. She was raised in Tokyo, Japan and moved to the U.S.A. for her Bachelor’s in Chemistry at Fordham University (Bronx, NY) and pursued her Ph.D. at UCLA (Los Angeles, CA). Upon receiving the prestigious ETH Zürich postdoctoral fellowship, she moved to Zürich, Switzerland and after her postdoc, remained as a senior scientist at the Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics. She led a team focused on interfacing DNA-based receptors called aptamers with nanoscale electronic biosensors to detect small molecules such as neurotransmitters. For this work, she was named an MIT Under 35 Pioneer in 2021, received the iCanX Young Scientist award in 2022, and the ACS Nano Lectureship award and Prix Zonta in 2023. She has mentored over 40 B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. students at the ETH Zürich.

Prof. Nakatsuka is also passionate about social justice, outreach, and education. She was awarded the Norma Stoddart Prize for Academic Excellence and Outstanding Citizenship in for her contributions in community outreach in Los Angeles combined with her scientific achievements. She also received the Hanson-Dow Excellence in Teaching Award for her exceptional teaching and dedication to students during her Ph.D at UCLA. She was an active member of the Diversity Team at ETH and contributed to initiatives that raised awareness and sparked discussions about anti-discrimination within Switzerland. She has also illustrated a children’s chemistry book: “A is for Atom: ABCs for Aspiring Chemists”.

Jessica Empain

Jessica studied German languages and literature at the University of Liège, and photography at SisA in Antwerp, Belgium. She traveled and worked throughout Europe both as an admin assistant and a French teacher for about 20 years, enjoying discovering new places, people, languages, and mentalities.

Jessica landed in Geneva in 2019, where she now works partially as a French teacher and as an admin assistant in EPFL.

At EPFL, she feels incredibly lucky to work in a multicultural environment, surrounded with good hearted/minded people. She likes that the word “assistant” takes its full meaning and is not only related to administration.

Emily Schafer

Emily is a postdoctoral fellow in the CHEMINA lab originally from the United States (Grand Rapids, MI). She received her Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering & Neuroscience in 2018 from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) where her interest in research began, helping to build organ-on-chip devices for studying breast cancer metastasis to the brain. She then earned her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 2022 and 2024, respectively, in the Laboratory for Organic & Hybrid Bioelectronics under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Rivnay. During her Ph.D., her research combined advances from the fields of bioelectronics and synthetic biology to develop sensors to measure ions and neurotransmitters. Emily received the prestigious Neuro-X Postdoctoral Fellowship from EPFL for a collaborative project with the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces (LSBI) that aims to create aptamer-integrated flexible electronics for dual chemical and electrical sensing.

Outside of the lab, Emily has long held passions for education, science communication, and science policy. She is a strong advocate for building scientific literacy amongst non-scientists and her favorite experiences doing this have included hosting a science podcast, giving science talks at local senior homes, and even teaching the “magic” of science at Comic-Con. She credits the influence of organizations like the Science Polic Outreach Taskforce (SPOT) at Northwestern University and the National Science Policy Network (NSPN) in helping her build these passions and hopes to have a career as a scientist that makes science more impactful and accessible.

Jokubas Surgailis

Jokubas Surgailis completed his undergraduate studies in the University of Glasgow in Electronics and Electrical Engineering and recently finished his PhD in n-type mixed conductor operation in aqueous media for bioelectronic applications in King Abdullah University of Science and Technology. Now, Jokubas has joined the CHEMINA Lab at EPFL as a new postdoc, with the goal of combining his experience in engineering and bioelectronic materials to advance the frontiers of biomedical sensing platforms for detecting the biomarkers of neurodegenerative conditions, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Annina Stuber

Annina is pursuing her PhD between the Laboratory of Biosensors and Bioelectronics (LBB) at ETH Zürich and the CHEMINA Lab at EPFL. She was born in Zürich but was raised in the U.S.A. She moved back to Switzerland at the age of 14 and completed her schooling in Lausanne. Annina did her bachelor’s in Life Science Technologies and then her master’s in Life Science Engineering, both at EPFL. She did one year of internships in different start-ups in the Netherlands, and did her master’s thesis at LBB, where she then continued with her PhD, working on aptamer-based neurotransmitter sensing. Her current projects focus on creating chemical sensors capable of measuring neurotransmitters, which could be deployed for diagnosis or monitoring of various neurodegenerative diseases.

Throughout her university studies, she was very active in different student associations and extracurricular activities. She played the cello in different orchestras, as well as being involved in a student association called “Ingénieurs du monde” (Engineers of the world). In this association, she was responsible for creating internships in low-income and economically developing countries (both in university settings or companies) for engineering students from various fields, studying at EPFL.

Nick Mahtani

Nick joined CHEMINA as a PhD student in January 2024, focusing on developing tools to interface with in-vitro models for the purpose of studying neuronal communication. He is driven to research in this field because of his fascination by the beautifully engineered design of the human body and a desire to reduce pain caused by diseases and disorders. Previously, he earned his master’s in Life Sciences Engineering at EPFL and he completed his thesis on engineering porous hydrogels for tendon tissue regeneration at the Mooney Lab of Cell and Tissue Engineering. Nick loves listening to audiobooks and might potentially hold the world record for the most number of listens to the Harry Potter audiobooks. He also loves to ski, dance, and play the guitar.

Lianxin Xu

With a passion for translating scientific breakthroughs into real-world benefits for the patients, Lianxin joined the CHEMINA Lab as a PhD student in April 2024. He will work on the development of novel nanoscale biosensors for the real-time monitoring of neurotransmitters. Hailing from China, he pursued his bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the cooperation program between East China University of Science and Technology and TU Clausthal in Germany and continued his master’s program in Chemical Engineering at Technical University of Munich (TUM). At TUM, he completed his master’s thesis in the Chair of Bioseparation Engineering, focusing on the application of nanoparticles in magnetic bioseparation. Besides that, he completed an industrial internship at Roche Basel and a research internship at NSEL, ETH Zürich. In his free time, Lianxin delights in exploring various sports, experimenting with diverse recipes, and immersing himself in the wonders of nature.

Sandra Hernández Escobar

Sandra is currently pursuing her PhD at the CHEMINA lab at EPFL. Originally from Madrid, she studied Materials Science Engineering, which sparked her curiosity for biomaterials and motivated her to pursue the Life Sciences Engineering Master at EPFL. Throughout her time at EPFL, she has taken on teaching roles and developed an interest in neuro applications.

Sandra is passionate about advancing medical devices towards the clinics. Beyond academics, she is an sports enthusiast, often spending her weekends climbing or trail running in the mountains.

Alexandra Banbanaste

Alexandra is a PhD student at the CHEMINA Laboratory, originally from Lyon. She completed her undergraduate studies at CPE Lyon School of Chemical Engineering. In between her studies, she worked for a year at Origenis GmbH, a pharmaceutical company in Munich, where she synthesized and characterized novel small kinase inhibitors. She then undertook a three-month summer internship at the Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Materials (LMOM) at EPFL, studying a type of nucleating agent that helps increase the crystallization rate in polymer blends. She continued at EPFL for her semester exchange, followed by her Master’s thesis at the Laboratory for Biomolecular Modeling (LBM), where she used a deep learning model to generate new protein sequences and subsequently test their stability, thermostability, and structural behavior using X-Ray crystallography. Her current project focuses on developing a chemical biosensor to better understand neurotransmitter interplay in Parkinson’s disease.

To bridge her passions for science and art, Alexandra also engages in scientific illustration to help scientists better communicate their research. She offers services creating cover papers, 2D and 3D visuals, figure abstracts, and website illustrations. Alexandra is also an avid tennis player, climber, and runner in her free time!

(portfolio: https://alexandrabanbanaste.com)

Maïlys Bayer

Maïlys is currently pursuing her master’s thesis at CHEMINA laboratory. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Physics engineering at Grenoble-INP Phelma in France. She then pursued an international master’s degree in micro and nanotechnologies at Grenoble-INP Phelma (France), Politenico di Torino (Italy), and EPFL. As part of her academic journey, she completed an industrial internship at GE Healthcare Buc (France) where she gained a valuable experience in the biomedical field.
During the last year of her studies, she gained a strong interest in the neuroscience field and sought to bridge the gap between nanoscience and neuroscience. To pursue this goal, she joined the lab to work on integrating aptamers into a focal molography biosensor to detect neurotransmitters.

Outside of work she is found of freeride skiing and outdoor sports, and likes to play the violin. She also has a strong interest for mental health related topics.