About Us | Hashemi Lab

Our team is a diverse group of scientists and engineers, taking innovative approaches to understanding the basic science of mental health.

We are committed to staying at the forefront of bioengineering research and continuously improving our technology to meet the evolving needs of the field. Our interdisciplinary approach allows us to take a comprehensive view of complex biological problems and develop innovative solutions that can make a real-world impact.

Meet the Team

Principle Investigator

Parastoo (Parry) Hashemi

Parry received her MSci degree in Chemistry from King's College, London. She performed her PhD with Martyn Boutelle in the Department of Bioengineering in Imperial College, London where she developed online biosensing technology to measure brain metabolites from human traumatic brain injury patients. After her PhD she skipped over the pond to Chapel Hill, NC in the States where she worked with Mark Wightman. Here she learned fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) at carbon-fiber microelectrodes (CFMs) and developed the first method to measure serotonin in vivo using FSCV.

After almost 15 years in the States, Parry and her team are back at Imperial, tackling some of the world's most pertinent issues with analytical engineering and have a long list of accolades attesting to their success. Outside of her work and her family, Parry is a flautist and singer in the Gastric Band, a life-long yogi and passionate about increasing representation in STEM. She is the founder of the James West PhD Scholarships for Black and Black heritage students.

Graduate Student

Brenna Parke

Brenna received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Iowa in 2018 and her Master’s in Chemistry from the University of South Carolina in 2020. Brenna joined the lab in 2018 for her master’s work and continued with us for her PhD in bioengineering at Imperial College London. Her highly collaborative research focuses on pioneering FSCV measurements in many cell types including: skin, hair and insulin-secreting cells. As a die-hard Iowa fan in London, she enjoys staying up late to watch Hawkeye games, as well as reading, traveling, yoga, and spending a lot of time with her friends.

Graduate Student

Melissa Hexter

Melissa received her B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2017 and received her masters in biotechnology from the University of Maryland, global campus in 2019 while working for the Department of Defense as a method development chemist. Melissa joined the lab in fall 2019 for her PhD in bioengineering at Imperial College in London. Her research focus is the optimization of in vitro calibration for FSCV and the characterization of serotonin dynamics in hIPSCs via FSCV. Melissa spends most of her free time lifting heavy weights at the gym.

Graduate Student

Lauren Batey

Lauren attended the University of South Carolina earning a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 2019. She is currently a PhD student in Bioengineering in the Hashemi Lab at Imperial College in London where she is developing new ways to study ambient histamine in the brain. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, painting, yoga, and above all else, cuddling with her beloved dog Wesley.

Graduate Student

Sergio Mena

Sergio received his bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from the Polytechnical University of Valencia, Spain. After that, he moved to the United Kingdom to gain his master's in bioengineering: medical physics from Imperial College London. He is currently a PhD student in bioengineering at the Hashemi lab, where he is working on developing new technology platforms for the study of serotonin’s role in mood disorders. In his spare time, Sergio enjoys hiking, travelling, coding random algorithms and play basketball.

Graduate Student

Beatrice Baumberger

Beatrice is a former Student-Athlete at Boston University with a BS in Bioengineering and an MSc from Imperial College London. After working in consulting and data analytics for three years, she realised her passion and redirected her career towards what motivates her the most: helping others through scientific research. She is eager to push the boundaries to drive innovation in the field of women's and mental health. She is currently a PhD candidate in the department of bioengineering in the Hashemi Lab with a strong interest in neurotechnology. She is working on optimising the diagnostic process of mental illnesses through the development of electrochemical sensors.

Post Doc

Bettina Bohl

Bettina received her M.Sc. in Biochemistry from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena in Germany and went on joining the lab of Philipp Koch in Bonn and Mannheim for her PhD. Here she stepped into the emerging field of iPSC-research focussing on neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. After a first postdoc at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen, Bettina joined the lab in October 2022 as a visiting researcher. Her research will focus on modelling depression in a dish using human iPSC-derived cells and linking the pathology to neuroinflammatory processes. In her free time she likes to go to the gym or play football, to have an excuse to enjoy a really good meal (home-cooked or else) and a glass of wine afterwards.

Graduate Student

Tomas Andriuskevicius

Tomas graduated from King’s College London in 2021, having completed an MSci degree in Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence. He then pursued an MSc degree in Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, where he worked on the application of artificial neural networks in classifying serotonin data obtained through fast-scan cyclic voltammetry. Alongside his studies, he also gained 3 years of industry experience as a software engineer. Currently, Tomas is pursuing a PhD project that involves examining the relationship between monoamine levels in skin or hair cells and those in the central nervous system with the aim of promoting mental health. The project is being funded by an iCASE award from the EPSRC, with the support of Proctor & Gamble.

Graduate Student

Anna Rhodes

Anna received her MEng in Molecular Bioengineering from Imperial College London in 2022. She is currently a PhD student in Bioengineering in the Hashemi and Higgins Labs, where she will explore the nature of hair follicle innervation and pursue interdisciplinary solutions to control follicular neurotransmitter release to promote mental wellbeing via the skin-brain axis.

Graduate Student

Naima Adan

Naima holds a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Sciences and a Master's degree in Bioengineering from Imperial College London, and is currently pursuing a PhD in the Hashemi lab. Her research focuses on the intricate relationship between the gut, brain, and skin. Additionally, she possesses a keen interest in neurotechnology, which drives her to expand her knowledge and contribute to the cutting-edge developments in this field.