About Us
Through a unique combination of science and software,
AquAffirm helps customers manage ‘black swan’ risk:
unpredictable events with severe consequences.
AquAffirm’s core focus is applying its digital expertise to
map global threats, especially those threats where
achieving an understanding of geographic and temporal
variation is critical.
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the need to use and
understand science to manage risk.
Together with its subsidiary technology development
company, Bio Nano Consulting, AquAffirm has over a
decade of experience in helping organisations manage
risk, from contaminated drinking water to global
pandemics, and this extensive intellectual expertise is
available to help your organisation manage the risks of
today and tomorrow.
History
Since its establishment in 2007, Bio Nano Consulting,
has been providing international project management,
product development and innovation consultancy
services to clients from industry, academia, and
government.
With deep expertise in sensor development, medical
diagnostics, nanomaterials and digital software
development, the team is ideally placed to provide
consultancy for a broad range of technologies.
Historically, BNC has provided fee-for-service
consultancy and assistance in fields ranging from
biosensing and photonics to nanomaterials and photo-
catalysis. We continue to provide consultancy in these
areas while offering additional consultancy support in
digital platform development and user interface design.
Board
Management Team
Digital Team
Scientific Team
Director of Software Development
Robert obtained his PhD in Medical Image Computing
from Imperial College in 2003. He specialised in Patient
Specific Modelling of Left Ventricular Morphology and
Flow using Magnetic Resonance Imaging and
Computational Fluid Dynamics. He has had significant
impact in the field of medical image computing. He has
authored the medical imaging software CMRtools that
has been used for cardiac assessment in over 100,000
patients worldwide. The software allows the viewing
and analysis of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance images and
provides specialist assessment of cardiac morphology
and function. He was responsible for regulatory
approval of the software and attained FDA510(k)
approval and a Class I CE Mark to allow the software to
be used for clinical diagnosis in US and Europe. The
software has been used in over 100 peer-reviewed
research publications since 2003.
Software Developer
Philip obtained his undergraduate degree from the
Department of Mathematics at Imperial College.
Continuing at the College, he studied for a PhD in the
Neural Systems Engineering Group within the
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
For over 13 years he subsequently worked as a
quantitative analyst at a number of top-tier investment
banks. Following a change in career, he was appointed
Senior Research Fellow at the Hamlyn Centre for
Robotic Surgery, Imperial College, and more recently
within the Department of Surgery and Cancer, and now
undertakes a very active research programme in the
field of image-guided surgery. He has successfully
translated new technology and software into clinical
practice.
Dr David Sarphie
CEO
One of AquAffirm’s founders, Dr David Sarphie is a biotechnology entrepreneur with over
25 years experience in project management, senior management and CEO positions within
technology and innovation development companies.
Prior to his association with AquAffirm and its subsidiary, Bio Nano Consulting, Dr Sarphie
was CEO of Oxford MediStress, spearheading the founding of the Oxford spin-out
developing a novel blood test for stress. He remains an Executive Advisor with the
company.
Prior to this he was Executive Advisor for BioExec Ventures, a Boston-based biotechnology
consultancy. Prior to BioExec Ventures he was CEO of The Acrobot Company, a London-
based medical technology start-up, which is developing novel robotic technologies for
minimally-invasive orthopaedic surgery. Dr Sarphie developed the initial commercial and
development strategies and wrote the business plan for Acrobot, leading a $1.6M equity
financing.
Prior to Acrobot, Dr Sarphie was a co-founder of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals, a UK
company focused on developing needle-free drug delivery technologies and a co-inventor
of the original technology. While at PowderJect, he was founder and managing director of
Progenica Ltd, a PowderJect spin-out company developing novel diagnostic applications of
PowderJect technology. Dr Sarphie created the initial development plan for Progenica,
secured the funding from the parent company and spearheaded the clinical assessment of
initial product opportunities. Progenica was acquired by US vaccine manufacturer Chiron as
part of the acquisition of PowderJect Pharmaceuticals in 2003.
Dr. Sarphie holds a D.Phil. in Medical Engineering from Oxford University, an MSc in
Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from
the University of Notre Dame.
Nanda Rahman
Office & Project Manager and PA to CEO
Nanda has worked in office management for over 10 years and ensures the smooth day to
day running of the BNC office. Her responsibilities within BNC have included project
managing the Nanomicrowave Marie Curie ITN project and also cover HR, IT, office and
financial management functions, including invoicing and supplier management.
Before joining BNC, previous roles included I.T. administration & Technical co-coordination.
Nanda has a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from Middlesex University.
Prof Gabriel Aeppli FRS
Director
Gabriel Aeppli is professor of physics at ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne, and head of
the Synchrotron and Nanotechnology department of the Paul Scherrer Institute, also
in Switzerland.
After taking his B.Sc., M.Sc. and PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT, he spent the
majority of his career in industry (NEC, AT&T and IBM) where he worked on problems
ranging from liquid crystals to magnetic data storage. He was subsequently co-
founder and director of the London Centre for Nanotechnology, Quain Professor at
University College London, and cofounder of the Bio-Nano Consulting. He is a
frequent advisor to numerous private and public entities worldwide (including China,
Australia, Europe and the US) engaged in the funding, evaluation and management of
technology. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Fellow of
the Royal Society (London), he was a recipient of the Mott Prize of the Institute of
Physics(London), the Oliver Buckley prize of the American Physical Society and the
Neel Medal/International Magnetism Prize.
His current technical focus is on the implications of photon science and
nanotechnology for information processing and health care.
Prof Tony Cass FRSC
Director
Tony Cass is currently Professor of Chemical Biology, in the Department of Chemistry
at Imperial College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He trained
originally as a chemist with degrees from the Universities of York and Oxford. He
pioneered the use of synthetic electron transfer mediators for enzyme biosensors and
his work in this area led to the development of the first electronic blood glucose
measuring system, commercialized by MediSense Inc. (now part of Abbott
Diagnostics), and the award of the Royal Society’s Mullard Medal (along with Professor
HAO Hill FRS and Dr MJ Green).
Most of his current research is focused on using engineered proteins and peptides as
well as nucleic acid aptamers with micro-and nano-structured materials and devices
for both clinical and high throughput analysis. His research also includes the
development of new nanomaterials based proteomic methods and sensor
technologies for stem cell bioreactors. He has published over 100 papers and edited 3
books. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and
the Universiti of Teknologi Malaysia.
In addition to his academic research, he has been a member of several Research
Council Committees, and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of StabiliTech
Ltd, PlastiCell Ltd. and INSPIRE (Irish Nanotechnology Consortium), as well as
consulting for European and North American biotechnology, intellectual property
diagnostics and investment companies.
.
About us
Next Generation Water Technologies
About us
Next Generation Water Technologies
Vishal Sanchania
Director
Vishal is a Principal Consultant at PA consulting. He has a passion from enabling and
commercialising technologies that can benefit humanity. He was previously Head of
Biology at Synthace limited, where he has experience in combining biology and
software to demonstrate the impact it can have on industrial biotechnology. Vishal
has a PhD in Biotechnology and BSc in Biochemistry.
Dr Hanadi Hassan-Nixon
Chief Scientist
Dr Hanadi Hassan-Nixon graduated from Imperial
College London with a PhD degree in Biochemistry, and
Plant Pathology. Continuing at the college with her first
postdoc at the department of Biochemistry, working in
the epidemiology of ergot disease in South Africa, she
decided to divert her research interest towards the
biology and chemistry interface, integrating chemical
nanotechnology and protein engineering techniques to
develop non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring
biosensor in collaboration with Becton and Dickinson.
After a career break raising a young family, she was
awarded a Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowship in 2014.
She returned to the Chemical Biology group at the
department of Chemistry, Imperial College London as a
Senior Research Fellow, collaborating with clinicians at
St Mary’s hospital to work on asthma diagnosis. During
the fellowship, her research project focussed on
developing an impedimetric electrochemical biosensor
to attain numerical information on metabolic analytes
and to develop a point of care sensing device for
respiratory diseases.
Her research interests are in the field of developing
diagnostic devices for quantitative measurement of
environmental pollutants or disease related
metabolites, with a main interest on Cytokines.
Dr Amin Haghighatbin
Head of Biosensors Development
Dr Amin Haghighatbin graduated from La Trobe University
(Melbourne, Australia) with a PhD Degree in Chemistry
(Electroanalytical Chemistry), where he studied novel inorganic
electrochemiluminophores for chemical and biochemical sensing
applications, as well as portable electrochemiluminescence (ECL)-
based sensing devices. He pursued his research as a postdoctoral
researcher at La Trobe University, evaluating the electrochemical
properties of FRET-based donor-acceptor inorganic metal
complexes, along with the design and fabrication of
electrochemical sensors for bioanalytical purposes in point-of-
care (POC) devices.
He was awarded the Chinese Academy of Science President’s
International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) and embarked on a
journey of international collaboration and research excellence at
the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) as a
postdoctoral fellow. His fellowship studies mainly focused on the
design and fabrication of electrochemical sensors and microfluidic
devices for POC applications, with a particular emphasis on
electrochemical sensors for cardiac biomarker analysis in
cardiovascular diseases, specifically acute myocardial infarction
(AMI). Later on, in response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic,
he shifted his research focus towards the development of
immunoassays and aptasensors for the early diagnosis of SARS-
CoV-2 viral infections.
His research interests and areas of expertise span from the
engineering of immunoassays and aptamer-based
electrochemical sensors for analytical applications to the design
and implementation of analog circuitries for electrochemical
wearable and handheld devices.
Kiran Matthews
Lab Scientist
Kiran Matthews, graduated from University College London with
a MSc in Bioscience Innovation & Enterprise, specialising in a
dessertation that analysed the commercialisation potential of
‘Next Generation Tissue Engineered Heart Valves using Bacterial
Nanocellulose’.
He has hands-on experience with various electrochemical
analytical tools, utilising them for designing, characterising and
enhancing biosensors. His experise extends to skilled data
analysis, alongside strategic planning of experimental
investications for effective product development.
Dr Daniel Carroll
Senior Scientist in Electrochemisty
Dr Daniel Carroll earned his undergraduate degree in Chemistry
from University College Dublin before completing his PhD in
Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.
His research focuses on surface- and electrochemistry, with an
emphasis on developing novel electrochemical biosensing
platforms.