Beyond Antibiotics Team showcases research at the 2025 Institute of Biomedical Engineering Open Day

2025 IBME Open Day demonstrations in the Richard Doll Building at the University of Oxford

On Thursday March 13, the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME) at the University of Oxford hosted its annual Open day with short seminars and demonstrations covering the wide-ranging impactful work performed within the biomedical research clusters. Sixty-seven students from 21 schools across England attended the event. Of these, eight schools were located in Oxfordshire, five in London, as well as, Reading, Rugby, Kent, Surrey, Chichester, Christchurch in Dorset, and Hertfordshire. Some students travelled over two hours to attend the event.

Over the course of the day, students watched 9 hands-on demonstrations and attended 5 lectures delivered by IBME faculty and their teams of researchers. Topics included healing with ultrasound, tissue repair and regeneration, machine learning in global health, preventing sports injuries with better protective helmets, and bridging the gap between technological innovation, medicine and science entrepreneurship.

As part of the event, Beyond Antibiotics Co-Investigator Prof. Robin Cleveland and researchers Dr Veerle Brans and Victoria Chris showcased their research during two demonstrations and a talk.

Dr Veerle Brans and Victoria Chris preparing their demonstration with poster, ultrasound set up, bacterial visualisations, and handouts for students.

Dr Veerle Brans and Victoria Chris taught students about treating bacterial infections with sound and microbubbles. Their demonstration explained antimicrobial resistance and how it spreads, and how biofilms protect bacteria from antibiotics. The team also demonstrated how high-frequency ultrasound can cause cavitation and heating and facilitates drug penetration into bacterial biofilms.

Post-doctoral researcher, Dr Veerle Brans, and doctoral student, Victoria Chris, during their demonstration, “Sound and Microbubbles: A New Way to Treat Bacterial Infections.”

Prof. Robin Cleveland, Professor of Engineering Science and Fellow of Magdalen College, gave a talk on “Healing with sound: the physics of therapeutic ultrasound” and a demonstration on “Laser Lithotripsy: Breaking Kidney Stones with Light.”  The presentations explained how both ultrasonic energy and laser energy can be delivered into the body in order to treat medical conditions.

Prof. Robin Cleveland during his demonstration “Laser Lithotripsy: Breaking Kidney Stones with Light.”

At the end of the day, students walked away with an overview of the different types of research conducted at the IBME, an understanding of the real-world problems solved by this research, and an understanding of the different career paths and routes of entry available to faculty and researchers in biomedical engineering. Prof. Robin Cleveland explained to students that “there are many career paths into biomedical engineering and there are no closed doors.”

A key learning outcome of the event was increased student understanding of biomedical engineering as a possible and interesting career path that applies STEM learning to solve concrete challenges and improve healthcare. Following the event, one student shared, “I was previously only interested in medicine. Now I am also considering biomedical engineering because I am good at maths and physics.”