Mirela Alistar
Assistant Professor
ATLAS Institute

Also affiliated with the ATLAS Institute

Research interests: Digital microfluidics, biochips, personal medicine, DIYBio

Mirela investigates the extent to which we can change healthcare to make it a personal process. Her research focuses around microfluidic biochips, devices that enable direct interaction of humans with their microbiome for diagnosis purposes. So far, Mirela has built systems based on biochips to serve as personal laboratories: small portable devices that people can own and use to develop customized bio-protocols ("bio-apps").

Mirela is an active contributor to the DIYBio movement, having led and co-founded community wetlabs. In this context, she organizes interactive performances, art installations and open workshops, in order to engage the public in direct interaction with living materials (e.g., bacteria, viruses, fungi).

Mirela received her PhD from the Technical University of Denmark and was postdoc in Patrick Baudish's lab at Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany. She will be an assistant professor at CU Boulder starting in 2019.