Dr. Isabella Fiorello is a Junior Group Leader at the Cluster of Excellence Living, Adaptive and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems (livMatS) of the University of Freiburg, leading the Biohybrid Machines group. Since October 2023, she has been a Fulbright Scholar at the California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California). She received a Master’s Degree in Industrial Biotechnology (with honors) from the University of Turin (Italy) in 2017 and a PhD in Biorobotics (with honors) from Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna (Pisa, Italy) in 2021. From 2021 to 2023, she worked as Postdoc in the Bioinspired Soft Robotics Laboratory of Italian Institute of Technology (Genoa, Italy) in the group of Director Barbara Mazzolai. During her scientific career, she received prestigious grants and awards, such as Young Researcher of the Year - ENI Award 2022, Early Career National Geographic Grant and Fulbright Grant. Her research aims at the development of biologically-inspired microfabricated living materials able to precisely interact with complex unstructured surfaces for applications in precision agriculture, smart fabrics, space and soft robotics.

Yuanquan Liu received her bachelor's degree in Packaging Engineering in 2020 and her master's degree in Materials and Chemical Engineering from Nanjing Forestry University in 2023. She joined the Fiorello team in May 2024 as a PhD student. Her research aims to develop plant-inspired biohybrid materials that can be used in small bionic soft robots.

David Schultz has over 15 years experience in the field of metal-working industry. He has a bachelor professional of metal production and management. He joined the Fiorello group as technical assistant in April 2024, where he supports the group in the field of purchasing and maintenance of the laboratories.