People

Prof. Manohar Bance is the Professor of Otology and Skull Base Surgery at the Universty of Cambridge since 2017. Prior to that he was Prof. and Chair of Otolarynology at Dalhousie University in Canada.
His research interests include optimizing cochlear implants, technology development, surgical outcomes, automated image analysis, new diagnostics, wearable technologies, inner ear pharmokinetics, and developing new hearing and balance therapies. He is clinically and surgically active at in otologic and skull base surgery, vestibular disorders and implants at Cambridge University Hospitals Trust (Addenbrookes) and runs a basic science lab at the Clifford Albutt Building, Biomedical Campus. The Sensory Encoding and Neurosensory Engineering Lab he directs is very multidisciplinary, with cell biologists, physcists, engineers and medical graduates working together on translational problems in hearing, balance and neuroscience topics. He collaborates closely with the other researchers and surgeons in Cambridge, and with Engineering Faculty members, as well as nationally and internationally.
Currently, he is the President-Elect of the Royal Society of Medicine Section of Otology, and also of the British Cochlear Implant Group.
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Simone de Rijk is a PhD student at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. She is supervised by Professor Manohar Bance and Dr. Bob Carlyon. Her research interests include understanding the spread of current from cochlear implants by implanting in, and measuring from, human cadaveric heads. For her PhD project, Simone received a student award from the Baroness de Turckheim fund. Before starting her PhD, she received a BSc and MSc from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Radboud University Nijmegen and is a registered MD in the Netherlands.
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Yi-Lin Yu is a PhD student in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. Under Prof. Manohar Bance’s supervision, he is doing researches on biohybrid neural interface for the restoration sensorineural hearing loss in collaboration with Prof. George Malliaras. Before his PhD, he received his medical degree (M.D.) from the National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan. He completed the training course of residency and chief residency in the Department of Neurological Surgery in Tri-Service General Hospital, Taiwan in 2017. He worked for Tri-Service General Hospital Penghu branch as an attending neurosurgeon from 2017 to 2019.
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Filip Hrncirik is a PhD student in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences focussing on the mechanical aspects of cochlear implant insertion. Filip has an engineering degree in nanomaterials and nanotechnology from the Technical University of Liberec (CZ), where he received a Chancellor Award for his master thesis that elucidated the destiny of nanoparticles within the environment, and a MPhil degree in Micro and Nanotechnology Enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Furthermore, Filip has also deepened his entrepreneurial knowledge with the EnterpriseTECH STAR programme run by the Judge Business School (University of Cambridge).
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Ilkem Sevgili is a PhD student in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. She is working on the cochlea-on-a-chip model, using her skills in cell culture, molecular biology, 3D printing and electrophysiology. Using this model, her ultimate goal is to discover therapeutics to prevent or treat hearing loss and optimize cochlear implant stimulation parameters for a better patient experience. Before starting her PhD, Ilkem completed her MRes in Bioengineering at Imperial College London (Distinction& Best student award) and BSc (Honours& Top-ranking student) in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Gebze Technical University, Turkey.
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Chloe Swords is a Specialist Registrar in ENT surgery and PhD student at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD examines the influence of cochlea anatomy and pathology on cochlear implant current spread, using both cadaveric and 3D-printed models. She is jointly supervised by Professor Manohar Bance (Clinical Neurosciences) and Dr Cecilia Brassett (Physiology, Development and Neuroscience).
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Botian Huang is a PhD student in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge. Under Prof. Manohar Bance’s supervision, he is doing researches on microelectrode arrays (MEAs) for neural interfacing in collaboration with Prof. George Malliaras. Before his PhD, he received his B.E. and M.E. in Electronic Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China in 2017 and 2020, respectively.
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