ABOUT
BFKLab is a start-up company specialising in developing customised hardware and software solutions. The mission of BFK is to provide researchers with easy-to-use and all-in-one solutions to facilitate their missions by offering R&D resources.
BFKLab is composed of three distinct entities
Scientific advice
Hardware R&D
Software R&D
BFK is located in Hertford, 1hour north of London. We operate worldwide and have collaborations with several institutes across the world.
TEAM
Nicholas Burczyk
Co-Director
Hardware Designer
Nick is a research engineer. During his career, he developed novel scientific equipment to advance medical research using emerging rapid prototyping as well as classic manufacturing techniques. He specialises in multidisciplinary R&D, designing hardware and software, and system integration with commercial products.
Previous projects have included developing high throughput robotic systems for tissue capture and storage, development of a multitude of mechanical and optical systems (including pneumatic and microfluidics) at SWC. Nick has also worked on collaborative projects to provide solutions from concept design to fabrication for scientists at NIMR. He has extensive knowledge and skills in 3D design, 3D printing, ISO drawing and CNC machine design. Finally, Nick worked at Ocado as a project manager.
MSc. in Bioscience Technology, University of York (2012)
BA Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Trinity College Dublin (2011)
Richard Faville
(PhD)
Lead Software
Developer
Richard is a bioengineer with more than 10 years of experience in the field of Bio-engineering and Theoretical Neuroscience. He specialises in developing image processing algorithms, instrument control, experimental design, machine learning/computer vision, mathematical modelling, and large-dataset quantitative analysis. Previous projects include creating software packages for designing/analysing animal behavioural and neuronal tissue imaging experiments and spike sorting analysis.
Richard develops software applications for academic research. He was employed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland Brain Institute (Brisbane, Australia). Additionally, he has completed several large-scale software projects for academic labs around the world (USA, UK, Australia) working as an independent software developer/data scientist. Furthermore, he has worked in the private sector as a bioinformatician developing pipelines for analysing SNP/whole genome datasets.
BE in Engineering Science (1st Class Hons), University of Auckland (2000-2003)
PhD in Bioengineering, Auckland Bioengineering Institute (2004-2009)
Benjamin Kottler
(PhD)
Co-Director
scientific ADVISER
Ben is a behavioural scientist with more than 10 years of experience with Drosophila research, and has trained in cutting edge laboratories with proficient behavioural expertise and circuit investigations.
Ben undertook his PhD at Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris researching learning and memory in Drosophila with Thomas Preat in Paris. He was then employed as a postdoc at the Queensland Brain Institute investigating the interplay between sleep and general anesthesia with Bruno van Swinderen. Then he moved to London and worked at King’s College London (London, UK) studying the mechanisms of action selection with Frank Hirth. Ben published several papers in top-tier journals and presented his work at international conferences. His orcid profile is available here.
MSc. in Genetics, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI-VII-XI, Paris (2003)
PhD in Molecular & Cellular Biology, Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris VI-VII-XI, Paris (2003-2009)