Elnaz Yaghini is Associate Professor in Biomedical Imaging and Surgical Science in the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL. She commenced a lectureship at UCL Division of Surgery & Interventional Science in 2020, making Associate Professor in 2022.  

Elnaz originally qualified in 'Clinical Medicine' followed by a 'PhD in Nanomedicine' at University College London (UCL), which has given her a strong translational perspective that has guided her preclinical research and teaching. Following her PhD, she secured a Technology Strategy Board funded Research Associate position at UCL to develop novel fluorescent nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Afterwards, she was employed as a Research Associate on a BBSRC-funded multidisciplinary research programme, which was a joint research project between Bath University, UK to develop peptide-based systems as a platform technology for light-triggered delivery of therapeutic macromolecules and nanoparticles to cancer cells.

In 2017, Elnaz was promoted to Senior Research Fellow and secured an Innovate UK Health & Life Sciences grant award with her role as Co-investigator and named Researcher on the project. The project was in collaboration with Nanoco Technologies Ltd., to develop functionalised nanoparticles for selective in vivo tumour detection.

Elnaz is currently involved in a range of research projects involving collaboration with scientists, clinicians, and companies. She currently leads an activegrant-supported research programme as Principal Investigator on intraoperative image-guided surgery.

Since March 2021,  Elnaz has also been appointed to the role of the Designated Individual (DI) for the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) Anatomy Licence at the Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust & UCL.