Meet the team

Alessandro Liuzzi-Jones, Founder (Mechanical Engineering)

Get in touch

Department of Mechanical Engineering
@imperialcollegeengineering

The Project: Pioneering Affordable Bone Health Diagnostics

Alessandro Liuzzi-Jones, a final-year Mechanical Engineering student, is on a mission to transform bone health scanning and improve osteoporosis diagnosis. With 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men likely to develop osteoporosis in their lifetime, the condition costs the NHS £4.4 billion pounds annually. Yet, despite its prevalence, there is no national screening programme in place. Long NHS waiting times in the UK and limited equipment access in developing countries highlight a need for a low-cost, user-friendly osteoporosis screening device.

A Game-Changer for Bone Health

Traditional bone health scans rely on costly, room-sized machines that require trained technicians and expose patients to radiation. Alessandro’s system presents a compact, non-invasive alternative based on new research that delivers accurate results at a fraction of the cost and footprint. The system is uniquely designed to position a sample with laser precision to the width of a human hair, and has wider applications beyond osteoporosis detection.

The Hackstarter Journey

Passionate about MedTech innovation, Alessandro saw an opportunity to focus on a field where his engineering skills could really add value. His innovation began as a final-year project in mid-November 2024 and has since developed with the support of Hackspace and his supervisor. Leveraging research data, he has successfully validated the concept in healthy participants and is now gathering data from patients with osteoporosis.

What’s Next? A Look Ahead

Alessandro is currently progressing all aspects of the hardware development to finalise a working prototype. Once this is in place, he plans to instigate further data collection to expand upon the research.