Living in a Material World

Many properties of metals are owed to them having electrons which are free from their atoms, such as conduction of heat and electricity, and being able to bend and reshape them easily. There’s something else we can gain from these free electrons, however – that when light is shone on a metal, its electrons begin to move back and forth, changing how the metal interacts with the light. The study of this process is called plasmonics, and interpreting these changes allows for sensitive detection of chemicals and biological materials. It is even the basis of how some home pregnancy tests work.

Effective cancer therapy is one of the most challenging goals for the scientific community, due to most therapeutics’ toxic dose dependence due to a lack of tumour selectivity. Thus, administering drugs locally, by targeted delivery and controlled release could minimise side effects and toxicity, while maximizing the treatment impact, and so, drug delivery systems (DDSs) are one of the most promising applications for healthcare. In this context, nanotechnology offers the possibly of introducing Trojan horses, loaded with anticancer drugs and functionalised with targeting units, selectively to

My research interests are in materials chemistry, in particular soft materials such as hydrogels and self-assembled fibres. My research includes using these self-assembled supramolecular materials in electrical devices, they can be used when they are in solution or when dried into a thin film. I am focusing in particular on the alignment of these supramolecular assemblies to be used in flexible electronic devices that can be worn on the skin as sensors. The aim of these sensors are to be used in the electronics needed for prosthetic limbs, so the wearer can automatically move their prosthetic