Professor
Research Associates
Dr Louise Birchall
Dr Nadeem Javid
Dr Vineetha Jayawarna
Dr Sangita Roy
Dr Jan Sadownik
Dr Mischa Zelzer
PhD Candidates
Lynsey Aitken
Lauren Bayne
Lauren Byrne
Scott Fleming
Pim Frederix
Pier Francesco Caponi
Chris Hamilton
Meghan Hughes
Daniela Kalafatovic
Joy Leckie
Kimberley McKee
Conor Moynihan
Honglei Qu
Past Members/
Old Group Photos
Dr Rachael Ambury
Dr Nurguse Bibi
Dr Brian Cousins
Dr Apurba Das
Dr Wilda Helen
Dr Andrew Hirst
Dr Deepak Kalaskar
Dr JunTae Kim
Dr Meenakshi Kumar
Dr Ho Kam (Ben) Lam
Dr Robert Mart
Dr Tom McDonald
Dr Alison Patrick
Dr Rachel Rawsterene
Dr Majeed Shaik
Dr Andrew Smith
Dr Claire Tang
Dr Kate Thornton
Dr Paul Thornton
Dr Simon Todd
Dr Richard Williams
Haixia Xu
Dr Mi Zhou
Dr Mohammed Zourob
Group Photos
2011 [1][2][3]
2010 [1][2]
2009 [1][2][3]
2008 [1]
2007 [1]
2006 [1]
Dr Rein Ulijn
In 2008, Rein was appointed (aged 34) to a WestCHEM chair in Chemistry. He is the holder of an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship, ERC Starting Grant and Leverhulme Trust Leadership Award and was awarded the 2007 Macro Group UK Young Researchers Medal in recognition of his work on polymeric biomaterials. He has authored over 70 peer reviewed research articles, 7 patent applications, and given over 50 invited and keynote lectures at international conferences. Since 2004 he has generated a grant portfolio worth in excess of £4.5M with funding from ERC, EPSRC, BBSRC, the Leverhulme Trust, Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP) and industry (Smith & Nephew, Johnson & Johnson, Ai2). He was co-founder of Manchester based spinout company Renephra Ltd. He gained his MSc degree in Biotechnology at the University of Wageningen (NL) (thesis 1998), PhD in Physical Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde (Thesis 2001) and postdoctoral training at the University of Edinburgh. From 2003-2008 he was in the School of Materials, University of Manchester (promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2006 and Reader in 2007).
Biography:
2008- present: Professor of Chemistry, The University of Strathclyde.
2007- 2008: Reader, The University of Manchester
2006- 2007: Senior Lecturer, The University of Manchester
2003- 2006: Lecturer, School of Materials, The University of Manchester
2001- 2003: Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Chemistry,
The University of
Edinburgh.
1998- 2001: PhD Physical Chemistry, The University of Strathclyde
1993- 1998: MSc Biotechnology, The University of Wageningen (NL)
Memberships:
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Materials Research Society (MRS)
Fellowships and Awards:
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) 2008
Macro Group UK Young Researchers Medal 2007
Leverhulme Trust Leadership Award 2007
EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship 2006
Dr Louise Birchall
Louise graduated from UMIST with an MChem (Hons) in Chemistry after completing a project with Prof. R. A. Goodacre using MALDI-TOF spectrometry to distinguish between different strains of bacteria. Her PhD involved developing an LCD system to detect protease activity under Dr S. J. Webb and Dr Ulijn at the University of Manchester. She has now moved to the University of Strathclyde where she is developing immobilisation techniques to direct spacialy defined hydrogellation.
Dr Nadeem Javid
Nadeem received his MSc in Chemistry from University of Punjab, Pakistan and MPhil. in Biotechnology from Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan. He then joined the International Max Planck Research School in Chemical Biology in Dortmund, Germany, where he conducted his Doctoral work on protein structural stability and characterization of protein-protein interactions of amyloidogenic proteins under the supervision of Professor Dr. Roland Winter. He joined University of Strathclyde in 2007 as Post-doctoral Research Fellow and joined Prof. Ulijn’s group in 2011 as Research Associate to research biocatalytically induced supra-molecular self-assembly of aromatic peptide amphiphiles and the design of gel-phase biosystems for autonomous, solar fuelled devices.
Dr Vineetha Jayawarna
Vineetha received her BSc in Chemistry from University of Pune, India and an MSc in Polymer Science and Technology from University of Sri Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka. In the second year of her MSc she completed a research project on ‘Cross-linking of Elastomers’ at University of Salford. She has recently completed a PhD at the University of Manchester supervised by Dr R. Ulijn and Dr J. Gough. Subsequent to her PhD, Vineetha is currently working as a Post Doctoral Researcher, researching into self-assembled hydrogels of short peptide derivatives and their applications in cell culture.
Dr Jan Sadownik
Jan graduated from Warsaw University where he obtained a degree in the Laboratory of Natural Products under Prof. Zbigniew Czarnocki. He went on to do a PhD with Prof. Douglas Philp at the University of St Andrews where he focused on evolving complex chemical networks from simple molecules utilizing dynamic combinatorial chemistry and synthetic self-replication. He joined the Ulijn Group at the University of Strathclyde as a research fellow and is interested in the development of peptide based dynamic systems and enzyme-assisted self-assembly.
Dr Sangita Roy
Sangita completed her PhD in chemistry from Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science in Kolkata, India under the supervision of Dr. Prasanta Kumar Das. During her doctoral studies she designed and synthesized several peptide-based self-aggregating systems and soft matterials with potential biomedical applications. She joined the Ulijn Group at the University of Strathclyde as a research fellow where she is exploring the use of several different enzymes to drive supramolecular assembly of sugar-peptide systems.
Dr Mischa Zelzer
Mischa obtained his first degree in Chemistry from the Technical University Graz for his project work contered on the synthesis of smart fluorescent dyes. He then moved to the University of Nottingham where he studied the interface of Material Science and Biochemistry for his PhD. The work entailed surface modification and characterisation using thin polymer films to develop biomaterial applications and study cell adhesion and protein adsorption phenomena. After his PhD, Mischa worked as a postdoctoral researcher on molecular photonics at the University of Newcastle before taking up his current position at the University of Strathclyde. Mischa’s research interests in Prof Ulijn’s group include the development of smart polymer surfaces for tailored applications in stem cell differentiation and peptide based self assembled nanostructures.
Lynsey Aitken
Lynsey graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an MSci in Chemistry, which included an industrial placement at Procter & Gamble investigating enzymes and enzyme-biopolymer interactions. Lynsey is now working towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Rein Ulijn and Prof. Duncan Graham investigating programmable nanomaterials through enzyme-assisted self-assembly.
Lauren Bayne
Lauren graduated with an MSci in Forensic & Analytical chemistry in 2010. This degree included an industrial placement with Alphasense Ltd researching and developed electrochemical gas sensors and a final year project investigating the enzymatic synthesis of glucose esters with Prof. Peter Halling. Her doctoral research concerns generic methods of enzyme immobilisation and is co-supervised Peter Halling.
Lauren Byrne
Lauren graduated from University of Strathclyde with BSc(Hons) in Forensic Biology. Having previously worked on a project at the University of Pharmaceutical and Veterinary Medicine in Brno, Czech Republic studying ability of compounds to protect against oxidation she is currently working towards a PhD investigating the use of biogels to support functional islet cells.
Scott Fleming
Scott graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an MSci in Chemistry, after completing his final year project on the computational study of the UV-Vis spectra of oxazine dyes, with supervisors Dr Tell Tuttle and Prof. Andrew Mills. Currently, he is working towards a PhD in a collaboration between supervisors Prof. Rein Ulijn and Dr Matt Dalby. His work involves the preparation of hydrogels, designed for the expansion and on-demand differentiation of stem cells.
Pim Frederix
Pim has obtained a MSc Chemistry from the Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands) in the Molecular and Laser Physics group. Under the guidance of Prof. David H. Parker he worked on the spectroscopy of small molecules and clusters in the gas phase. Currently he's involved in a joint PhD project with Dr. Neil Hunt (Physics) to combine the power of 2D-IR spectroscopy with the enzyme-assisted nanostructure formation of the Ulijn Group to understand the fundamentals of peptide self-assembly.
Pier Francesco Caponi
Pier graduated from the University of Trieste (Italy) in Pharmacy, after completing a final year project under Prof. L. Gardossi on the study of stability of biocatalysts, using experimental and computational methods. Currently, he is working towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Ulijn and Prof. Halling on enzyme driven actuation on polymer hydrogels.
Chris Hamilton
Chris graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a BEng in Civil Engineering and then proceeded to Glasgow University where he obtained a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry with Medicinal Chemistry. He is currently working on his EngD under the joint supervision of Prof. Helen Grant (Bioengineering) and Prof. Rein Ulijn (Chemistry), investigating the use of self-assembling peptide hydrogels as scaffolds for the culture of primary hepatocytes.
Meghan Hughes
Meghan graduated from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow with an MSci in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry, which incorporated a years industrial placement in the RSSL Pharma laboratory. She is currently working towards a PhD under the supervision of Rein Ulijn characterising self-assembled peptide nanomaterials.
Daniela Kalafatovic
Daniela graduated from the University of Trieste (Italy) with a degree in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology after completing a final year project on the study of the bioavailability of a phytocomplex using the population pharmacokinetics approach in collaboration with the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). She is now working towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Rein Ulijn investigating peptide-functionalized microgels, including fully reversible two-enzyme systems which could have applications in on demand drug delivery and minimally-invasive soft tissue repair.
Joy Leckie
Joy graduated from the University of Strathclyde with an Msci in Forensic and Analytical Chemistry in 2010. The course included an industrial placement year at Almac Sciences (Scotland) in East Lothian, where she was a member of the Peptides Oligonucleotides and Proteins (POP) group, manufacturing custom peptides. During her fifth year as an undergraduate, Joy joined The Ulijn group for her final year project – Dynamic Peptide Systems. Joy is now working towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Rein Ulijn and Dr Mark Haw, within the Chemical Engineering department, investigating enzyme-driven directed colloidal motion for nanoscale transport.
Kimberley McKee
Kimberley graduated from the University of the West of Scotland, Paisley, with a BSc (Hons) in Medicinal Chemistry and was awarded the Court Medal 2009–2010. She spent an industrial placement year at Ciba Speciality Chemicals developing Electrophotographic Toners. Kimberley has also studied Physics and Mathematics with the Open University. She is now working towards a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Rein Ulijn and Prof. Pete Skabara investigating gel-phase photosynthetic devices from renewable resources.
Conor Moynihan
Conor graduated from University College Cork with a BSc in Chemistry. He completed his final year project in the Tyndall National Institute’s Advanced Materials and Surfaces Group under Prof. Martyn Pemble and continued there the year after towards receiving his MSc in Materials Science for studies in the deposition and characterisation of metal oxide thin films for self cleaning applications. He is now working towards a PhD in investigating the electronic properties in peptide nanostructures under Prof. Rein Ulijn.
Honglei Qu "Grace"
Grace graduated from Leeds University with a BSc (Hons) in Colour and Polymer Chemistry, then moved to Manchester to complete an MSc in Polymer Materials Science and Engineering. She is presently working towards a PhD with Dr Ulijn researching polymer hydrogel arrays for biomedical screening applications.
Former Group Members
Dr Rachael Ambury
Rachael graduated from the University of Manchester with an MEng (Hons) in Biomedical Material Science which included a year in industry at Smith & Nephew developing bioresorbable polymers. Rachael completed a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Rein Ulijn and Dr. Cathy Merry looking at developing polymer hydrogels for use in evaluating and directing liver cell behaviour.
Dr Nurguse Bibi
Nurguse graduated from UMIST with a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and an MSc in Bioanalytical and Biomedical Measurements. She completed a PhD under the supervision of Dr Ulijn and Dr J. E. Gough researching and designing an enzyme responsive hydrogel dressing for the management of chronic wounds.
Dr Brian Cousins
Brian graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Liverpool and went on to obtain an MRES in the 'Physical analysis of biological interactions on surfaces'. He completed his PhD in 'The development of nanoparticulate coatings for biomaterials' at Liverpool. He undertook a post-doctoral position working on a discipline hopping award at the University of Liverpool. He moved to Newcastle University to investigate surface modification and biofunctionalisation of medical devices for 12 months. After working in the Ulijn group on nanostructures, peptides and enzyme responsive surfaces for biomaterials research, he is now working to establish is own imports company.
Dr Apurba Das
During his PhD Apurba studied the synthesis and characterization of various peptide based nanomaterials under the supervision of Dr. Arindam Banerjee at Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, India. He then joined the Ulijn group and worked on characterising the different properties of peptide hydrogels through a range of physical techniques.
Dr Wilda Helen
Wilda graduated from The University of Manchester with a PhD in Biomedical Materials Science. Worked on the molecular design of new bio-interactive materials prepared by spontaneous assembly of short peptide amphiphiles and their application in 3D cell culture and tissue regeneration in the Ulijn group and is presently a PDRA with Adam Engler at UCSD
Dr Andrew Hirst
Andrew completed his PhD studies in the general areas of polymer solution chemistry and rheology from the University of Leeds. Following this, he undertook post-doctoral research at the University of York exploring the relationship between molecular self-assembly and macroscopic gelation of dendritic systems. In Spring 2008, he joined the Ulijn group and explored the molecular gelation pathways that control material properties of peptide-based hydrogels.
Dr Deepak Kalaskar
Deepak completed his B.Tech in chemical Technology from University Nagpur, India. Then he joined BASF coatings Pvt Ltd. and worked in R & D and technical support for a year. Deepak is recently completed work towards PhD on Engineered and chemically modified cellulose network for control cell adhesion supervised by Dr Ulijn, Dr S. Eichhorn, Dr W. Sampson and Dr J. Gough and is now a Research Associate at Liverpool University.
Dr JunTae Kim
JunTae completed his PhD in chemical engineering under the supervision of Prof. Koo at Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea. During his PhD, he studied the synthesis and characterisation of precursors for MOCVD and ALD and preparation of semiconducting nanoparticles. After one and a half further years as a postdoctoral researcher at Hanyang University, he joined the Ulijn group as a postdoctoral researcher and research technician investigating enzyme-assisted self-assembled nanomaterials for optoelectronic applications.
Dr Meenakshi Kumar
Meenakshi was awarded PhD in Chemistry from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India for work on LC methods for separating pharmaceutically important compounds. Subsequently, she carried out postdoctoral research at the University of Kentucky, USA and Saarland University, Germany. A wide range of projects included toxicology studies of PCBs and involved the use of sophisticated LC-MS instruments. On her return to India in 2003, she worked as a lecturer in undergradute colleges in Chandigarh,India. She worked in the Ulijn Group as a research fellow, collaberating with Prof Neil Hunt of the Physics department to explore the stability of amino acid gels using a combination of HPLC, fluoroscence, FTIR and 2-D IR techniques.
Dr Ho Kam (Ben) Lam
Ben received his Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry) form The University of Manchester under the supervision of Prof. Jonathan Clayden on a topic of Conformational Preference in Aromatic Dicarboxamides. Since that time he had gained experience as a Post Doctoral Research Associate with Prof. Pat Bailey at the University of Manchester. During the time with Prof. Pat Bailey, his research involved designing industrial scale synthesis for different thiopeptides, and their related prodrugs.
Dr Robert Mart
Rob returned to liposome research with Dr Simon Webb preparing magnetic nanoparticle/vesicle aggregates for novel biomaterials. He is currently working on intracellular biophotonic nanoswitches for Prof. Allemann in Cardiff.
Dr Tom McDonald
Tom graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc in Biomedical Materials Science. He then remained in Manchester and was awarded an MSc in Polymer Material Science and Engineering in 2005. Tom completed his research on the synthesis of PEGA polymer particles for use in biology and medicine and took a position at Unilever before returning to academia as a PDRA at Liverpool University.
Dr Alison Patrick
Alison graduated from the University of Manchester in 2005 with an MEng in Biomedical Material Science. As part of her degree Alison spent a year working at DePuy CMW in Blackpool investigating properties of new bone cement powder. She then went on to do a PhD in Rein Ulijn’s research group at the University of Manchester designing fluorescent hydrogel particles for detection of proteases secreted from cells. Alison completed her PhD in 2010 and is now working as a PDRA in Ardeshir Bayat’s research group at the University of Manchester.
Dr Rachel Rawsterne
Rachel was appointed as a teaching fellow in the Materials Science department of the University of Manchester for a year and is now retraining as a teacher.
Dr Andrew Smith
Andrew studied for his PhD at Sussex University characterising and redesigning a peptide based nanofibre that had been initially designed by his supervisor Prof. D.N. Woolfson. After this he moved to Leeds University to use mass spectrometry to look at self-assembling non-covalent systems with Dr. A.E. Ashcroft in collaboration with Prof. S.E. Radford and Prof. P.G. Stockley. During his stay with the Ulijn group Andrew characterised peptide hydrogels utilising a range of techniques.
Dr Claire Tang
Claire graduated from The University of Bordeaux 1 (France) with a BSc in Biochemistry and a MSc in Chemistry, including a final year project under Dr R. Oda on physico-chemical characterisation of lipopeptide gels. She then moved to The University of Manchester, where she gained a PhD studying peptide gels as substrates for 3D cell culture under the supervision of Dr R. Ulijn and Dr A. Saiani.
Dr Kate Thornton
Kate graduated from the University of Manchester with an MEng (Hons) in Biomedical Material Science, incorporating an industrial placement at Johnson and Johnson Wound Management. She recieved a PhD under the supervision of Dr. Ulijn and Dr. Merry on hydrogels for the culture of embryonic stem cells.
Dr Paul Thornton
After completing his BSc (Hons) in Chemistry at the University of Leeds, Paul headed to the bright lights of Manchester. Shunning solid state chemistry he was awarded an MSc in Polymer Science in 2004. Paul then opted to continue his research into hydrogel particles for a PhD. Following the completion of his studies he took a position with a leading contact lens manufacturer before moving to Ireland as a PDRA.
Dr Simon Todd
After obtaining a BSc (Hons) degree in Biomedical Materials Science from the University of Nottingham, including a final year project under Prof. D. Grant on the functionalisation of diamond-like carbon with albumin, Simon took a year out to travel in North America. He completed a PhD in the construction of enzyme responsive surfaces at the University of Manchester supervised by Dr Ulijn and Dr J. Gough. Simon then went on to work for award-winning start up company Renephra.
Dr Richard Williams
Richard studied for his Bachelors in Biotechnology at Reading, completing his project on the use of bacteriophage enzymes for the production of bioactive oligosaccharides. Upon graduating, he took a position at the Forensic Science Service performing various items of casework. He then moved to the Medical Research Council operating a genomic sequencing service for the Clinical Science Centre. Deciding work was too much like work, and DNA sequencing was overrated, he went back to school and completed a BBSRC funded Masters Degree in Biochemical Engineering, focusing on the use of enzymes as Temperature Time Indicators for industrial processes. After completing his work on enzymatically triggered self assembled hydrogels, Richard has taken up a position at CSIRO in Australia.
Haixia Xu
Haixia graduated from Harbin Institute of technology with MSc in Physics and Chemistry of Materials. In the second of MSc programme, she came to Advanced Carbon Division in Institute of metal research Chinese academy of sciences to complete a research project on ‘Effect of surface chemical structure on the electrochemical performance of carbon nanotubes’. She is currently studying for a PhD with the project about electricity properties of peptide nanotubes at the university of Manchester supervised by Dr Ulijn.
Dr Mi Zhou
Mi's PhD with Julie and Rein focussed on reconstructing a full-thickness skin graft for chronic wound healing. The aim of the study wass to co-culture fibroblasts and keratinocytes in the ECM (extra cellular matrix)-resembling hydrogels, to hopefully let the cells interact happily with each other and to regenerate a complete skin structure of epidermis and dermis.