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Anna Barnard

Anna is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in the Department of Chemistry at Imperial. Her research focuses on the development of peptides and small molecules to understand and perturb protein-protein interactions.

Geertje Van Keulen

Dr Geertje van Keulen is Associate Professor in Microbial Biochemistry in the Institute of Life Science in the Medical School at Swansea University. She assembles and leads interdisciplinary research and innovation teams with microbiology at its core, expanding understanding of and sustainably exploiting the chemical and materials properties of microbes and amyloid proteins in living, manufactured and natural (soil) environments.

Geertje collaborates across diverse disciplines in e.g. biofilms, biomaterials and soil science, (bio)chemical engineering, hot tub and waste water sanitation and omniphobicity.

Ian Hamley

Professor Ian Hamley is Diamond Professor of Physical Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Reading.

King Hang Aaron Lau

Aaron leads his group in Bioinspired Molecular Interfaces in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. He takes an interdisciplinary approach based on molecular engineering and biophysical chemistry to pioneer peptides and peptide-mimetic “peptoids” with precise molecular functionalities for antimicrobials, self-assembly, and biomedical applications. He also develops plant-based polyphenol-biopolymer composites as coatings and sustainable materials, and he frequently engages with industry in both consultancies and collaborative projects. Aaron obtained his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, and postdoctoral training at Northwestern University, USA. His awards include an US NIH National Research Service Award and a Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) Young Investigator award. Among various engagements, Aaron is Co-Director of the Strathclyde’s Leverhulme Doctoral School in Nature Inspired Acoustics responsible for materials development, and he serves as secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry Glasgow and West of Scotland section.

Mai Elnaggar

Dr Elnaggar is deeply passionate about drug discovery from natural products. Her initial research involved exploring small molecules derived from plants, delving into methods for their isolation, structural elucidation, and assessment of their biological activities. Subsequently, she has developed a great interest in combining diverse research sets at the interface of chemistry and biology. This allowed Dr. Elnaggar to explore the biosynthesis of natural molecules, and the engineering of the enzymes involved in their production to enhance their biosynthetic capabilities. Her research then progressed to studying plant-derived cyclic peptides, focusing on modifying their structures to serve as potent and selective enzyme inhibitors. At present, her research focuses on peptide chemistry, with a deeper exploration of the enzymes involved in their biosynthesis and evaluating their potential to address significant unmet medical needs.

Nicholas Mitchell

Nick's group focuses on the development of new bioconjugation methodologies. Current projects include the exploration of photocatalytic, biocatalytic, and electrochemical methods for the site-selective modification of peptides and proteins.

Simon Webb

Simon Webb is currently Professor of Organic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. His research interests fall mostly in the area of supramolecular chemistry within membranes, which includes the development of synthetic signal transducers and ion channels.

Steven Cobb

Steven Cobb

Steven is the Director of the Biophysical Sciences institute and his research group uses a range of methods and techniques in synthetic organic, peptoid and peptide chemistry to tackle interesting and challenging biological problems.

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