Studying Cell – Material Interactions (and What That’s Got to do with Organic Electronics)
Abstract
Living cells are highly sensitive to the environment around them. In my research, I fabricate material platforms to explore how they sense these different stimuli. Working closely with biologists, I use image analysis and data analysis techniques to quantify and interpret cell behaviours and link those to the underlying material.
But what’s this got to do with organic electronics? Over the past twenty years plenty of physicists and chemists have been swayed in the direction of applying organic electronic devices to biointerfacing problems. These materials need not only desirable electronic properties, but also biological ones.
In this talk I’ll tell you a little about my primary research in cell-material interactions and then discuss how this and other insights from the fields of bioengineering and biosensing can help aid the design of both conjugated polymers and organic bioelectronic devices.
Bio
[2016 – present] Research Associate, Cell-Material Interfaces (Professor Molly Stevens)
[2014 – 2016] Research Associate, NFC Energy Harvesting Circuits (Professor Henning Sirringhaus, University of Cambridge)
[2010 – 2014] PhD, Organic Transistors and Complementary Circuits (Professor Alasdair Campbell)
I find the culture of science fascinating and produce the award-winning podcast ‘Scientists not the Science’ (https://scinotsci.com) where I interview scientists, journalists, editors and comedians to explore this further. You can find me on Twitter: @StuartGHiggins
About the CPE Soft Electronic Materials seminar series
The CPE Soft Electronic Materials is a seminar series funded by the CPE for PhDs, PostDocs and Fellows to present their research to open up discussion and collaboration. We aim to have speakers from all groups and areas of research within the CPE.