Addressing the bio-nano interface with molecular self-assembly
Dr Stefan Guldin from University College London (UCL)
Abstract
My research group is interested in the fundamental question of how materials form and interact on the nanoscale for applications in healthcare and the environment. In this talk, I will share some of our recent work on nanoscale colloidal building blocks, their spatial arrangement and interaction with chemical and biological targets. Of particular importance to our research is the development of suitable analytical methods, e.g. for the determination of dispersity, structural order or evaluation of binding constants. I will demonstrate how molecular self-assembly enables the design of adaptive and responsive nanomaterials and report on the implementation of our principles towards the detection of disease biomarkers and therapeutic drug monitoring in paediatric cancer.
Biography
Dr Stefan Guldin is an associate professor in Chemical Engineering and head of the Adaptive and Responsive Nanomaterials (AdReNa) group at University College London. In 2021, he was appointed as deputy head of department and lead for enterprise. SG studied Physics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (2003-05) and the Technical University of Munich (2005-08) and graduated with a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2012 (Advisor: Prof Ulli Steiner; Thesis title: Inorganic nanoarchitectures by organic self-assembly). Subsequently, SG carried out postdoctoral research as a scholar of the German Academy of Sciences at EPFL (Advisor: Prof Francesco Stellacci) before taking up his current position in 2015. His research interests include the study of material formation on the nanoscale by molecular self-assembly, creation of adaptive and responsive materials architectures and translation into real-world applications, ranging from chemical sensors and biomedical diagnostics to electrochemical devices and optical coatings. To date, SG published over 50 peer-reviewed articles as well as six conference proceedings, one book chapter and one book. He is cofounder of the biomedical start-up Vesynta, which is devoted to the development of companion drug monitoring solutions for personalised medicine with currently 5 full time employees.