Soft matter and biointerfaces

Research interests: 

Soft matter and biointerfaces

Interfaces between soft materials and liquids are particularly interesting because the two strongly influence one another. The surrounding liquid can alter the structure, shape and mechanical properties of a soft material, while the material itself can reorganise the liquid and ions at its surface.

This mutual interplay is ubiquitous in biology. Protein folding and function, for example, depend critically on the surrounding solution, as does the structure and integrity of biological membranes. Conversely, proteins and membranes can organise water and ions at their surfaces in ways that are closely coupled to their function.

Our goal is to understand this interplay using relatively simple and well-controlled model systems, particularly lipid bilayers. These allow us to investigate how water, ions and the membrane influence one another at the interface. Even apparently simple systems can display remarkably complex behaviour, arising in part from the molecular size and discrete nature of water and ions.

Lipid bilayers also allow us to increase complexity in a controlled way, for example, by mixing different lipids or incorporating peptides and proteins and gradually bridging the gap between simple model interfaces and biological membranes.