Irene Marzuoli successfully defended her PhD thesis

On 31 January, Irene Marzuoli, who was co-supervised by Prof. Franca Fraternali in the Randall Centre for Cell & Molecular Biology, was examined by Prof. Syma Khalid (University of Southampton) and Prof. Fernando Bresme (Imperial College London) during her PhD viva.  Irene’s viva was during the afternoon, and in the end the examiners …

Our paper on antimicrobial pseudocapsids is garnering a lot of attention

We are excited that our recent paper in which we reported the results of a multi-disciplinary investigation of the antimicrobial activity of protein pseudocapsids (ACS Nano (2020) 14, 1609-1622) has been garnering a lot of attention within the media and the scientific community since its publication.  This paper contained simulation …

Philip Ferguson successfully defended his PhD thesis

On 18 December, Philip Ferguson, who was co-supervised by James Mason (KCL, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science), was examined by Jason Crain (IBM Research, UK) and Jake Bundy (Imperial College London) during his PhD viva.  Phil’s viva lasted most of the afternoon, and in the end the examiners were left impressed by …

Mateusz Bieniek successfully defended his PhD thesis

On 29 November, Mateusz Bieniek conducted his PhD viva, which was examined by Dr. Paul Mulheran (University of Strathclyde) and Dr. Giorgia Brancolini (CNR NANO, Modena, Italy).  First, Mat gave an exit seminar to an audience including members of the Lorenz Lab, the two examiners and Dr. Willie Taylor, Mat’s superviser …

New paper: “Structure and dynamics of nanoconfined water between surfactant monolayers”

Surfactant-covered aqueous interfaces are ubiquitous in everyday life. These interfaces play a key role in various commercial products, where surfactants adsorb onto the surface of bubbles or oil droplets to stabilize foams and emulsions. Examples of such foams and emulsions are commonly found in pharmaceuticals, detergents, cosmetics and lubricants. In …

Demi has been awarded the inaugural Jacky Pallas Memorial Award

Congratulations to Demi Pink for being awarded the inaugural Jacky Pallas Memorial Award.  This award is memory of Jacky Pallas, who passed away suddenly and unexpectedly earlier this year. Jacky was someone that I had the pleasure to interact with on several occasions in her role as head of e-Research …

New paper: “Minor chemistry changes alter surface hydration to control fibronectin adsorption and assembly into nanofibrils”

Our recent manuscript — “Minor chemistry changes alter surface hydration to control fibronectin adsorption and assembly into nanofibrils” — reports the results of a multi-disciplinary investigation of mechanisms that govern material-driven fibrillogenesis.  Previously, our collaborators in Prof. Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez‘s group at the University of Glasgow showed that fibronectin formed fibril …

Reflective essay on my KURF summer internship

During the summer of 2019, prior to my final year of Mathematics (BSc), I was fortunate enough to be awarded an undergraduate fellowship at Kings College London, in the Department of Physics to work on molecular dynamics simulation. Firstly, I would like to express gratitude to my supervisors, Dr Chris …

New Paper: “On the structure of solid lipid nanoparticles”

In our recent manuscript entitled “On the structure of solid lipid nanoparticles“, we have combined large-scale all-atom molecular dynamics simulations and small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments to provide the first detailed description of the internal structure and atomistic interactions which govern this structure of liquid and solid lipid aggregates, …

My Biophysics In2ScienceUK Placement

(From 5 August until 16 August, we had the pleasure to have two young women, Sarah and Mariam, who are entering year 13, join our group for a summer placement sponsored by In2Science UK.  During their placement, Sarah and Mariam worked with Demi Pink on an aspect of her PhD …