The Lau group works in the interdisciplinary areas of bioinspired materials, biointerfaces, and biophysical chemistry, focusing on the development and understanding of macromolecular systems inspired by biomolecular structures.

Group members hail from diverse backgrounds, including synthetic and polymer chemistries, biophysics and biochemistry, pharmacy and biotechnology, as well as materials, biomedical and chemical engineeering.

Our two principal macromolecular platforms are 1) novel peptoid biointerfaces, including self-assemblies, surfaces, and combinations with (nano)porous materials, and 2) highly abundant natural biopolymers functionalized by polyphenols. Both platforms enable synthetic convenience, with peptoids further enablng precise control over molecular and nanoscale interactions, and polyphenol materials particularly suited for sustainable development applications.

A particular conceptual interest is the spatial organization of (bio)chemical components on the nanoscale to generate unique biofunctionality (e.g. specific protein- or cell-surface interactions, antibacterial effect, self-assembly, etc). Sometimes, the functionality and dynamics of a system can already be radically changed simply by tailoring how macromolecules are presented on surfaces! Examples from our group include surface-initiated self-assembly, selective molecular transport through nanoporous membranes, and selective activity against specific bacterial strains.

Explore our webpage and find out more about current projects and openings!

2017/10/25: Congratulations Ana for winning a travel grant to participate in the "Newton-Bhabha Researcher Links Workshop", to be held in Dec. 2017 at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata.

2017/10/01: Abshar Hasan joins the group after winning a highly competitive 1-yr Commonwealth Split Site PhD Scholarship. Congratulations and welcome!

2017/09/18: Alasdair Dennis joins the group as a MChem placement research assistant. Welcome!

2017/09/12: Congratulations Ana (!!!) for successful defense of her PhD: "Bioinspired Materials For Enzyme Immobilisation And Transport Of Biomolecules".

2017/08/30: New paper accepted in Biomimetics: "Size Control and Fluorescence Labeling of Polydopamine Melanin-Mimetic Nanoparticles for Intracellular Imaging". Biomimetics 2017, 2, 17; doi:10.3390/biomimetics2030017

2017/05/11: Congratulations Mari (!!!) for successful defense of her PhD: "Directing the self-assembly of short peptide derivatives"

2017/04/10: Dr Kunal Tewari joins the group to work on the peptoid nanosheets project. Welcome!

2017/01/25: Lipopeptoid paper, a collaboration with Ian Hamley at Read, published in ChemComm. It's open access! DOI: 10.1039/c6cc09888f

2017/01/12: Mari's paper on localized self-assembly of peptide nanofibers is accepted by ACS Appl. Mater. Interf. Congratulations!!! DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b13162

2016/12/01: Marwa El Yaagoobi (University of Montpellier) wins Strathclyde's John Anderson Research Award PhD studentship and will join the group in Jan.

2016/09/30: The Lau group goes baking on Explorathon'16 outreach activity at Eastbank Primary School:

'Chemistry of a Cupcake'🍰 pic.twitter.com/FNCNRg7N7d

2016/09/21: Ana Sousa wins best presentation award (and €200!) at this year's E-MRS Fall Meeting. Congratulations!

2016/04/01: Bradley Wilson wins BP bursary support to intern in the lab this coming summer. Good job and welcome!

2015/09/07: Ana receives Scottish Funding Council PECRE (Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Exchanges) support to perform experiments at the Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna.

2015/06/29: Kyo-Young Goo from University Pierre and Marie Curie, France joins the lab as a summer intern. Welcome!

2015/06/01: Maxence Louaze from Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand, France, and Mattheus Begali from the Science without Borders program join the lab as summer interns. Welcome!

2015/05/06: Ana's research is highlighted in the Images of Research contest, and will be touring Scotland! http://www.imagesofresearch.strath.ac.uk/2015/gallery.php

2015/04/15: The Lau group moves into new labs, in Strathclyde's Technology and Innovation Centre. www.strath.ac.uk/tic

2015/04/01: Dr Lau gives invited talk at the Austrian Institute of Technology, Vienna.

2015/01/29: Dr Lau joins the editorial board of Scientific Reports. http://www.nature.com/srep/index.html

2015/01/07: Research article "Molecular Design of Antifouling Polymer Brushes using Sequence-Specific Peptoids” published in Adv. Mater. Interf. Open access: DOI: 10.1002/admi.201400225

2014/10/26: Undergraduate researchers Catherine, Larissa and Maria join our lab. Welcome!

2014/09/17: A warm welcome to Daniel Almgren, visiting graduate researcher from Lund University

2014/08/07: Dr Lau is awarded a Royal Society of Chemistry Researcher Mobility Fellowship.
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