Nano4Health: Advances in combatting COVID-19

Alistair Kean

Professor of Medical Nanotechnology, The University of the Highlands and Islands

Alistair is Professor of Medical Nanotechnology at The University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness, Scotland. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics at The University of St. Andrews in Scotland and was a Research Fellow at the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow. He joined Sharp Laboratories of Europe in Oxford in 1992 before leaving to establish an opto-electronics company, Kamelian Ltd in 2000. In 2004 he joined Mantis Deposition Ltd as Technical Director where he developed an interest in nanotechnology. In 2013 he set up his own company, NikaWorks Ltd. which provides nanotechnology consultancy and contract coating services. He is also a consultant to Johnson Matthey PLC. In 2019 he co-founded Nikalyte Ltd. which produces a benchtop nanoparticle deposition system. Alistair also works with PolyCatUK Ltd and PinPoint Medical Ltd. on various healthcare projects. He was shortlisted as a cosmonaut in 1989 and likes to cook in his spare time.

Dr Samuel Jones

University of Manchester

Sam completed his masters in Chemistry, from the University of Warwick, under the direction of Prof. Stefan A. F. Bon in 2009. His work at the time focused on hydrogen bonding interactions for gold nanorod assembly. From there he moved to the University of Cambridge where he worked in the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis under Prof. Oren A. Scherman, on the supramolecular assembly of nanomaterials via cucurbit[n]uril. Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 2013, Sam moved to the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he worked alongside Prof. Francesco Stellacci. His research focused on the synthesis of novel virucidal materials and the synthesis of Janus nanoparticles for targeted delivery. In 2017 he moved to the School of Materials at the University of Manchester to begin his independent career as a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow. Sam's groups research focuses on virucidal material synthesis and development, viral detection and triggerable drug-delivery systems.

: www.broadspectrumantivirals.com
: @SamJones_Lab

Dr Stephen Hodge

Chief Technology Officer , Versarien plc

Dr Stephen Hodge was recently appointed as Chief Technology Officer of Versarien plc. Prior to this he was Head of Research at Versarien, a role he held since July 2018. He has also held post-doctoral research associate positions at the University of Cambridge, and at Imperial College London where he also completed a PhD in Nanomaterial Chemistry.

Stephen is a member of the International Advisory Board for the Graphene NOWNANO CDT at the University of Manchester and was formerly a Teaching Fellow in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) program in Graphene Technology at The University of Cambridge. Stephen also holds the role of Chairman of the Technical Working Group within the Graphene REACH registration consortium.

: http://www.versarien.com/

Ben Miller

Postdoctoral Researcher , UCL, McKendry Group

Ben is a postdoctoral researcher at UCL in the McKendry group, working as part of the i-sense consortium on the development of low-cost, rapid, sensitive diagnostic platforms for infectious diseases, using paper microfluidics and nanomaterials. Paper microfluidics is a robust, low-cost technology which allows multi-step biochemical reactions with no user input. He focuses on improving the sensitivity of paper microfluidic tests by using novel nanomaterials and readout strategies, as well as more fundamental biochemical characterisation.

Ben completed hisPhD in biomedical nanotechnology at UCL in 2019. Hisundergraduate and masters background is electrical and electronic engineering.

Dr Martin Kemp

Chair , IOM3 Nanomaterials Committee

Dr Martin Kemp FIMMM, MCIM, C.Eng, Eur.Ing is Chair of the IOM3 Nanomaterials Committee, and Director of the advanced materials consultancy, Xcience Ltd. He currently works on graphene, primarily in composite applications. 

Dr Thanuja Galhena

Cambridge Graphene Limited

Dr Thanuja Galhena graduated with a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, followed by a PhD at University of Cambridge. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Cambridge Graphene Centre and a Teaching Fellow in the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology at the University of Cambridge, before joining Cambridge Graphene Limited, a subsidiary of Versarien plc. as a Project Scientist. Thanuja is based at the Cambridge Graphene Centre at the University of Cambridge as an industrial visitor, and is also a Fellow and a tutor at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Jeremy Ramsden

Professor of Nanotechnology , University of Buckingham

Studied natural sciences at Cambridge University, doctorate from EPFL for research into semiconductor nanoparticles, postdoctoral studies at Princeton University, visiting scientist at the Szeged Biocenter of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and at ETHZ (chemical engineering). Then member of the Basel University faculty of natural philosophy, subsequently professor and chair of nanotechnology at Cranfield. University, concurrently director of bionanotechnology at Cranfield University at Kitakyushu. Visiting professor in Argentina, France, Georgia, Hungary and Japan. Latterly cofounded several high-tech companies developing nanomaterials and nanodevices. Jeremy has published about 300 research articles and books on nanotechnology, bioinformatics etc. Fellow of IoM3 and IUPAC.

Cecilia Mattevi

Associate Professor , Imperial College London

Cecilia Mattevi is an Associate Professor and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Materials at Imperial College London (United Kingdom) since October 2012. Cecilia is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and she has been awarded an ERCConsolidator Grant 2018 on 3D printing of nanomaterial inks for onchip applications. Mattevi’s group focuses on the precise synthesis of novel atomically thin 2D materials and their three-dimensional structuring via 3D printing in the form of miniaturized devices to address pressing challenges in energy storage, energy conversion, and biomedical applications.