• November 2025: Dr Claudia Contini gave a talk at the Synthetic Biology UK conference in London, a conference for synthetic and engineering biology. This event brings together leading experts and emerging talents, showcases groundbreaking advancements, and explores future directions in the field.
  • November 2025: Are you interested in how living and synthetic systems navigate chemical gradients, from bacteria to active #colloids? Check out this Perspective Paper.
  • October 2025: Zain participated in the Imperial Lates event, delivering a flash talk on Synthetic Cells.
  • October 2025: We welcome three new members to the group: Zain Raef (PhD), Percy Scott (PhD) and Luyao Chen (MRes)
  • September 2025: New Review Article Out! This Chemical Society Review describes the interactions of nanoparticles with living and synthetic bio-membranes.
  • September 2025: Claudia participated in the ComeInCell DC introductory meeting.
  • September 2025: Dr Claudia Contini delivered a talk and took part in discussions at the Biomembrane Days 2025 held in Germany. The meeting brought together leading researchers in membrane biophysics, synthetic biology, and soft matter to explore the latest advances in understanding and engineering biomimetic systems.
  • September 2025: We are recruiting! We are looking for a motivated PDRA to start in January 2026.
  • August 2025: Small Front Cover! Our work is on the front cover of Small! This work explores how Polymers empower Synthetic Cells with programmable dynamics, enabling fusion, contraction and interactions with biological cells.
  • August 2025: Great news! The Group has been awarded the Imperial College London – India Connect Fund to kick-start a research collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science, Centre for Nano Science Engineering (CeNSE).
  • July 2025: New Paper Out! The project demonstrates a modular strategy to create bacterial biohybrids with magnetic motility, biosensing, and cargo release. Work in collaboration with Dr Yuval Elani’s research group https://doi.org/10.1039/D5CC00449G
  • July 2025: New Paper Out! The project explores using ionic liquids to optimise IgG-Gold Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery, including crossing the BBB with focused ultrasound. Work led by Talia Shmool https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.5c02375
  • May 2025: With the collaboration of the Italian Embassy in London and the Association of Italian Scientists in the UK, Claudia attended and organised the event “The Power of Vaccination: from Discovery to Global Impact” at the Italian Embassy in London. The event explored the significance of vaccination and recent advancements in vaccine development. Prof.Mariagrazia Pizza, a leading expert in vaccine research, delivered the keynote talk about innovations in vaccine design, including insights from her work on meningococcal and pertussis vaccines. Prof. Sir Andrew Pollard introduced the discussion.
  • May 2025: Yeyang Sun won the 1st prize for his poster presentation at the London Polymer Group Symposium! A fantastic recognition for his hard work. Congratulations Yeyang! Thanks to the organisers for an amazing day of (polymer) science!
  • March 2025: New paper out in Small !!! Can we design polymeric systems that look like cells and have #dynamic cell-like behavours ? YES! We show how thermally driven dynamic behaviors in polymeric vesicles create a versatile platform for synthetic cell applications.
  • January 2025: Another great news! Claudia has been selected to participate at the STEM for Britain 2025 which is taking place at the Houses of Parliament in March. STEM for BRITAIN is an annual poster competition for early career researchers in science, engineering, technology and maths and has been taking place each year in Parliament since 1997. Organised by the All Party Parliamentary and Scientific Committee and Chaired by George Freeman MP, its aim is to give members of Parliament and insight into the outstanding work being undertaken in UK universities by early career researchers.
  • January 2025: Great news! The Group has been awarded the NUS-Imperial College London Research Collaboration Fund to kick-start a research collaboration with the Singapore Institute (NUS).
  • Starting in 2025, the group will participate in the NanoHeal project – a Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) funded by the Australian NHMRC to 7 universities in 5 countries: RMIT, UniSA, Imperial College London, Loughborough University, Victoria University of Wellington, Riga Technical University and RWTH Aachen University. A PDRA (postdoc) position will soon be available in the group!
  • Two Fully Funded PhD positions are available in the group! Check our Join us section.
  • The Group is part of the ComeInCell project, an International MSCA Doctoral Network, training 17 PhD students in 8 countries to develop advanced cell mimics that integrate functional membrane structures and biomolecular condensates.
  • In July 2024, Shuwan has been awarded one of the best poster presentations at the ICMSN 2024 Conference! Shuwan’s MRes project is about Polymeric Porous Capsules.
  • A lovely group lunch photo!