At the University of Manchester we use molecular self-assembly to create materials that mimic biological membranes and improve our understanding of important biological processes.

Current research themes include: elucidating the role of 'cooperativity' during the binding of multivalent ligands to surfaces; understanding the role of 'lipid rafts' in cellular recognition; creating synthetic ion channels; using liquid crystal displays to screen enzyme specificity. Recently, magnetically- and thermally- responsive vesicle assemblies have been created that can be manipulated into tissue-mimetic structures.