Research in the Cooper Group
Our research focuses on developing stimuli-responsive assemblies that can be used in biological contexts and the construction of molecular networks that respond to chemical instructions. Our group has a particular focus on the chemistry that occurs around and within membranes and lipid bilayers; particularly stimuli-responsive membrane-bound assemblies and coupling molecular networks with compartmentalised architectures.
Stimuli-responsive membrane-bound assemblies
Our research seeks to develop stimuli-responsive assemblies that can initiate transmembrane transport on demand and in response to environmental triggers. This research will hopefully lead to biomedical applications and will also serve to enhance our understanding of how the stimuli-responsive membrane proteins in biology operate and express their activity. We also have interests in developing molecules that can alter the properties of lipid membranes, act as membrane-bound sensors, and the construction of systems that can perform active transmembrane transport.
Coupling molecular networks with compartmentalised architectures
We are seeking to establish a series of guidelines for the formation and study of molecular networks inside compartmentalised architectures and will provide fundamental insights into the effects of confinement on information transfer processes, as well as applications involving reactions in confined spaces. Ultimately, we aim to form networks of molecules that possess more levels of information encoding, and display a greater diversity of emergent behavior, than have been reported previously.