Dr Oliver Castell
Oliver started his lab in Cardiff in 2014 and was awarded the 2016 SEB Presidents Medal for his work in membrane-based artificial cells and the study of membrane proteins at the single molecule level. He is co-scientific lead on current EU project "Artificial Cells with Distributed Cores to Decipher Membrane Protein Function (ACDC)" and leads recently awarded EU project concerning the interfacing of live and artificial cells to build next generation hybrid tissue models. Originally a pharmacist by training, he then undertook a PhD in microfluidics for optimising chemical reactions before post-doctoral work at Oxford University where he developed his interest in the cell membrane, membrane protein biophysics and synthetic biology.
His research group in Cardiff develop tools and technologies for understanding fundamental membrane biology, often using single molecule techniques. In turn this understanding is then applied to engineer next generation soft-matter smart materials inspired by biology. In this regard, we are particularly interested in how self-assembled and compartmentalised systems can give rise to emergent and higher-order function, that we believe can be harnessed in the development of new biotechnological tools which may find future use in therapeutics, diagnostics and as adaptive soft-matter materials.
