My main area of research interest is polymer materials. My research group is a multi-disciplinary team with research interests in the manufacture and characterisation of porous materials, hydrogels and (nano) composites. I focus on the development of novel polymer based materials for various applications.
Specifically, my research areas include:
- synthesis of functional porous polymer gels, hybrid polymer-inorganic and nanocomposite materials
- development of smart polymer systems
- characterisation of soft porous materials
- synthesis and characterisation of biomaterials
- development of drug delivery systems
- development of novel technologies for contaminated soil and water remediation.
Current research projects:
- Cryo bacteria reactor: Development of the flow through bioreactor of 3D-structured bacteria for biodegradation of aromatic chloro-derivatives from contaminated water. (H2020-MSCA-IF grant)
- Targeting Glioblastoma using Combinatorial Therapeutic Nanovaccine (GLIOMA) (H2020-MSCA-IF gran)
- Water and soil clean-up from mixed contaminants (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP, WaSClean project)
- Nanomaterials for practical use in remediation: Case study of mercury contamination in the lake Bylkyldak (The Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan).
- Engineering a bioartificial liver prototype using cell loaded macroporous hydrogel scaffolds
Previous research projects:
- Investigation of neurotoxicity and oxidative stress of PEGylated nanographeneusing rat pheochromocytoma (PC-12) neuronal cell lines (Commonwealth scholarship)
- Immobilised noble metal nanoparticles as efficient flow through catalyst for “green” decomposition of chlorinated aromatic compounds (British Council Newton grant).
- Controlled production and chemical modification of a variety of novel-carbons for specific end applications into the bio-organic field (FP7-PEOPLE-IRSES staff exchange programme ENSOR).
- Novel smart materials for biomedical application (FP7-PEOPLE-RG grant – Bio-Smart).
- Developing and evaluation of a quantitative imaging technique for assessment of nanoparticle drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier: Application for brain cancer therapeutics (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP grant, OncoNanoBBB).
- Studying adsorption of proteins on the carbon based materials (Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) research grant).
- Developing novel nanocomposite materials for the water clean-up (FP7-PEOPLE-IEF. MacroClean)
- Development and manufacture of permeable composite filters for environment application (FP7-PEOPLE-IAPP, CARBOSORB).
- Tissue engineering materials based on macroporous cryogels and non-viral delivery systems, growth factors: the development and testing in peripheral nerve injury and therapeutic angiogenesis (Russian Federal Programme grant).