People

Dr Soumya Kanti De

Soumya is a postdoctoral research associate at the UNSW School of Chemistry and the UNSW RNA Institute. After completing his PhD in Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Indore in 2022, he was awarded Moderna Global Fellowship, which brought him to Australia to pursue interdisciplinary research at the interface of nanoscience and soft materials.

His work focuses on nanostructured materials-particularly lipid-based nanoparticles for applications in drug delivery, synthetic biology, and nanomedicine. He is especially interested in complex colloidal systems, interfacial processes, and self-assembling networks. Beyond applied nanoscience, he is fascinated by the chemistry of the early Earth and how simple chemical systems may have organised and evolved into life-like behaviour.

Soumya enjoys learning and playing chess, watching movies, and football during his spare time.

s [dot] de [at] unsw.edu.au

Dr Shiva Montasseri

Shiva is a postdoctoral researcher with a strong background in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), biomolecular interactions, and analytical chemistry for drug delivery applications. Her work explores how complex biological environments influence NP structure and function. She completed her PhD in Chemistry at the University of Newcastle, investigating protein- and pH-dependent interactions of LNPs using SAXS, Cryo-EM, HPLC, proteomics, flow cytometry, FTIR, confocal microscopy, DLS, zeta potential, and cell culture assays. She also gained experience in environmental chemistry as a Research Assistant at the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation. At UNSW, she expanded her expertise in lipid nanomaterials and data analysis.

s [dot] montasseri [at] unsw.edu.au

Dev Chauhan

Dev is a final-year PhD candidate at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology and the UNSW RNA Institute, jointly supervised by A/Prof. Albert Fahrenbach. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Master of Science in Chemical and Molecular Biology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in 2022. After exploring how humans, mice, and zebrafish can be “molecularly broken,” he now works on something even more existential: tracing the chemical ancestry of life itself.

His PhD research spans several interconnected themes, including sugar–borate chemistry, sugar metabolism within lipid-based protocells, and the stereochemistry of non-lamellar self-assembled single-tail co-surfactants. He applies these frameworks to understand the origins of life and to engineer functional systems for RNA uptake and encapsulation, nanomedicine, and drug delivery.

Dev enjoys playing cricket, camping and hiking, and cooking during his spare time. Most importantly, he is the one who expresses himself through dance. He is an Indian Classical (Kathak) and folk dancer.

d [dot] chauhan [at] unsw.edu.au

Shannon Anand

Shannon is a PhD student researching the impact of crowding within protocells and the impacts this may have had during the origins of life on Earth. He aims to incorporate proteins within artificial cells in order to see their impacts at the cellular membrane. Shannon received his Honours in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Wollongong, where he investigated the structural determination of κ-casein amyloid fibrils using cryogenic electron microscopy, in association with the synthetic food industry.

Shannon also enjoys playing the flute as part of a classical flute ensemble.

Lan Tran

Lan is a research assistant working on precision quantification of vesicle properties using holography.

Muhammad Ilyas

Muhammad Ilyas completed his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry in Pakistan before moving to Turkey for his Master's at Bilkent University, Ankara. His research focused on developing stimuli-responsive polymers and hydrogels for soft robotics. From 2024 to 2025, he joined Anna's Lab as a research assistant, where he is currently investigating the liquid-liquid phase separation of amino acids to understand mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases. Outside the lab, he enjoys playing cricket and traveling.

Dr Joshua Brown

Josh is currently a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO working on biomolecular modelling of metalloenzyme electrochemistry, and remained a research officer in our group till late 2025. 

Josh was a part-time post-doctoral researcher working on molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of protocell membranes to investigate structure-property relationships. He also works with the ARC CoE for Eco-efficient Ore Beneficiation on modelling selective collectors for rare earth element recovery. Josh was awarded his PhD in Chemistry in 2021 through the University of Newcastle and prior to this completed undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Queensland.

joshua [dot] brown1 [at] unsw.edu.au

Dr Lauren Lowe

Lauren completed her PhD in 2025 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr Yi Shen's lab in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Sydney.  As a postdoc, Lauren is studying the biophysical properties of soft matter systems, including biomolecular condensates, lipid bilayers and lipid nanoparticles.

During her PhD, Lauren was working on regulating the nutrient flow of model primitive and artificial cells. After exploring how fatty acid membranes are affected by subtle shifts in pH during her Honours, Lauren has continued studying model primitive cells throughout her PhD with goal of building a synthetic cell that can access the nutrients required for membrane growth and subsequent division. 

Aside from science, Lauren enjoys playing softball, watching various sports and reading fiction novels.

lauren [dot] lowe [at] unsw.edu.au

Daniel Loo

Daniel was a PhD candidate co-supervised by Associate Professor Patrick Spicer of the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering working on protocell systems composed of fatty acid vesicles. By employing mainly optical microscopy, he is investigating the behaviour of these systems in a variety of prebiotically relevant conditions. He also studies the aggregation phenomena of these vesicles. 

Outside of the lab, he has a keen interest in engineering and the other branches of science. For leisure, he enjoys jogging, and watching cricket and Formula 1 racing. 

w [dot] loo [at] unsw.edu.au

Ethan Fillingham

Ethan was an Honours year student (2024) undertaking a bachelors degree in medicinal chemistry. His project invovles determining the effect of macromolecular crowding on the formation of liquid-liquid phase seperated (LLPS) droplets and their transition to a solid-like state. This has implications in areas such as the origins of life and specific LLPS related diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

ecfillingham [at] gmail [dot] com

Stan Zhuang

Stan was an Honours student (2024), co-supervised by Dr. Anna Wang and Dr. Albert Fahrenbach. He is working his Honours project on "Vesicles Morphology Influenced by Prebiotic Sugars".

During Stan's spare time, he loves playing soccer, travelling and enjoys watching documentaries regarding aviation.

Dr Arslan Siddique

Arslan was a post-doctoral researcher (2023-2024) studying interfacial interactions of clay minerals with fatty acid membranes and designing microfluidic systems to simulate early earth environment exploring the origin of life. He also investigates the mechanism of interactions of different nanoparticles with phospholipid membranes to modulate biomembrane properties for applications in the areas of synthetic biology, drug delivery, and nanobiotechnology. He has a multidisciplinary research background with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from UNSW Australia and MSc in Biotechnology. His research expertise lies in developing biomimetic model systems and use of interfacial-sensitive characterisation tools and techniques such as QCM-D and neutron reflectometry to examine supported lipid bilayers (SLBs).

In his leisure time, Arslan loves to watch documentaries, listens to pop music, and plays cricket.

a [dot] siddique [at] unsw.edu.au

Dr Joshua Marlow

Josh was a post-doctoral researcher (2023-2024) investigating the creation of 'protocells',  simple chemical systems which propagate and evolve just like early cells. His experience is in the study of lipid and surfactant self-assembly, and the analysis of self-assembled structure using scattering techniques and rheometry. After completing his PhD research at Monash University in the Soft Matter and Colloids Laboratory, he was a post-doctoral researcher in the Warr Group at the University of Sydney. Before beginning at UNSW, Josh also acted as an Industry Instrument Scientist at Australia's nuclear science and technology organisation, ANSTO, connecting academia, industry, and government facilities. Outside of the lab, Josh enjoys comic books, movies, board games and video games, and spending time with his family.

joshua [dot] marlow [at] unsw.edu.au

Dr Joshua King

Josh was a post-doctoral researcher (2023-2024) who investigates physical properties of lipid vesicles in order to better understand the origins of a stably propagating cell. He undertook his doctoral research in the Soft Materials and Colloids Laboratory at Monash University where he explored the relationship between nanostructure and dynamic properties of complex fluids. Outside of the lab, Josh enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and listening to podcasts. 

joshua [dot] king1 [at] unsw.edu.au

Dr Chen Chen

Chen was a visiting Junior Research Fellow (March 2024) and is a Special Postdoctoral Researcher (SPDR) from RIKEN (Wako) in Japan. His research focuses on the self-assembly of membraneless protocells to investigate how primitive cells transitioned to modern cells. He enjoys traveling, cooking, watching animations during his spare time.

chen [dot] chen [at] riken [dot] jp

Dr Siddharth Rawat

Siddharth was a PhD candidate and uses digital holographic microscopy and deep learning for the non-invasive study of cells, micro-objects, and pollen lipids in complex environments.  Their research interests also extend to automated pollen classification, employing advanced machine learning methods for applications in healthcare and environmental monitoring.

siddharth [dot] rawat [at] unsw.edu.au

Khushi Daga

Khushi was an Honours student (2023) working on the interfacial physics behind silica deposition in geothermal pools, and investigating whether sinter structures can be useful in the search for life outside our planet. She holds a passion for Space and Origin of Life studies, and loves seeking new experiences and knowledge. 

Khushi is an avid bookworm who adores creative outlets like playing instruments, dancing or ice-skating. 

khushirdaga [at] gmail [dot] com

Katelyn La

Katelyn was an Honours student (2023) in Medicinal Chemistry and her project is to investigate how the changes in phospholipid membrane composition influences its fluidity. She is currently studying the affects of doping the membrane with intermediates of phospholipid synthesis (namely Lyso-PC and Oleic Acid) and plans to further study the impact of adding phospholipid-synthesising proteins as well. Understanding the relationship between the composition and fluidity is important because adequate fluidity is required for membrane-bound reactions to occur.

Outside of education, she enjoys playing games, listening to music (as well as dancing to them), playing instruments and she loves animals of all kinds.

katelyn [dot] kkl [dot] la [at] gmail [dot] com

Akiko Baba

Akiko was a visiting Junior Research Fellow (2023) from Tohoku University, where she works with Prof Masayuki Imai to investigate primordial evolution by linking sequence information and vesicle reproduction. She is interested in studying effects of amino acid sequences in peptides on the self-production of fatty acid vesicles.

akiko [dot] baba [dot] q3 [at] dc.tohoku.ac.jp