Wooli Bae is a Senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Surrey (www.surrey.ac.uk/people/wooli-bae). He has received his PhD in physics at KAIST, South Korea under supervision of Professor Tae-Young Yoon with his work on single-molecule biophysics. After his PhD, he worked as a postdoc in Professor Tim Liedl's group in LMU, Germany where he studied interaction of DNA nanostructures with lipid membranes. Before joining Surrey, he studied dynamic DNA/RNA nanotechnology for synthetic biology as a postdoc at Imperial College London, UK in the group of Dr Thomas Ouldridge and Professor Guy-Bart Stan.

Reshma Bano is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Physics, University of Surrey. She earned her PhD in Biosciences at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India, under the supervision of Dr Mohd Mohsin, focusing on the construction of FRET-based genetically encoded nanosensors. Reshma’s current postdoctoral research endeavours are dedicated to pioneering cutting-edge advances in the field of Nucleic Acid Nanotechnology Originated Protocells (NANOPCs). Her project work involves the encapsulation of RNA transcription machinery within liposomes functionalised with DNA-based synthetic nanopores, opening up new horizons in biotechnology and nanomedicine. Reshma,s another research, committed to unravelling the complexities of heterogeneity in synthetic and living systems, by creating artificial cell. 

Anastasiya Malyshava is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Physics, University of Surrey. She has received her PhD in Bioengineering at Imperial College London, UK in the group of Prof Tom Ellis, focusing on designing the principles for custom genomes using the yeast minimal cell cycle. Currently, Anastasiya’s postdoctoral research focuses on pioneering DNA nanostructure-based data storage. She aims to develop new DNA strand displacement reactions to enable fast, parallel writing and updating of information for DNA storage devices. Collaborating with international research groups, this project aims to revolutionise data storage efficiency using cost-effective DNA oligos for faster writing, reading via atomic force microscopy, and advanced editing capabilities.

Samia Bakhtawar is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Physics at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. Her research is focused on the Photothermal Modulation of DNA Computing. She is primarily working on the conjugation of short, single- or double-stranded DNA to gold nanoparticles, to build an optical setup that can provide energy to the system, thereby driving certain DNA circuits. Her project leads to vast applications in Biomedical science.

Zak Marshall is a PhD student in the soft matter physics group in the Department of Physics at the University of Surrey, U.K . The aim of Zak’s project is to develop a Protocell system using both top-down and bottom-up synthetic biology principles, Leveraging Novel RNA nanotechnology with Giant Unilamellar vesicles to produce in-vitro transcribing protocells.

Callum McKeaveney is a PhD student in the Bioscience department at the University of Surrey, UK currently working in the soft matter and Quantum Biophotonics groups. The aim of Callum’s project is to develop a fluorescent protein-based sensor platform using DNA origami. This involves binding sequence specific hybridisation of oligonucleotides bearing fluorescence proteins to DNA nanostructures and characterising the samples using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.  He has always been interested in the intersection between physics and biology and is excited to delve deeper into this complex and fascinating field.