Dr Aviad Levin
College Research Associate
SpecialisationBiophysical Chemistry, Peptide Self-Assembly, Protein Aggregation, Biotechnology.
Research interestsIn nature, sophisticated materials and structures are formed through self-assembly, a process where chemically simple building blocks form complex arrays of biomolecules functioning cooperatively to underpin biological activity in living systems. This phenomenon has inspired a sustained research effort to elucidate the basic physical principles which govern self-assembly and the nature of the structures that emerge from this process, in contexts ranging from artificial materials to understanding human disease. My research interests lie in developing microfluidic approaches for the study of the fundamental driving forces involved in the self-assembly of peptides and proteins into ordered structures on the very small scale at which such processes occur inside living cells. By harnessing small volume confinement achieved by microfluidics, I specifically focus on the early molecular level interactions that trigger protein aggregation and deposition in aberrant protein disorders. I will further focus on elucidating the mechanism by which misfolded protein species can propagate in tissues. I thus aim to extend current biophysical approaches and gain fundamental understanding of the behaviour of biomolecules in systems with spatial inhomogeneities, thus bridging length scales from the atomic through nano to the microscale.
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