People

Professor David Nisbet

David Nisbet is a Professor who is jointly appointed between the Research School of Chemistry and the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University. He is the head of the Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials, with laboratories within both schools. Dave joined the ANU after completing his PhD at Monash University and postdoctoral Fulbright scholarship at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dave is passionate about developing novel biomaterials, and particularly about seeing the biomaterials developed for clinical applications. His research groups consist of team of engineers, chemists, and biologists, all working together to create novel materials to help combat injury and disease.

Current Postdoctoral Fellows

Dr Yi Wang

Yi is investigating the use of self-assembling peptides for viral vector gene delivery. Our recent work has shown that by altering the electrostatic interactions of these materials, they can operate successfully as gene delivery vehicles. Yi is investigating this process in 3D cell cultures and is considering the controlled delivery of genetic material for the treatment of disease.

Dr Kiara Bruggeman

Kiara's research focuses on incorporating therapeutic drugs into these materials to further promote regeneration. The chemical instability of these drugs (lasting only about an hour in living tissue before degrading) presents an obstacle to long term delivery, and she has been investigating ways to stabilise these drugs using biomaterials in order to prevent degradation to provide long term therapeutic benefit.

Current PhD Students

Ms Stephanie Franks

Steph’s research focuses on the use of self-assembling peptide biomaterials as local drug delivery vehicles to improve the treatment of solid tumours, with a focus on glioblastoma. By localising therapeutic agents and prolonging their release at the target site, the efficacy of these drugs is increased, improving their ability to effectively treat cancer cells or attenuate the tumour microenvironment.

Ms Shiva Soltani Dehnavi

Shiva's project is focussed on the "Treating Parkinson's Disease Dementia (PDD) with nanoscaffolds", combining engineered nanoscaffolds with gene delivery systems. She is developing advanced viral vector vehicles in order to deliver genes encoding neurotrophic factors (NTFs), as a promising treatment option for both neurodegenerative diseases and PDD.

Monalisha Ghosh Dastidar

Monalisha's research is focused on nanoengineering material surfaces for electrochemical detection of clinically relevant biomarkers. She is a part of the ANU Grand Challenge project: Our Health in Our Hand and working on early-stage detection of ailments such as Diabetes and Age-Related Macular Degeneration. She is also working towards fabricating surfaces for multiplexed detection of biomarkers.

Himadri Shekhar Mondal

Himadri's research includes investigation of plasmonic response, optical characterization and chemical activities of desired nano structures which will provide new insights for developing low-cost scalable self-assembly optoelectronic materials for photonic applications. Currently he is focused on a novel family of functionalized plasmonic materials to develop contactless biosensing devices for noninvasive early stage detection of biomarkers.biomarkers.

Alishba John

Alishba’s research focuses on improving the selectivity of chemiresistive gas sensors for early detection of diseases through breath analysis. As part of the Grand Challenge: Our Health in Our Hands (OHIOH): Future Personalised Medical Technologies for a Sustainable and Effective Healthcare, she is working on synthesis of different morphologies of metal organic framework for enhanced gas sensing performance.

Negar Mahmoudi

Negar is employing peptide inspired hydrogel nanoscaffolds that can be injected into a brain lesion as a single injection to provide chemical and physical support for the surrounding cells. She is ultilising various modifications to these materials to reprogram inflammatory cells directly into neurons, whilst also promoting the survival, maintenance and growth of existing neurons to encourage repair.

Ms Elmira Mohamed

Elmira is a PhD student at the Australian National University. She is currently working on the development of nanoscale haemostatic materials utilizing a green method to produce biomass-based nanomaterials. This new class of haemostatic nanomaterials can be applied in wide-ranging medical and veterinary situations including surgical settings, sporting/combat fields, and household/vehicle first-aid kits.

Mr Zain Ul Abideen

Zain’s research is focused on the development of nano-medical devices for early and continuous monitoring of diseases through breath analysis. He is developing electronic noses (sensor arrays) based on novel materials to increase the selectivity of the sensors. He is also part of the NATO AMOXES project, in which he is preparing an innovative electro-optical chemical nano-sensor for modern distributed sensing platforms. The idea is to combine two different transduction principles on a single sensing device.

Ms Arianna Cembran

Arianna’s project is focused on the implementation of novel nanomaterials with the gene therapy as a treatment for neurodegenerative diseases. The idea is to use viral vectors to extend the duration neurotrophic factors delivery in the CNS. The Nisbet group has engineering programmable SAPs that improve the spatial and temporal controlled delivery of therapeutic transgenes. She is investigating this project both in vitro and in vivo.

Mr Deepu Ashok

Deepu’s research is focussed on developing novel strategies against the rise of superbugs. He is studying two main antibacterial mechanisms – anti biofouling and bactericidal and working on incorporating them onto solid surfaces as an alternative to the conventional antibiotic prophylaxis. The research here gives utmost significance to its translation to the real world, to combat hospital-acquired infections and marine biofouling.

To see previous PhD students, click here.