Dr Arwen Tyler

Profile

Arwen joined the School of Food Science and Nutrition as a University Academic Fellow and Group Leader in September 2016, having previously been a PDRA and Fellow at Imperial College London.

Research interests

Controlling the structure and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of soft matter systems is vitally important in a wide variety of critical research areas including the food and pharmaceutical industries. Despite the huge importance of this field, there remain significant barriers to its study, primarily the ability to control the size, shape and stability of soft matter systems and their dispersions, as well as triggering their structural evolution and time-resolved probing of dynamic structures.

My group is interested in the fundamental understanding of the self-assembly of lipids and their interactions with biomolecules from a soft condensed matter perspective. In particular, we are interested in:

• Understanding the lipid molecular features that preferentially drive formation of various lipid phases or tune their size and to ultimately develop engineering rules to tailor these structures for particular biomedical and biotechnological applications.
• Developing targeted and stimuli-responsive lipid nanocarriers for delivery of bioactives.
• Investigating the kinetics and dynamics of structural transitions in soft matter systems with time-resolved techniques, using high pressure- or pH-jumps as a structural trigger to provide mechanistic and energetic insights.

We probe the equilibrium and dynamic phase behaviour of these systems using x-ray and neutron scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy, cryo-TEM, DSC, DLS and solid state NMR.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

• PhD
• MRes
• MSci

Research groups and institutes

• Food Colloids and Processing
• Food Colloids and Soft Matter at Interfaces
• Novel Food Design and Processing
• Digestion and Delivery

Current postgraduate researchers

• Aygul Can
• Iain Lawson

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>

Projects

<li><a href="//phd.leeds.ac.uk/project/1786-engineering-dynamic,-functional-membrane-interfaces-for-artificial-cells">Engineering dynamic, functional membrane interfaces for artificial cells</a></li>