Professor David Phoenix

I am the Vice Chancellor of London South Bank University and CEO of LSBU Group. In addition to being the accountable officer for the University, I am accountable Officer for South bank Colleges and Principle Accounting Officer for South Bank Academies. I was elected to Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) for my contribution to medical research and education and recognized as an Academician by the Academy of Social Sciences for my work in areas linked to educational policy. I am a Director of Universities UK and the elected lead for funding policy.

My research is multidisciplinary and draws on a range of specialisms including, biology, chemistry, engineering, physics and computational modelling to help develop understanding of the structure function relationships used by amphiphilic bioactive molecules. The term ‘‘peptide-amphiphile’’ can be used to describe amphiphilic peptides consisting only of amino acids that show segregation of charged and uncharged components within the primary or secondary structure. Alternatively they may be composed of hydrophilic peptides linked to hydrophobic alkyl chains or lipids, and peptide based copolymers. Such molecules are of significant biological importance due to the range of asymmetric boundaries that occur in nature such as those found at a membrane lipid interface. Amphiphilic protein sequences can be involved in protein targeting, membrane protein assembly as well as membrane fusion and lysis. In addition to amphiphilic peptides possessing key biological functions amphiphiles are becoming of increasing interest in the creation of new biomaterials. Amphiphiles can self-assemble into a variety of different structures such as micelles, vesicles, monolayers, bilayers, nanofibres, nanotapes, ribbons, and twisted ribbons, to minimise unfavorable interactions with their surroundings. A key aspect of his work involves the development of bioactive peptides and new biomaterials with biomedical application.