Marcus Dymond

Lipidomics, 3D-printing, fundamental studies of amphiphile phase behaviour and biological assays of protein activity in the presence of lipids and DNA. Current projects in lipidomics look at how cells regulate their lipid composition and how this impacts the activity of membrane interacting proteins. 3D printing projects explore applications at the interface of the chemical and biological sciences. One of the attractive ideas here is the ability to make our own lab equipment, particularly for preliminary studies and for outreach activities as well as sensor systems.

Dr Dymond read chemistry at the University of Bath, before undertaking a PhD in membrane biophysics at the University of Southampton, graduating in 2002. His PhD project investigated the mechnism of action of a series of anti cancer compounds related to metelfosine. His first post-doctoral research position was also at the University of Southampton researching the role of lipids and membrane curvature elastic stress in the regulation of lipid interacting proteins. From 2005 to 2009 he was the technical project manager on the FP6 grant Neonuclei, one of the first in vitro synthetic biology project in Europe, which looked at using physical mechanisms to control gene transcription in simple synthetic analogues of cell nuclei. In 2010 he was appointed to senior research fellowship at the University of Southampton where he pioneered the use of data driven modelling as a bioinformatic method for analysing metabolomic lipid data, focused towards disentangling the regulatory mechanisms of phospholipid homeostasis. During this time, with colleagues at the University of Southampton he developled synthetic biology lecture modules and a scholarly interest in the ethics of synthetic biology.

In 2013 Dr Dymond was appointed to a lectureship at the University of Brighton, in addition to his research interests in lipidomics and membrane biophysics he has developed research interests in 3D printing spectrophotmetirc biosensors containing multiple enzymes and reaction pathways. He teaches physical chemistry and biophysics.

My approach to teaching combines lectures with problem based learning. I teach on a number of different courses at both undergraduate and Master's level. At lower levels i develop knowledge of physico-chemico processes and at higher levels I show how these underlying principles are critical to regulating function in biological systems and/ or molecular interactions.

I supervise PhD students who work at the interface between chemistry and biological systems. Current/ recent PhD students use lipidomics to understand the role of lipids in stress. disease or aging, develop 3D printed biosensors, assess the impact of chemical additives on biofuel production or develop new materials for deployment in biological systems. Please contact me if you wish to discuss a potential PhD project.