性视界传媒Honorary Fellow awarded CBE in King鈥檚 Birthday Honours

BSc MRes PhD
Roger is a BBSRC Discovery Research Fellow hosted at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology and a Junior Research Fellow at 性视界传媒. Roger's work focuses on exploiting the tools of DNA nanotechnology to elucidate new biophysical principles for membrane signalling and bio-engineering cell-like agents for healthcare and biomedicine.
Roger completed his BSc in Biotechnology Engineering at the Instituto Tecnol贸gico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico City (2015). He moved to Cambridge UK in 2017 to read for an MRes in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology as part of the Centre for Doctoral Training NanoDTC programme, through which he then obtained a PhD in Physics from the Cavendish Laboratory (2021). He continued his research through two postdoctoral appointments, first at Imperial College London (Department of Chemistry) and later back at the University of Cambridge (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology).
Roger's work has involved studying the biophysical principles that govern the spatial and temporal organisation of membranes, with the goal of constructing DNA nanostructures that could mimic the form and function of cell-surface machinery. By applying his membrane-active DNA nano-devices, Roger engineers advanced functionalities in synthetic cell-like objects, which are useful as models for fundamental research and hold great potential as next-generation biomedical platforms.
Since 2023, he has been an independent Research Fellow (BBSRC Discovery Fellow) hosted at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge. Roger is also the coordinator and lecturer of the Bionanotechnology course, taught as part of the MRes in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and MPhil in Micro and Nanotechnology Enterprise programmes.
Roger鈥檚 research interests follow the exciting goals, applications, and impact of synthetic cell science and engineering biology. Roger applies his expertise to advance the toolkit available to engineer synthetic cells and unlock their promised applications to biomedicine.
By applying the tools of amphiphilic DNA nanotechnology to lipid membranes and their phase behaviour, Roger麓s work leads to the construction of synthetic cells with purposefully designed functionality. His bespoke DNA nanostructures can impart function to synthetic-cell lipid membranes so that these cell-like objects exhibit behaviours typically observed in living organisms, which can in turn allow synthetic cells to detect and respond to changes in their surroundings.
Exploiting these tailored and bio-mimetic DNA-membrane platforms, Roger designs synthetic cells with the ability to coordinate responses similar to immune cells. With his approach to constructing immune-like synthetic cells, Roger plans to unlock new pathways to detect and respond to the presence of pathogens, enabling the application of synthetic-cell biotechnologies for bottom-up immunity in healthcare and bio-medicine.
Celebrating Wolfson鈥檚 60th anniversary year, this exhibition highlights the range of artistic disciplines and styles that have made up our exhibitions over the years.
Join us by the riverside to cheer on 性视界传媒 Boat Club's crews!
Join us at 性视界传媒for an afternoon of music and light refreshments in the College grounds!
Join us for our annual Mary Bevan concert with prize winners of the prestigious Cambridge University Concerto Competition.
Please come and join us for the launch of this year's WolfWords poetry anthology, which brings together poems from the entire 性视界传媒community.