This lecture is organised by the Society of Spanish Researchers in the UK (SRUK)

Sciences and technologies are converging in science labs and in scientists’ lives, so Professor Sonia Contera, Oxford Martin Senior Fellow, will use her own life and career as a physicist as a template to go through the history, the present, and her vision for the future of medicine.

She will discuss how she foresees that the arrival of truly personalised medicine - nanotechnology-based materials will be used to collect information on the molecular details of diseases, which will then will be used to build mechanistic models of the biological processes - whhich are informed by these models and large amounts of real time data, treatments will be designed using increasingly sophisticated algorithms that will determine how and when nanostructured materials will be used to e.g. deliver drugs or facilitate gene editing for each individual patient.

About the speaker

Sonia Contera is Associate Professor in Biological Physics at Oxford Physics Department and was Co-Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Nanotechnology for Medicine, which was part of the Oxford Martin School from 2008-2013. She remains connected with the School through her role as an Oxford Martin Senior Fellow.

Linking biological physics with bio/medicine using nanoscience. - Nanophysics for medicine, (drug-delivery, nanocomposites for tissue engineering, biosensing). - Physics in biology at the nanoscale (cell mechanical properties, single molecule nanomechanics, membrane protein biophysics, DNA nanomechanics, molecular motors, membrane biophysics) - Molecular forces in biology, physicochemical interactions at bionano-interfaces, nanostructure/biomolecule/cells interactions - High-resolution/high-speed/ atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning probe microscopy in biology, mechanical properties mapping. - Force spectroscopy - Interfaces: nanostructured surfaces/liquid-solid interfaces, nano-bio interfaces.