Professor Paul Beales
- Position: Professor of Soft Matter and Biophysics
- Areas of expertise: Engineering Biology; Artificial Cells; Membrane Biophysics; Bionanotechnology; Soft Matter; Nanomedicine; Vesicle Technologies; Biological Physics; Hydrogels; Microfluidics; Biomolecular Self-Assembly
- Email: P.A.Beales@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 9101
- Location: 1.13 Chemistry Building
- Website: Beales Research Group | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | ORCID
Profile
Professor Beales joined Leeds as a Senior Research Fellow in November 2010 before being promoted to Lecturer (2015), Associate Professor (2016), then Professor of Soft Matter and Biophysics (2022). Prior to Leeds, Paul obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2005) before undertaking postdoctoral appointments at Princeton University (2005-2008) and Yale University (2008-2010). Paul currently sits on the Network Coordination Committee of the EU SoftComp Network and the Accreditation Committee of the Society for Natural Sciences.
Responsibilities
- Research Section Head, Functional Materials and Molecular Assemblies
- Chair, Engineering Biology Steering Group
Research interests
Our research is highly interdisciplinary at the interface of physics, chemistry and biology. We are interested in understanding, characterising and engineering of soft and biological materials. Motivation can be taken from several perspectives, including understanding fundamental physical properties and interactions of macromolecular and supramolecular structures in living systems, developing our understanding of life through efforts to reconstitute cellular processes and functions within minimal systems and the design of novel materials with technological applications, in particular we have interests in developing new materials for the formulation and delivery of drugs to develop the next generation of smart medicines.
The main focus of many of our projects revolves around self-assembled membranes, using them as models for biological membranes or harnessing their capacity for encapsulation of chemical cargo or processes within the lumen of vesicle architectures. Vesicles are of interest for development of novel technologies including nanomedicines, nanoreactors, controlled release systems and artificial cells.
Professional memberships
- Institute of Physics
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Society for Natural Sciences
Student education
My teaching responsibilities mainly lie in the area of physical chemistry. I currently teach introductory mathematics as well as quantum mechanics and spectroscopy to our first year students. I also lead the interdisciplinary skills module for our second year Natural Sciences students and also teach topics in soft matter in the later years of our Chemistry programme.
Research groups and institutes
- Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry
- Crystallisation and Directed Assembly