Professor of Supramolecular & Polymer Chemistry / Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis

What we do

Our research interests include the synthesis of functional nanosystems, controlled polymer architectures and dynamic supramolecular assemblies through molecular recognition processes.

The underlying theme of our research lies at the interface between synthetic organic efforts on small molecules and macroscopic properties at the materials level, developing a macro-organic approach to chemistry. Dynamic supramolecular self-assembly of materials will be an area of great importance in the coming years, allowing for innovations in nanotechnology and at the biological and chemical interfaces.

We are particularly interested in exploring topics such as water-soluble and stimuli-responsive materials, template and imprinting technologies of functional polymers for use in chiral separations and enantioselective catalysis, and controlling material morphologies and architectures both in solution and in the solid state through rational design and a multi-step, hierarchical self-assembly process.

Watch Professor Scherman discuss his research

Take a tour of the Scherman Lab

Publications

Kinetically Arrested SERS-Active Aggregates for Biosensing
NS Potter, K Sokołowski, RL Sala, JA McCune, OA Scherman
Chemistry – A European Journal
(2025)
31
Supramolecular Conductive Hydrogels With Homogeneous Ionic and Electronic Transport
SJK O'Neill, M Ashizawa, AM McLean, RR-M Serrano, T Shimura, M Agetsuma, M Tsutsumi, T Nemoto, CDJ Parmenter, JA McCune, GG Malliaras, N Matsuhisa, OA Scherman
Adv Mater
(2025)
37
An All-in-One Nanoheater and Optical Thermometer Fabricated from Fractal Nanoparticle Assemblies
WH Skinner, RL Sala, K Sokolowski, I Blein-Dezayes, NS Potter, S Mosca, B Gardner, JJ Baumberg, P Matousek, OA Scherman, N Stone
ACS nano
(2025)
19
Explainable Deep Learning Framework for SERS Bio-quantification
JK Zaki, J Tomasik, JA McCune, S Bahn, P Liò, OA Scherman
(2024)
Osmolyte-induced protein stability changes explained by graph theory
M Miotto, N Warner, G Ruocco, GG Tartaglia, OA Scherman, E Milanetti
Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal
(2024)
23
Biomimetic Entropy-Dominant Molecular Hinges with Picomolar Affinity
Z Huang, AS Groombridge, G Wu, M Olesińska, X Chen, JA McCune, OA Scherman
J Am Chem Soc
(2024)
146
Highly stretchable dynamic hydrogels for soft multilayer electronics
S O'Neill, Z Huang, X Chen, R Sala, J McCune, G Malliaras, O Scherman
Science Advances
(2024)
10
An improved imaging surface for quantitative single-molecule microscopy
YP Zhang, E Lobanova, A Dworkin, M Furlepa, WS Yang, M Burke, JX Meng, N Potter, RL Sala, L Kahanawita, F Layburn, OA Scherman, CH Williams-Gray, D Klenerman
ACS applied materials & interfaces
(2024)
16
Meta-Analysis of Urinary Metabolite GWAS Studies Identifies Three Novel Genome-Wide Significant Loci
JK Zaki, J Tomasik, J McCune, O Scherman, S Bahn
(2024)
Single-Molecule Stoichiometry of Supramolecular Complexes.
A McLean, RL Sala, BW Longbottom, AR Carr, JA McCune, SF Lee, OA Scherman
J Am Chem Soc
(2024)
146

Telephone number

01223 334372 (shared), 01223 331797

Email address

College