Professor Tuomas Knowles | Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

Professor of Physical Chemistry and Biophysics

1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry

Our research

We study the physical and chemical aspects of the behaviour of biopolymers and other soft systems. Much of our work has been focused on the physical aspects underlying the self-assembly of protein molecules. Self-organisation is the driving force generating complex matter in nature, and the process by which the machinery providing functionality in living systems is assembled. The goal of our research is to understand the physical and chemical factors which control the structures and dynamics of biomolecular assemblies, and the connections between the nanoscale characteristics of the component molecules and the physical properties of large-scale assemblies and their behaviour on a mesoscopic to macroscopic scale. The techniques used in our laboratory include biosensors, optical lithography, microfluidic devices and scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy. We work both with natural and synthetic polymers and our interests range from fundamental chemical physics to technological applications in material science and molecular medicine.

Watch Professor Knowles discuss his research

Take a tour of the Sir Rodney Sweetnam laboratory

Publications

Frequency Factors in a Landscape Model of Filamentous Protein Aggregation

AK Buell, JR Blundell, CM Dobson, ME Welland, EM Terentjev, TPJ Knowles

Physical Review Letters

(2010)

104

228101

(doi: 10.1103/physrevlett.104.228101)

Protein Aggregation in Crowded Environments

DA White, AK Buell, TPJ Knowles, ME Welland, CM Dobson

Journal of the American Chemical Society

(2010)

132

5170

(doi: 10.1021/ja909997e)

The Interaction of alpha B-Crystallin with Mature alpha-Synuclein Amyloid Fibrils Inhibits Their Elongation

CA Waudby, TPJ Knowles, GL Devlin, JN Skepper, H Ecroyd, JA Carver, ME Welland, J Christodoulou, CM Dobson, S Meehan

Biophys J

(2010)

98

843

(doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2009.10.056)

Nanostructured films from hierarchical self-assembly of amyloidogenic proteins.

TPJ Knowles, TW Oppenheim, AK Buell, DY Chirgadze, ME Welland

Nature Nanotechnology

(2010)

5

204

(doi: 10.1038/nnano.2010.26)

Methods and models in neurodegenerative and systemic protein aggregation diseases.

A-C Brorsson, JR Kumita, I MacLeod, B Bolognesi, E Speretta, LM Luheshi, TPJ Knowles, CM Dobson, DC Crowther

Front Biosci (Landmark Ed)

(2010)

15

373

(doi: 10.2741/3626)

An Analytical Solution to the Kinetics of Breakable Filament Assembly

TPJ Knowles, CA Waudby, GL Devlin, SIA Cohen, A Aguzzi, M Vendruscolo, EM Terentjev, ME Welland, CM Dobson

Science

(2009)

326

1533

(doi: 10.1126/science.1178250)

Strength of nanotubes, filaments, and nanowires from sonication-onduced scission

YY Huang, TPJ Knowles, EM Terentjev

Advanced Materials

(2009)

21

3945

(doi: 10.1002/adma.200900498)

Fabrication and characterisation of protein fibril–elastomer composites

T Oppenheim, TPJ Knowles, SP Lacour, ME Welland

Acta Biomater

(2009)

6

1337

(doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2009.10.013)

Imaging Amyloid Fibrils within Cells Using a Se-Labelling Strategy

AE Porter, TPJ Knowles, K Muller, S Meehan, E McGuire, J Skepper, ME Welland, CM Dobson

J Mol Biol

(2009)

392

868

(doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2009.07.061)

Biosensor-based label-free assays of amyloid growth.

DA White, AK Buell, CM Dobson, ME Welland, TPJ Knowles

FEBS Letters

(2009)

583

2587

(doi: 10.1016/j.febslet.2009.06.008)