Lauren is an instrument scientist in the SANS group at ISIS, working on the Sans2d instrument.
She completed her PhD in Functional Nanomaterials at the University of Bristol (completed in 2020) in the group of Prof. Wuge Briscoe and as a member of the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials. Her PhD thesis was titled: "Hierarchical Self-Assembly in Hydrogen-Bonding Rich Green Nonaqueous Solvents" and involved investigating the assembly of surfactants and lipids in nonaqueous polar media, a topic that interests her to this day. Prior to that she graduated with an MChem undergraduate degree from the University of Bath (completed in 2015), performing her Master's research in the group of Prof. Gareth Price, where she synthesised block copolymers for use as drug delivery vehicles.
After finishing her studies, she pursued scientific positions at large scale facilities due to an interest in small-angle scattering techniques. First, as a postdoctoral researcher at the TRUSAXS (ID02) beamline at the ESRF, Grenoble, France (October 2020 - April 2022), and then as the beamline scientist on the same beamline (April 2022 - February 2024). Here, she continued her research into nonaqueous solvents, but also into other areas of soft matter, for instance protein-liposome interactions, microemulsions, and out-of-equilibrium processes. She also became more interested in exciting sample environments, such as stopped-flow rapid mixing (SF-SAS), and rheology coupled with SAS (rheo-SAS).
Lauren's scientific interests focus on self-assembly of surfactants and lipids, particularly in nonaqueous polar media, and more recently out-of-equilibrium processes, using SF-SAS and rheo-SAS. She also has a more general interest in using unique and novel sample environments for performing experiments, and is more than happy to discuss/collaborate on this with colleagues.
Selected publications:
- "The curious case of SDS self-assembly in glycerol: Formation of a lamellar gel"; L. Matthews, Z. Przybylowicz, S. E. Rogers, P. Barlett, A. J. Johnson, R. Sochon, and W. H. Briscoe, J. Colloid Interface Sci., 2020, 572, 384-395. (Self-assembly in nonaqueous solvents).
- "Structural changes in lipid mesophases due to intercalation of dendritic polymer nanoparticles: Swollen lamellae, suppressed curvature, and augmented structural disorder"; L. J. Fox, L. Matthews, H. Stockdale, S. Pichai, T. Snow, R. M. Richardson, and W. H. Briscoe, Acta Biomater., 2019, 104, 198-209. (High-pressure SAXS).
- "Structural and dynamical aspects of extremely swollen lyotropic phases"; L. Matthews, and T. Narayanan, Colloids Surfaces A, 2022, 649, 129409. (Combined SAXS and XPCS study on hierarchical emulsified microemulsions).
- "Real‐Time pH‐Dependent Self‐Assembly of Ionisable Lipids from COVID‐19 Vaccines and In Situ Nucleic Acid Complexation"; H. Yu, A. Angelova, B. Angelov, B. Dyett, L. Matthews, Y. Zhang, M. E. Mohamad, X. Cai, S. Valimehr, C. J. Drummond, and J. Zhai, Angew. Chem., 2023, 135, e202304977. (pH induced changes using stopped-flow rapid mixing in the COVID-19 vaccine).
- "Advances in synchrotron scattering methods for probing the self-assembly pathways in dilute surfactant solutions"; L. Matthews and T. Narayanan, Colloid Polym. Sci., 2023, 301, 721-728. (Technical stopped-flow SAXS paper where low-concentration mixtures of catanionic surfactants - below CMC - were investigated).
- "Unusual Structural Insights Revealed by Rheo–SAXS Studies of Nonaqueous Crystalline Gels"; L. Matthews, and M. Schmetterer, Langmuir, 2024, 40, 4207-4217. (In-situ foaming using rheo-SAXS).
Lauren Matthews publications listed in ePubs
SANS Group | SANS Instruments | SANS Team | Science | Sample Environment | Data Analysis
