DrLucia Lombardi

Group website: lucialombardi-researchlab.com

Lucia is an Honorary Lecturer at Imperial College London and a Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast. Additionally, she is co-director of the Association of Italian Scientists in the UK and a member of the RSC Protein and Peptide Science Group Committee.

Throughout her career, Lucia's work in chemistry has been closely intertwined with biology, with a particular focus on supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology. Her journey in this field began at the University of Naples where she utilised EPR spectroscopy to analyse hyaluronan hydrogels containing lipid micelles for potential drug delivery applications. Subsequently, she investigated a cell-penetrating peptide derived from a glycoprotein of the Herpes Simplex I virus, exploring its role in viral fusion. Moreover, she gained expertise in neutron reflectometry at the Institut Laue-Langevin (France), applying this technique to study cholesterol movements in lipid-bilayer membranes.

During her PhD, Lucia delved deeper into the study of lipids and their interactions with membranotropic peptides, focusing on designing, synthesising, and characterising novel biomaterials with antiviral and antimicrobial properties, as well as exploring cell-penetrating peptides for drug delivery and overcoming the blood-brain barrier.

In her postdoctoral roles, Lucia continued to expand her expertise. At Columbia University, she investigated virus-like particles to understand the entry mechanisms of enveloped viruses. Later, at the University of Naples, she explored peptides and peptide-functionalised nanosystems for biomedical applications. Subsequently, at the University of Tours in France, she focused on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for targeted drug delivery before joining the Woolfson Group at the University of Bristol, where she explored α-helical barrels for supramolecular host-guest interactions.

From 2021 to 2024, she worked in Imperial on a project funded by EPSRC and Lilly, aimed at expediting peptide-based drug development for oral administration. This project emphasises her dedication to advancing pharmaceutical research, recognised by the IChemE Global Pharma award. Her research focuses on developing a high-throughput liquid chromatography method to study the interaction between peptide therapeutics, cell permeation enhancers, and immobilised lipid bilayers, mimicking intestinal cell plasma membranes. Beyond this, Lucia is also involved in exploring novel vaccine delivery systems, utilising artificial cell tissues as screening tools for new drug discovery and speeding up antibiotic development, and developing new biomaterials tailored for delivering peptide drugs into cells.