Dr Gemma-Louise Davies, associate professor of nanomaterials at the University of Birmingham is the 2025 recipient of the McBain Medal. Davies’ research programme focuses on the design of colloidal materials, where she has made major contributions to the development of nanocomposites through an interdisciplinary approach.
Can you tell us a little about your research and its impact?
My research focuses on designing and developing colloidal nanomaterials with tailored structure and function, particularly for applications in healthcare and diagnostics. We work on engineering multifunctional nanoparticles that can act as advanced MRI contrast agents, targeted drug delivery vehicles and other biomedical tools, leveraging their unique colloidal and surface properties to enhance performance and safety compared with conventional agents.
The impact of this research is significant because it contributes to improved medical imaging and targeted therapies, which can lead to earlier disease diagnosis and more effective treatments with fewer side effects. Our findings also advance fundamental understanding of how nanostructure and surface chemistry influence biological interactions.
What makes this area of research so interesting, and why is it important?
Colloid and nanomaterial science sits at the intersection of chemistry, physics, biology and materials engineering, making it inherently interdisciplinary and intellectually diverse. Colloids behave very differently from bulk materials due to their high surface areas and surface phenomena, enabling entirely new functions with almost unlimited versatility. The ability to carefully engineer colloidal particles is important to allow such materials to be tailored to address pressing challenges in a variety of applications, from healthcare to environmental sustainability, energy and industrial processes. By tuning particle size, composition and surface chemistry, we can design smarter, safer, and more efficient technologies that were not previously possible.
How has the field of colloids evolved since you’ve been working in it?
When I began my career, terms like ‘interdisciplinary’ and ‘multifunctional’ were only emerging and seen as the future of the field. And this has proven to be the most significant direction of colloids, expanding to show that large teams from different fields are necessary to realise their application and optimal design and use. The pace of innovation in synthesis, characterisation and computational modelling has transformed what we can aim to do - from basic stability studies to designing complex multifunctional systems for real applications.
Are there still discoveries to be made?
Absolutely – it wouldn’t be the popular field it most certainly is without the broad future possibilities! Colloid and interface science remains a cutting-edge field, particularly as we apply it to biomedicine, sustainable technologies, and complex fluids. Many aspects of how colloidal systems interact in biological environments or function under real-world processing conditions are still not fully understood. These unknowns present rich opportunities for transformative discoveries.
How important is industry collaboration to you?
Industry collaboration is crucial. Many of the challenges we address require not just fundamental insight but practical and real-world integration. Working with industry helps ensure that our innovations are aligned with clinical and commercial needs, accelerates translation, considers scalability and helps secure funding and infrastructure necessary for moving technologies from lab to application.
What impact does the award have?
Being awarded the RSC/SCI McBain Medal is both a personal honour and a professional milestone. It is particularly meaningful because it recognises research that has been intentionally developed at the interface of fundamental colloid science and real-world application, highlighting the value of deeply understanding core principles and translating them into unique functionality.
The award also reflects the sustained effort behind this work and, importantly, acknowledges the dedication and creativity of my research team, past and present — without their commitment, curiosity and hard work, none of this would have been possible.
The McBain Medal is awarded annually by the Joint Colloids Group, a collaboration between the SCI and the Royal Society of Chemistry. It recognises early career researchers and technologists who have made a significant contribution to Colloid and Interface Science within 15 years of completing postgraduate study.
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