Yu Pen is a graduate of National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan, where he studied Chemical Engineering. He came to Sheffield to do his Ph.D. in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering under the guidance of Dr Robert Edyvean. In fact Yu has something of a background in polymers, and Robert thought it would be a good idea to jointly supervise Yu with me. The bonus here is that we could integrate Yu's work with that of the Cell-Mineral Interface consortium. So. for this aspect of his work, Yu will be working with Jason on the conformational properties of mycolic acid, which is not a polymer. Anyway, mycolic acid is a biosurfactant that is predominant in the cell wall of mycobacteria. The best known mycobacterium is that of tuberculosis, so we are presently looking at that. Yu is pictured here with our wonderful new quartz crystal microbalance.
Dr Robert Edyvean (Chemical and Process Engineering)
Email: y.pen_AT_sheffield.ac.uk
Publications
M. Geoghegan, J. S. Andrews, C. A. Biggs, K. E. Eboigbodin, D. R. Elliott, S. Rolfe, J. Scholes, J. J. Ojeda, M. E. Romero-González, R. G. J. Edyvean, L. Swanson, R. Rutkaite, R. Fernando, Y. Pen, Z. Zhang, and S. A. Banwart “The polymer physics and chemistry of microbial cell attachment and adhesion” Faraday Discuss. 139 85-103 (2008).