ECS - Researcher Profiles - Dr Maurits de Planque

Dr Maurits de Planque, Academic Staff in Nanoscale Systems Integration and Science & Engineering of Natural Systems

Dr Maurits de Planque is fascinated by new methods to study biomolecules which is why he came to the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

‘Southampton is well ahead of the game in terms of fabrication of nanostructures,’ he said. ‘We are also very committed to research at the life sciences interface - the new Southampton Nanofabrication Centre and the new Institute for Life Sciences are going to make a fantastic combination.'

Maurits’ interest in biomolecules began at a young age. During his last year at school in The Netherlands, he enjoyed the biological bits of his chemistry classes and the chemical part of his biology classes.

This led him to study chemistry at Utrecht University and to go on to specialise in biochemistry. During his degree, he thought that he would like to work in the applied medical sector, so he spent nine months working on a research project in Medical Microbiology in a hospital.

‘I didn’t enjoy that much,’ he said. ‘I found it very boring and repetitive and low-tech.’

He decided that he wanted to do something more analytical so he finished his degree and embarked on a PhD in Membrane Biophysics at Utrecht University, which he completed in 2000.

During his PhD, he came to realise that although a third of all proteins in our body are membrane proteins, they are not as well researched as soluble ones. That is because most of the methods in the biochemical and biophysical 'toolkit' have been developed for soluble proteins, and they don't work so well for the more hydrophobic membrane proteins.

‘But most of the pharmaceutical drugs have a membrane protein target,’ he said. ‘So it is very important for us to know what they look like and to understand how they work.’

He found that small membrane protein segments can be studied in great detail when they are incorporated in artificial cell membranes (lipid bilayers), and he felt very committed to developing these model membranes further so that they could be used for the more complicated membrane proteins that are promising drug targets.

After Maurits finished his PhD, he embarked on several postdoctoral research projects, one at the University of Melbourne where he continued his research into model membranes, and the other at Utrecht University where he looked at DNA-binding proteins.

Then in 2003, he came to the UK and spent four years at the Biochemistry and Physics Departments at the University of Oxford. While there he collaborated with Professor Hywel Morgan, head of the Bioelectronics group at ECS, on methods to deliver membrane proteins to model membranes in miniaturised electrical recording systems.

‘The smaller these measuring devices, the more membranes you can make and the more measurements you can do, so you can find out much more quickly which new drugs have an effect on membrane protein channels,’ he said.

He also worked with carbon nanotubes, tiny structures which could be used as medical biosensors once their interactions with biomolecules are fully understood, and managed to coat them with model membranes.

‘That had never been done before, and this opens the way to develop nanotube sensors with the pharmacologically important membrane proteins,’ he said. ‘The integration of biomolecules with nanofabricated structures such as carbon nanotubes is an enormously promising research field - bionanotechnology is about combining the best of nanoscale electronics with the best of biochemistry and is going to have a huge impact on our lives.’

In 2007, Maurits joined ECS.

‘I was very pleased to be offered a permanent position at ECS,’ he said. ‘The School has lots of bioelectronics and nanofabrication research going on and it is a very multi-disciplinary, open-minded school with lots of facilities and collaborations with life sciences groups throughout the University.’
At the moment, he is working on different projects that involve nanoparticles, model membranes, and electrical measurements.

His ultimate aim is to develop routine methods to functionally interface biomolecules with nanofabricated structures.

If time and money were no object, he would develop tiny but very sensitive biosensors that can be used for high-throughput research on membrane proteins and for in-body medical diagnostics.

‘I think that the range of smaller tools which would come with lab-on-a-chip would open up lots of possibilities,’ he said. ‘It would certainly open up understanding of membrane proteins and therefore more effective drug delivery.’