Associate ProfessorRichard Williams

I work in the field of regenerative medicine, where I develop naturally inspired nanostructured materials to guide the formation of new tissue, drug delivery and tissue engineered constructs via biofabrication.

I am an A/Prof in the School of Medicine, I am visiting professor in Engineering at RMIT University, fellow
of the Graeme Clarke Institute, Biopolymer Assessment node leader in Center for Sustainable Bioproducts, aligned
with the CRC-Marine Bioproducts, theme leader in IMPACT at Deakin, and head of The Laboratory of Synthetic Living Matter. 

I teach a final year unit in cell and Tissue engineering, focussing on stem cell therapy and Biomaterials and have developed industry linked assessments that ensure job ready graduates are produced ready for work or continued education at honors and PhD level.

I have an extensive track record in developing sophisticated nanoscaffolds for a variety of applications, including biomedical and surface science. My research is highly collaborative with many studies being carried out between multiple labs, without outputs in leading journals including high impact publications such as Nature Nanotechnology, Advanced Materials, Materials Horizons, the Chemical Engineering Journal and Advanced Functional Materials.

[1] Williams, R.J. et al 2009, Nature Nanotechnology
Journal Normalized Citation Impact (JNCI) 1.36, 501 citations. This work, which formed the basis of my PhD studies, was the first report of the thermodynamic driving force that determines peptide self-assembly, and the first mechanism reported of biocatalytic control.
[2] Smith, A.M., et al 2008, Advanced Materials
JNCI 3.63, 939 citations. First reported structure for Fmoc-peptide assembly. This work is the foundational paper in the field. I was instrumental in novel ways to gather and interpret data to form a model that has gone on to be used worldwide.
[3]Rodriguez, A.L, et al. 2013 Soft Matter.
JNCI 1.7, 71 cites. In this work, we demonstrated a novel way to incorporate otherwise unstable sequences into minimalist peptides for assembly, which has established an ongoing collaborative network, uses both in vivo and in vitro, and has led to multiple patents and grant successes across UWA, the ANU, the Florey, Melbourne University, RMIT and Deakin.
[4] Williams, R.J. et al 2011 Biomaterials.
IF 12.45 81 cites. The first report of Fmoc-Saps sustaining an therapeutic environment in vivo, this work was completed at CSIRO, and led to a worldwide patent which is being commercialised.
[5]Horgan, C. et al. 2016. JNCI 1.7, 64 cites. First report of a self-sorted system that enables the presentation of multiple bioactive epitopes. This has gone on to inspire a range of tissue designed materials.
[6] Maclean, F. et al 2018 Advanced Materials IF 29.4. 41 cites. This work was done in industrial collaboration, resulting in significant global attention for an Australian pharmaceutical company.
[7] Firipis, K. et al 2021. ACS Biomaterials and Engineering.
[8] Li, R et al 2015, RSC Advances JNCI 1.7, 71 cites. This led to invited research visits to the University of Liverpool and Strathclyde University.
[9] Somaa, F.A. et al 2017. JNCI 1.8, 97 cites. First reported use of SAP gels for cell transplant to the Brain.
[10 ]Sarker, A et al 2019, Materialia. JNCI 2.73, 51 cites. Here we reported a novel way to control biofilm formation on metallic implants, via facile manufacturing approaches that have been incorporated into additively manufactured implants.