Dr Bing Zan is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Chemistry at King’s College London, working under the supervision of Professor Ismael Diez Perez. Her current research focuses on the design and engineering of peptide-functionalised interfaces integrated within microfluidic platforms for the detection of cancer cells. This work aims to translate fundamental insights into peptide-membrane interactions into diagnostic technologies with potential clinical impact.

Bing received her PhD in Physics through a joint programme between Shanghai Jiao Tong University and King’s College London, where she focused on understanding biomolecular structure, conformational change, and interaction in biologically relevant environments, with particular emphasis on peptide-membrane interactions for therapeutic and biotechnological applications. Her work followed an integrated ‘in silico to wet lab’ pipeline: peptides were first rationally designed using molecular dynamics simulations to predict structure, dynamics, and membrane interaction behaviour, and then experimentally screened and validated using fluorescence spectroscopy, microscopy, vesicle assays, and cell-based measurements. Her research has led to publications in Journal of the American Chemical Society, Angewandte Chemie, Chemical Science, etc. She is committed to interdisciplinary research bridging fundamental biophysics and translational biomedical applications.

Research

• Peptide-functionalised surfaces integrated with microfluidic platforms for biomedical detection
• Mechanism study of membrane-active peptides
• Design of peptides with biomedical applications
• Integration of computational and experimental biophysics

Bing’s research focuses on the applications of membrane-active peptides, drawing on principles from membrane biophysics to develop functional biointerfaces for biomedical use.