Dr Julia Rho PhD, MChem

Dr Julia Rho

School of Chemistry
Group Leader in the O'Reilly Research Group

Contact details

Address
School of Chemistry
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Julia Rho is a Group Leader in the O’Reilly Research Group. 

Her research focuses building functional supramolecular polymers for a range of applications including drug and gene delivery. 

Julia did her Masters (MChem) and PhD in Chemistry at the University of Warwick. Following this, she worked in the Sumerlin group at the University of Florida and then went on to Warwick Medical School before joining the School of Chemistry at Birmingham.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Chemistry, University of Warwick, 2019
  • MChem in Chemistry, University of Warwick, 2015

Biography

Julia Rho was born in London. In 2015, she undertook an undergraduate and Masters (MChem) at the University of Warwick. 

In 2019, she continued at Warwick to obtain her PhD in Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Sebastien Perrier, investigating the dynamic nature of self-assembling cyclic peptide-polymer nanotubes. 

She then went on start her postdoctoral research at the Butler Polymer Laboratory at the University of Florida under the supervision of Prof. Brent Sumerlin, where she worked several projects including cyclic polymers, complex coacervates and photo-initiated polymerisation.

Upon returning to the UK, Julia joined the Warwick Medical School to work with industry (Syngenta) to develop new sustainable gene delivery vectors to target agricultural insect pets.

Most recently, Julia joined the O’Reilly Research Group as a Group Leader.

Her research interests include controlled radical polymerisation, supramolecular polymers, peptide self-assembly and gene/drug delivery.

Research

  • Supramolecular chemistry
  • Polymer chemistry
  • Peptide chemistry
  • Nanomaterials
  • Gene delivery
  • Drug delivery
  • Soft matter 

Publications

  • Rho, J.Y., Cox, H., Mansfield, E.D.H., Ellacott, S. H., Peltier, R., Brendel, J.C., Hartlieb, M., Waigh, T. A., Perrier, S.,* Dual self-assembly of supramolecular peptide nanotubes to provide stabilisation in water. Nat Commun 10, 4708 (2019).
  • Rho, J. Y., Brendel, J. C., MacFarlane, L. R., Mansfield, E. D. H., Peltier, R., Rogers, S., Hartlieb, M., Perrier, S.,* Adv. Funct. Mater. 2018, 28, 1704569.
  • Rho, J.Y.,* Perrier, S.,* ACS Macro Lett. 2021, 10, 2, 258–271. 

View all publications in research portal