Wooli Bae

I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Surrey, where my research focuses on the fascinating intersection of membrane biophysics, DNA/RNA nanotechnology, and bottom-up synthetic biology. My primary aim is to develop advanced protocell systems, which I believe will open entirely new avenues for biological understanding and application.

My work in this area is supported by significant grants, including an EPSRC grant for developing DNA and RNA-operating protocells (NANOPC). I've also pioneered in situ RNA circuits, a development published in Nano Letters (Bae et al., 2020), and I'm actively developing protocell systems based on in vitro translation (BBSRC funded). Beyond this, I contribute to fundamental DNA/RNA nanotechnology techniques, such as novel DNA strand-displacement reactions, with publications in ACS Nano and a recent bioRxiv preprint. I am also exploring DNA-based information storage devices as part of the EIC Pathfinder NEO project.

My professional journey has provided me with a unique background, starting with my Ph.D. in Physics from KAIST (2014). My postdoctoral research spanned KAIST, Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU) in Germany, and Imperial College London, where I focused on DNA origami, protein detection on membranes, and dynamic nucleic acid nanotechnology for synthetic biology. I joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer in Experimental Soft Matter Physics in October 2021.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and my teaching experience includes lecturing on Electromagnetic Waves and contributing to various learning and outreach programmes. I have also had the privilege of officially assisting in the supervision of PhD students at Imperial College and leading undergraduate research programmes. My research has been recognised with awards from the Korean Society for Structural Biology and the Korean Physical Society, and I have presented my work at numerous international conferences.

My core expertise includes synthetic biology, DNA/RNA nanotechnology, membrane biophysics, single-molecule fluorescence, single-molecule force spectroscopy, and super-resolution microscopy.